Nova Zoom Rollator vs. Drive Nitro: which rollator is better for Long Covid and ME/CFS?

As a MEep, I don’t need a rollator for balance or stability…it’s essentially an immediately accessible chair that can also carry my stuff. I just to sit whenever I need to sit—mostly in lines or at checkout counters—without having to schlep my purse or a cane.

I found I do appreciate having it for balance…while I never fall over in public, I’m constantly wasting energy trying not to. The rollator makes it easier to “know” where the ground is. Plus, it made strangers more understanding of my slow walk. For me, these were perks, not musts.

TL, DR: both are top picks if you’re looking something that can handle gravel, dirt, and grass. But for me and my needs, the edge went to Nova Zoom. Here’s why:

Road feel: Nova Zoom is a zippy AWD Subie; Drive Nitro is a stately Cadillac.

On smooth floors, the Nova Zoom is nimble, light, and easy to turn. Due to the way the wheels are manufactured, the Zoom is a bit bumpier (but that might be sand-offable? Stay tuned.) On gravel, it’s the less bumpy choice, although only by a hair.

On smooth floors, the Drive Nitro is smooth but a bit slower to maneuver—the big front wheels don’t want to change direction quite so quickly. The overall feel is substantial. Although it’s only 1.5lbs heavier and a few inches longer, the Nitro feels weightier and larger.

Verdict: for me, the nimbler Nova Zoom feels more natural, but I can see many favoring the smooth Nitro. Depends what you like!

Sit Test: Nova Zoom offers more rump coverage and elbow room; Drive Nitro gives you a softer, kinder backrest—at the cost of confinement.

The seat on the Nova is flat, padded, and solid, covering my whole rump and extending halfway down my leg. It has the feel of sitting on a stool—nothing ergonomic or special, but firm and supportive. The backrest is serviceable comfort-wise, but more importantly, didn’t trap my elbows at all. I had plenty of room to gesture and move my arms freely, or rest them on the handlebars.

The 18” is probably just a bit too short for me, but the firm seat cut into my legs at taller heights. I do love being able to kick my legs out straighter (helpful for orthostatic intolerance) even though I have to work a bit harder to get up.

I may simply be too small for the Drive’s seat…to hit the backrest, my sitz bones hang off the back of the padded sling seat. It’s comfier than that sounds, with the seat cradling my legs and the backrest curving around my midback, but it feels like a huge missed opportunity to simply make a full-coverage seat. (The bars are right there!) What’s worse, if you downsize to the Hemi size, you lose another inch and a half of seat length. While the flexible backrest IS comfortable and offers extra rest, it’s not adjustable, so I have to lean back or scooch back too much to take advantage.

My biggest gripe, though, is that when I sit in the Drive Nitro, my arms feel pinned, pinched, or awkwardly tucked away. If I rest them naturally on the backrest, it’s too high and uncomfortable. If I try to bring them “inside” the seating scenario, it’s crammed, with my elbows pinned at my sides. I can lean forward and rest them on the handlebars, but I just feel trapped. I approximated the measurements of the Hemi height and while it was a little better, it was still more confining and uncomfortable arm-wise than the Nova Zoom. The Drive Nitro Hemi would also remove my third option—to loop my arms outside the backrest then tuck them back through only my legs. None of these positions felt natural or great or sustainable.

Verdict: For me, Nova Zoom. My freed elbows make up for the meh backrest and seat. YMMV based on geometry, so tie for everyone!

Loading Zone: While Drive Nitro’s foldup is easier and better designed, they’re both equally hard to load and unload from the car.

My rollator goes in and out of a car a LOT, so it really matters how they load. Honestly? Six one half dozen the other. While the Zoom’s foldup is clunky compared to the Nitro’s smooth operation…trying to stuff a flippy-wheeled object in a car is just hard. The Zoom is a little lighter, and fits easily behind my driver’s seat. After about a month, I learned how to leverage it against my body for the lowest-effort lift, and can throw it in with one smooth motion.

The Nitro’s big grippy wheels create an added complication, and tend to pull the rollator to the middle of the backseat. Unloading, the Nitro is again easier to unfold…but it’s still equally hard to pry either of them from my upholstered and carpeted backseat. The handlebar grips and wheels just grab on stuff.

If I had a wagon, I’d think the Zoom might actually win this one, because you could put it in flat and then use the wheels to slide it along.

Verdict: Tie, Nitro is easier to lock but Zoom is lighter.

Little things: The Nova Zoom pits tried-and-true construction against Drive Nitro’s modern innovations.

On the Nova Zoom, the unfancy flip seat is dead easy to toss things in (versus zipping and unzipping the Drive Nitro’s go-bag), and the rigid old-fashioned backrest supports an even easier-access bag for shopping or whatever.

Since it’s basically made from bicycle parts, the Nova Zoom is customizable in a bike shop (this WILL void the warranty, though.) You can pop off the handles and swap for bike handles, drill extra holes for the pins, and easily get the brakes repaired. I wound up getting extra holes added to my handles on the Zoom for taller shoes and bumpier walks where it helped to have more height. Meanwhile, the Drive is a bit more specialty, so it’ll take some work to get it modded out if you choose.

