Single-Phase AC Hydraulic Home Elevator – 14.5 m, 5 Stops, Pitless

What an AC hydraulic home elevator is, in the order a buyer meets it

A hydraulic home elevator is a lift whose car is pushed up by oil pressure rather than pulled up by ropes. A pump, driven by an electric motor, sends oil from a tank into one or more cylinders. The cylinder rods extend, the car rises, and the oil returns to the tank through a valve when the car comes down. The car is supported from below for the whole journey, which is why the machine does not need a heavy counterweight or a motor room at the top of the shaft.

On this model the motor is a 4.7 kW single-phase AC unit working from 220 V, 50 Hz. That single sentence is the reason the page exists. Three-phase motors are the default in lift engineering because they are compact and easy to start under load. A single-phase motor has to create its own rotating field, usually with a capacitor circuit, and it draws more current for the same shaft power. The trade is straightforward: a single-phase machine can be installed where a three-phase service is not available, at the cost of a larger supply current and a different starting characteristic.

Why the travel figure and the cylinder figure are both on the page

The two numbers are easy to misread together. The page gives 14.5 m of maximum travel and 2.9 m cylinders. Those cannot describe a simple ram pushing the car directly, because a direct ram would need a stroke close to the travel. The two figures belong to different parts of the same arrangement: the cylinder is the pressure element, and the linkage between the cylinder and the car multiplies the movement.

What the multiplication looks like — roped, chain-linked, or a multi-stage cylinder — is a drawing question, not a brochure question. Ask for the drive schematic with the approval drawing, and check three things on it: the number of cylinders, how the car is connected to them, and where the oil tank and power unit sit relative to the lowest floor. Those three details decide the plant-room space, the service access, and the noise path into the house.

What five stops over 14.5 m means in a house

Five stops means the car serves five landing levels, not five floors above ground. A typical arrangement in a tall villa is a basement or garage level, a ground floor, and three upper levels, with the 14.5 m split between them. The split does not have to be equal. What it does have to be is measured: each floor-to-floor height, each landing sill level, and the clear height above the top landing, all taken from the finished floor rather than from the structural slab.

Long travel also changes oil volume, pipe run and heat load. None of that rules out a hydraulic machine here; it means cooling and pipe route should be specified.

Where this machine belongs, and where it does not

It belongs in a private house or a small commercial building where the available supply is single phase, the travel is up to 14.5 m, and the design can accept a machine standing at the lowest level with no pit. That covers new-build villas with a plant room or a plant cupboard, retrofits where cutting a pit is impractical, and projects where the household electrical service is the fixed constraint and everything else has to adapt.

It is not a goods lift, and it is the wrong choice where the shaft sits in the middle of the plan with no serviceable space for a power unit. A hydraulic machine needs a place for the tank, the pump and the valve block, and that place has to be reachable by a person carrying a tool bag.

A single phase hydraulic home elevator is also the honest way to compare an AC hydraulic lift for home against a three-phase machine, and section nine sets out when this one is the weaker option.

The electrical side: what 4.7 kW on 220 V asks of the house

Most single-phase lift pages stop at the words “single phase available”. That sentence is a claim about the motor, not about the house. The house has to deliver the current without the voltage collapsing, protect the circuit, and isolate the machine in a way an electrician can lock off. This section works through the numbers a buyer can check before paying a deposit.

The arithmetic, before any cable is chosen

Mechanical power and electrical current are related but not equal. For a resistive load, current is power divided by voltage. The motor is not resistive, so the same calculation gives an apparent current, the figure you get when the power factor is treated as 1.0. At 4.7 kW and 220 V that is about 21.4 A.

The real line current is higher, because a motor draws magnetising current and because not all of the electrical input becomes shaft power. Both effects are printed on the motor nameplate as power factor and efficiency. A machine with a power factor of 0.85 and an efficiency of 0.85 draws roughly 40 percent more current than the apparent figure. That is why the apparent current is a sanity check and never a cable or breaker rating.

Starting current is the part people forget

A single-phase capacitor-start motor draws a short surge when it starts. The surge lasts less than a second in normal operation, but it is several times the running current, and it happens every time the car begins a journey. On a weak service — a long rural feed, a shared transformer, a house already close to its supply limit — that surge is where the lights flicker and where a marginal breaker trips.

The response belongs to the electrical design: give the machine its own circuit, sized for the starting current and the run length, and measure the supply voltage while the largest existing load in the house starts. If the voltage already dips before the lift is connected, the supply needs attention first.

