The importance of Lift Maintenance And How It Can Save You Money

We are lift consultants and we cannot stop stressing the importance of regular lift maintenance. It is necessary to have a properly maintained lift for both legal reasons and functioning. A properly maintained lift prevent lift repairs and can also save you money. It does not even have to cost you more money to maintain your lift.

To understand the importance of lift maintenance, we talked to the Associate Director at ILECs called David Pickering. David has over years of experience in the industry because he started as an apprentice. In Dublin, he worked as a senior engineer. In 2002, he moved to consultancy in the United Kingdom. David did his Masters in Lift Engineering from the University of Northampton. He is now a member of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE).

How Can Lift Maintenance Ensure a Reliable Lift?

I usually explain lifts to my clients using the analogy of a car, especially a taxi. It is easy to explain the various components of the lift using simple language because it is easy for people to understand the simple language.

A lift is like a car, so here are the features of the lift:

doors,
user controls,
electronic controller,
brakes and
a motor (machine).

Some features are consumable items. That is why you will replace them regularly throughout the life of the item. For instance, ropes, rollers and oil on your lift, and filters, oil and tyres on your car.

Like cars, there are different types of lifts and there are various manufacturers with different reputation levels of quality making these lifts. Like a car, you expect to enter the lift and travel to your destination immediately. That is why you will need a quick and reliable lift.

As we keep to the analogy above, a lift requires routine inspections and regular servicing throughout its life. It is also necessary to have a plan preventative maintenance for your lift.

Adopting a routine plan is the first thing you need to do if you want to have a reliable lift.

A routine preventative maintenance plan not only ensures your lift is functioning properly. It also helps to cover regulatory and safety issues. As a building owner or operator, you need to comply with these regulatory and safety issues to satisfy your legal obligations.

Regulations not only apply to residential buildings only. They also apply to office buildings, such as:

the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations,
the Safety and Health at Work Act and
the Lift Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations.

It is essential to make sure your lift is in good working order to ensure your compliance.

How Much Maintenance Does My Lift Require?

A lift is like a car, so the maintenance the lift requires is different from lift to life. It depends on various factors, such as;

type of use,
level of use,
age and
the quality of its original equipment.

It is easy and cheap to maintain a properly installed heavily engineered lift than to maintain a value engineered installation in the same operating environment. This is because of the nature of their components. As the lift becomes older, its components also become aged and worn. That is why an old lift requires more preventive maintenance than a new lift. Preventive maintenance safeguards against reliability issues and failures.

The lifespan of a new electric traction lift is around 20 years. Apply proper maintenance levels to ensure the lift remains reliable throughout its full operating life.

What are Some of the Types of Lift Maintenance?

Several lift maintenance contractors provide various maintenance packages. It is difficult to select a suitable plan from one of these contractors.

You will need to consider various contract types. These contractor types come with their own inclusions and exclusions. It is almost impossible to find the same two contractors that offer identical contract types.