This iteration of the Nova Zoom has been around (and unchanged) for at least 12 years, which feels like a good sign. It means theoretically, you should be able to find one used. Meanwhile, the Drive’s I saw pictured online looked different from what I got, so I’m thinking they’re still tweaking the formula.

The Drive’s modern handlebar adjustment is much quicker, changing the height at the touch of a button. This matters especially if you like the handles lower for sitting than for standing and walking. On the Zoom, you have to pull out pins and it’s a whole thing. The handles were already as low as they could go on the Drive in standard height for me, so this wasn’t a real selling point for me. If I switched to the Hemi, I would absolutely care, as I’d have the space to lower them further.

The Drive’s parking brake releases fairly silently—on the Zoom, it’s a loud annoying bang. I can already see trying to sneak out to the bathroom from a reading or play…yikes.

The Drive has a “curb assist” feature that’s actually really handy for popping a wheelie onto the sidewalk. I wish the Nova did, too. It looks like there are aftermarket options, but I haven’t found one that fits.

The edge goes to the Drive Nitro for little thoughtful touches, but the bike shop repair element of the Nova Zoom makes it a tie.

Things you might care about that I didn’t:

While the brakes look tougher on the Drive Nitro, they’re pretty useless—even though the wheels stops rolling, for whatever reason, it easily glides across smooth floors. I don’t really use the brakes except for sitting, so I don’t care, but if you have forward or backward tipping issues, skip this one.

Things I cared about that you might not:

I went to art school. I like “doing people’s colors” as seasons. Functionality goes before aesthetics, but I still care how things look. Won’t apologize.

So, even though the Drive Nitro is the more attractively built walker, I didn’t immediately like how it looked on me. Even though it has a similar footprint to the Nova, with the wide, bright “arms,” it looks bigger and bolder. (Plus white makes everything look bigger and closer—light colors come forward, dark colors recede.)

Would it look great on someone else? Hell yes! It just didn’t feel like “me.”

The Nova Zoom comes in a dark greenish blue that worked almost like a pair of jeans for me—goes with everything. (It comes in a fairly large range, including an icy pink and an aqua blue that I could see on younger folks, and a dark green that stands out from the bright blues and reds.)

Meanwhile, the Drive Nitro comes in BRIGHT white, DEEP glossy black, and fire-engine, Jessica Rabbit, candy apple red. (Why? Because seniors lose the vibrancy in their vision, so cranking up the color helps them pick their walker out of a lineup at the nursing home.) Drive does make a champagne color I really liked for me, but only on the heavier deluxe model that I couldn’t lift alone.

I did warm up to the Drive’s styling as I played with it, and I’d totally spring for the champagne if they ever offered it in the lighter model, but in the end, I just preferred the traditional senior-tastic look of the Nova Zoom in its understated dark blue color. Again, on ME.

I also have to say…as soon as I started using the thing and seeing how much it helped me, I cared WAY less how it looked. However, getting to a mobility aid is a journey, and if finding the right look helps you use one, embrace it.

Sizing the Nova Zoom or the Drive Nitro for a 5’3.5” gal

I managed to buy both in the wrong size for me.

To be fair (to be faaaair), there is no right size for me in the Drive Nitro. The Standard is made for folks over 5’4, the Hemi is for under 5’2, and I’m (of course) 5’3.5”. Drat.

Plus, I’ve discovered rollator measurements aren’t perfect. With my home measurements, both came out “off” from how they’re spec’d. The Drive is a full half-inch off on many measurements.

Fortunately, the Zoom comes in 4 sizes instead of three. I had some issues sourcing a 20”, but wound up trying one…and not liking how it dug into the backs of my legs, which have lost all their muscle tone. While objectively it fit more correctly, the 18” was more useful for resting—and I can always add a cushion if it bugs me, which it hasn’t after two months of use.

Quality control on the Drive Nitro

Full disclosure: Home Depot shipped me TWO Drive Nitro’s with flippy wheels, and I gave up, because it’s a hassle to buy and return them. My guess is that I was getting the last of the white model stock, and people were returning broken ones without alerting the store. Wa waaaa. This was the final straw that tipped me into the Zoom.

Final Conclusions on the best rollator for ME/CFS

The Drive Nitro is like the “people’s choice” of rollators—I see the thing mentioned everywhere! It’s easy to see why—it’s all terrain, pretty comfy, looks cool, and it’s thoughtfully engineered.

There was a LOT to like about it, and I think it’s a strong contender for the perfect rollator for ME/CFS. But the feeling of being confined in it due to the back strap really bothered me. The whole thing felt too big for me, yet at my specific height of 5’3” and a wrist height of 32”, the Hemi would probably have been too small.

Even though the Drive Nitro feels higher end and cooler, being able to move my arms freely while seated in the old-school Zoom feels more important.