What the machine needs at the wall

The lift itself needs a single-phase feed, a protective earth, and a means of isolation that can be locked in the off position. The power unit is normally placed close to the cylinders to keep the pipe run short, so the electrical supply has to reach that position, not the landing. In a retrofit that often means a run through a service void or along an external wall, and the route is worth agreeing before the machine is ordered because it can be the longest lead item on the job.

Damp and heat shorten the life of a hydraulic power unit. The plant cupboard needs ventilation and, in a humid climate, a way to keep condensation off the motor and control panel.

A quick apparent-current check

The calculator below does one thing: it divides power by voltage. Use it to see the order of magnitude for a given motor rating, then hand the real calculation to the electrician. It is deliberately not a breaker selector.

If the voltage is stable and the run is short, this is a normal installation. If it is already low, the house may need a supply upgrade before it needs a lift.

The figures in one table, and the ones that wait for your drawing

If you arrived looking for a pitless home elevator 14.5 m tall with five stops, this is the table to read. Every line below is a published value for this model, followed by the part of the building it controls.

Everything below is printed on this page; nothing is rounded or borrowed from another model. Switch units at the top — the conversion is arithmetic, and the original figure remains the specification.

The fourth column is the part worth reading twice. A specification is a list of decisions: travel and stops decide the plan, pit and overhead decide the building work, motor and supply decide the electrical work, and cylinders decide the plant layout.

The figures that are not here

Rated load, running speed, car and shaft plans, door clear width and the maintenance interval are absent because this page does not publish them. They are not interchangeable between projects: load changes the cylinder and the fixing, speed changes the pump and pipes, and the car plan changes the shaft and the door.

Compare suppliers on six documents instead: the approval drawing with dimensions, the motor nameplate, the cylinder and pipe schedule, the door clear width, the safety device list and the maintenance scope.

0 m pit and 3 m overhead: the two dimensions that decide the retrofit

A pitless hydraulic lift removes the deepest and most expensive part of the civil work. It does not remove all of it. With a 0 m pit, the lowest landing is the finished floor, and the machine stands on that floor or in a plant space beside it. With 3 m of overhead clearance, the top landing needs clear height above it for the car and its guide arrangement. Those two dimensions are the whole civil argument, and both are measured, not assumed.

What 0 m pit actually changes

On a conventional hydraulic lift, the pit contains the fully retracted cylinder, the car buffer and the water that inevitably finds its way into a hole in the ground. A 0 m pit removes the hole. The cylinder arrangement sits above the lowest floor, the car lands on the finished level, and the builder does not have to excavate, waterproof and drain a sump.

What it does not remove is the need for a sound base. The machine, the oil and the car all load the lowest floor, and that load has to reach something structural. On a ground-bearing slab the answer is usually straightforward. On a suspended slab, a deck or a floor over a basement, the structural engineer has to confirm the load path and any spreader plates. The lift cannot make that decision, and a supplier who promises it without a drawing is guessing.

There is also a threshold detail. A car that lands level with the floor still needs a sill and a door track, and the finished floor build-up around the opening has to be agreed so the sill does not become a trip hazard.

What 3 m of overhead really constrains

The overhead clearance is measured from the top landing's finished floor to the nearest obstruction above it. That obstruction is usually a roof, a beam, a water tank or the underside of a stair. The published figure is 3 m, and it applies to the car at the top landing with its guide arrangement in place. A roof slope that rises away from the shaft can still leave a low point at the wrong end, so the measurement has to be taken across the whole opening, not at its centre.

If the clear height is short, the options are to lower the top landing, move the shaft, or change the machine. None is a finish decision, and all are cheaper before the order.

Three checks before the builder starts

• The base. Identify what the lowest floor is built on and have the structural engineer confirm the loads. A ground-bearing and a suspended slab need different details.
• The opening. Measure every landing, not only the lowest. The car passes every level, so the smallest opening governs.
• The headroom. Measure the 3 m at the tightest point, including beams, tanks, roof slopes and stair heads.

The split matters when comparing quotes: a supplier who quotes the published travel and pit is quoting the model, while one who quotes the measured heights and the actual opening is quoting the installation. The second quote is the one that can be built.

The cabin and the door are the parts the household actually touches

This section is the part the family lives with: the surface they lean against and the door that opens into the hall. The page publishes two cabin materials and one door type, but not a car plan, a door clear width or a finish list — those are chosen against the opening, not taken from a catalogue.

