Dumbwaiter Lifts «

Dumbwaiter Lifts 07. 12. 2009

The dumbwaiter lift was so named back in the good old days when stately homes had an upstairs and downstairs division. This was the age of house staff working downstairs for the benefit of the upper classes, the upstairs bunch. To avoid the need for servants scuttling up and down staircases with foodstuffs at meal times, the dumbwaiter was devised. This is essentially a small unobtrusive lift, usually hand operated in the early days, but now powered by an electric motor, that can move light goods of relatively small dimensions from one floor to another

Today’s dumbwaiter lift is usually called a service lift. It performs more or less the same function as the original dumbwaiters did, and it operates in a broadly similar way. They are not nearly as common as goods lifts or passenger lifts, or indeed any other kind of lift, but they definitely have their place. They are commonly used in restaurants where food has to be moved from one floor to another, perhaps from a basement kitchen to the dining area. They are also commonly used in an office environment to move documents and files from one floor to another, between different departments perhaps.

The dumbwaiter lift was probably so called because it could do the work of a waiter, but without getting fatigued or irritated. It could just go on working hour after hour, day after day and week after week in a dumb, non complaining fashion. The nickname is also probably an affectionate one rather than a derogatory one. The dumbwaiter saved a lot of time and effort compared with the situation before its invention.

Health and safety inspectors can be the bane of any industry, but they love the little dumbwaiter lifts. The lifts are too small for people, too small for heavy goods, and therefore easy to manage and very little ever goes wrong with them that involves injury to people. In short, they are the perfect kind of lift from the health and safety inspectors’ point of view. They replace the need for people having to climb up and down flights of stairs carrying documents or food trays. This limits the possibility of accidents and mishaps.

The installation of a dumbwaiter lift does require some careful consideration in a building that has not had one installed from scratch. The shaft of the lift, like most lifts, is vertical. This means that every floor where the lift will operate needs to have an area in more or less the same place set aside for the lift entrance doors. This need not be difficult, but it does need to be properly planned.

Speak to Public Access about any of our services including Platform Lifts, Passenger Lifts, Stair Lifts, Goods lifts or Door Automation.

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