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3 Tips for Maintaining Your Freight Lift

A freight lift is essential to your business’ daily operations. Unless you’re the newest strongman, few people can transport the kind of weight these lifts carry. Which is why having yours go down for a day would not only cost you time and money, it could seriously impede your daily operations.

What’s the best way to avoid this dilemma? Daily inspections and proper care.

With a checklist in hand, you can help keep your business operating at peak levels even before you’ve finished your morning thermos of coffee. Here are three tips to help you get started.

1. Schedule Daily Freight Lift Inspections

Start each and every day right by performing daily inspections. Unfortunately, many elevators, freight or otherwise, fall victim to vandalism, so you’ll need to check for that too.

One of the first items you’ll want to check is the buttons. When checking the buttons:

  • Tap them lightly to make sure none of them are sticking.
  • Be sure to remove anything that appears to be wedged between them.
  • Try to avoid using a cleaner on the buttons. Although this will get the most shine out of them, you run the risk of internal corrosion.

Of course, proper lighting is the first safety standard you always want to abide by. When checking lighting:

  • You can replace any burned out cab lights on your own, as part of your regular maintenance routine.
  • Check to see if there are any burned out bulbs, either on the buttons, indicators, or anywhere else in the freight lift.

Then, take your maintenance checklist over to the machine room. You always want to make sure the door to your freight lift machine room is self-locking and no one has unauthorized access to it. You want to make sure no one’s using this room for any sort of storage purposes too, since that can quickly turn into a fire hazard.

Throughout the course of your daily inspections, maintain careful records of any issues you spot along the way.

2. Check Your Doors

If the doors aren’t operating at peak performance, nothing else matters because nothing’s getting transported. If you start to notice any sticking, one of the first things you can do is complete a careful paint job.

If you ever notice the rubber door stops pulling out or becoming dislodged, sticky paint may be the root cause of that situation. Once your paint job is complete, it wouldn’t hurt to put a layer of Vaseline on the stops.

Be sure to stress the importance of the doors to all your employees. Instruct every member of your team to always close the exterior doors. This will help you maintain stable building pressure.

3. Schedule Regular Maintenance

To maximize the lifetime and warranty of your freight elevator, be sure to schedule regular maintenance. This is, at a minimum, a yearly occurrence and will go beyond your daily maintenance checks.

Remember to share any notes you’ve taken during your daily lift inspections. This will help your mechanic better understand how your freight lift is functioning and what issues may be developing.

Smooth Operations

Any business that has access to a freight lift is a fortunate one. It’s likely your freight lift is putting in some seriously long hours, which means it needs regular inspections and maintenance to continue operating at peak efficiency. Feel free to call us today to schedule a service visit.

And, if you’re in the market for a new freight lift, we can help you make the best selection for your business.

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