Apples vs oranges

I'm afraid this is what we all do when buying our equipment without seeking any advise and only following our hearts'. While, it may work well when buying chocolates (which one must follow their heart obviously), buying expensive and sensitive equipment like lifts, whose ultimate purpose is to transport people safely and comfortably in a building where the same shall be installed, i would call it a gamble. To this, the next question comes, I'm not a qualified lift engineer or salesman and how would I be able to evaluate the offers besides comparing basic configuration and tallying the prices from the offers as received? So, What should you do to compare the quotes for your lift purchase:

1. When planning a new construction, it is always wiser to check the shaft dimension requirements of the various lift companies you are evaluating as the same may vary from company to another. Nowadays, with advent in lift technology, lifts are getting more space efficient and hence requiring lesser space. Economical benefits derived by means of space saving should be factored while evaluating the TOC of your lift. For existing buildings, one must evaluate the civil and pre requisite cost of integrating a lift solution so that your budget is firmed up. Usual practice is to escalate the pre eliminary budget by a factor of 10% to take care of any contingencies. Also, preference should be given to a single agency to execute both the civil works and the lift solution from accountability and legacy perspective.

2. A background check of the companies and evaluating the product. Various assessing parameters could be how old is the company into this trade, how many such products have been sold by them, geographic presence of the same product/ solution as being offered, production capacity of the manufacturer, after sales support for you, etc

3. Make a detailed technical comparative statement comparing atleast the following:

- Type of lift : Machine room above or MRL

- Speed of the lift

- Passenger capacity of the lift

- Size of the car cabin

- Width and height of the doors

- Material being used for landing doors, car doors, interiors

- Features like Automatic rescue, Intercom, Fireman switch, etc

- Travel height (should be same for all as per your building dimensions)

- Pit depth and headroom height should be as per your building

- Fire rating of doors

- Type of cabin fan

- Energy consumption of the lift

- Power supply tolerances

- AMC cost for atleast 5 years

- Cost of spare parts

After doing this for all the quotes, we assume you will have a better understanding of your purchase and what is a better solution for you. You may contact us for detailed analysis if needed if you are planning your purchase.