Lift Maintenance, what should be done

Any owner or tenant of a building that has the use of a lift will know that Lift maintenance and finding a good lift company is both expensive and difficult.

In England there is a large selection of lift companies to chose from, Within the M25 boundary alone there are around 125 companies so you would assume finding a good one should be easy?

Lift companies have different ideas as to what is a good service and even individual lift engineers will have varying ideas as to what should be completed on a service. This can depend on the type and quality of training they have recieved.

So, What should be done?

This will depend on how many visits the lift is serviced per year. Obviously a lift that is serviced monthly will have certain parts serviced one month and a different part the next, whereas a lift that is service quarterly will have lots more items serviced and the visit will take longer to complete.

Many lift engineers think that cleaning and lubricating is the only things that need to be completed, however this should be the minimum, telephones, alarms, safety functions should be the first things that are checked, as well as running clearances, doors and ride quality. It is well known that lift doors and controllers are responsible for 95% of lift breakdowns and therefore it would make sense to check and adjust these on every lift service visit.

An easy way to check if you lift engineer is carrying out a thorough service is to look at the lift doors, are they plumb? do they have scratches or is the opening & closing cycle poor. Another place to look is the lift motor room, check the log card has an entry logged. Look at the general cleanliness of the room. It does not take an expert to see if your engineer is providing you with the service you are paying for. If the motor room and doors have not been serviced you can only imagine what the equipment within the lift shaft is like. It is also worth observing the engineer when he arrives, see what tools and spares he has, have they even got a bottle of oil or rags, if he only has some hand tools then he cannot be doing much.

I hope this information has helped you to know if you have a good lift company, if you have a good relationship with the lift company then dont be afraid to ask for another engineer, remeber that you are the customer and you are always right.

If you need any more lift advice please call JDR Lift Services Ltd on 0208 402 6442