304 stainless steel or aluminium alloy

The material choice is not only visual. Stainless steel and aluminium behave differently under impact, under cleaning chemicals and under strong sunlight. A coastal house should discuss the atmosphere with the supplier before choosing a finish; a dark stairwell should discuss how the car will be lit. Neither question has a universal answer, and neither is settled by the word “premium”.

The automatic door, and the questions it raises

The door is listed as automatic sliding. That means the landing door and the car door open together under power, rather than being pushed by hand. For a household with children, older residents or anyone carrying shopping, it is the difference between a lift that is used and a lift that is avoided.

What the page does not say is whether the door is centre-opening or side-opening, how wide the clear opening is, or which protective device guards the closing edge. Those are drawing questions, and they matter. A centre-opening door gives a symmetrical opening and needs clearance on both sides; a side-opening door needs less depth in one direction but more wall. The clear width decides whether a wheelchair, a pram or a laundry trolley passes comfortably.

Ask for the door detail with the approval drawing, and check it against the narrowest landing. The door is also the part most likely to be used roughly, so ask what the door and its protective device are rated for and what the maintenance visit covers.

The car in the photographs

The twelve photographs below show the machine family as supplied. Use them to judge proportion and finish, not dimensions: a photograph cannot tell you the car width, and the camera angle changes the apparent height.

Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge

If a finish matters to the design, ask for a sample before production. A photograph taken under factory light and a panel seen in a north-facing hall are not the same colour.

Safety devices, and the handover check that proves them

The published device list on this page is short: an emergency stop button and a microprocessor-based control. That is the honest extent of what the page states. It does not mean the machine has only one safety device; it means the full fitted list belongs to the approval drawing and the handover documents, where each device has a name, a location and a test.

A buyer should not accept “it is safe” as an answer, or a list of device names without seeing them. Ask for each device to be shown and demonstrated before signing.

What the emergency stop is for, and what it is not

The emergency stop is a deliberate intervention. It stops the machine when a person has identified a problem: something caught at the door, a noise that should not be there, a car that has stopped in the wrong place. It is not a substitute for the door protective device, and it is not the normal way to end a journey.

At handover, the button should be tested with the car at a landing and with the car between landings, and the person who will use the lift should be shown how to reset it. A stop that cannot be reset without a technician turns a minor event into a service call; a stop that resets itself without investigation hides a fault. Ask which behaviour this installation has.

The functions to see demonstrated

The list below is a handover script, not a claim about the fitted specification. Tick each item only when it has been demonstrated on the actual machine and the result has been written into the handover file. If a function is not part of the delivered scope, the supplier should say so in writing rather than leave the box unticked.

Why the handover file matters more than the sticker

A lift is inspected, maintained and eventually repaired by people who were not on site when it was installed. The handover file is what they have. If it contains the approval drawing, the nameplate data and the circuit schedule, a later technician can diagnose a fault without guessing. If it contains only a brochure and a warranty card, every service visit starts from zero.

Keep the file with the house documents, not in the plant cupboard where it will absorb moisture. Photograph the nameplate and the isolator on the day of handover; those two images answer most of the questions an electrician will ask years later.

Installation: six stages, and what has to be ready before each

A hydraulic lift is a small machine with a long installation tail. The machine arrives in a wood box; the building work, the electrical work and the shaft enclosure happen around it. The sequence below is the one that keeps the site moving, with the item that has to be finished before each stage can start.

1. Survey and approval drawing

   Measure every floor-to-floor height, opening, the clear height above the top landing, the plant position and the supply. The output is a dimensioned drawing, not a quotation with assumptions.

2. Base, opening and electrical supply

   Prepare the base and the floor opening, and run the dedicated supply. The electrician needs the nameplate and circuit design; the builder needs the structural base detail.

3. Delivery and unpacking

   Standard delivery is 45 working days, packed in an export non-fumigation wood box. Confirm the access route: a narrow gate can turn a delivery into a crane job.

4. Power unit, cylinders and pipe run

   Set the power unit, position the cylinders and run the pipes with few bends. Leave access to the tank, valve block and motor, and protect pipes where they cross a walkway.

5. Shaft enclosure, landings and doors

   Close the shaft, finish the landings and hang the doors. Check the sill against the finished floor; any mismatch should have been found in stage one.

6. Commissioning and handover

   Run the car on every landing, set levelling, test the emergency stop and door protection, and demonstrate the rescue. Hand over the drawing, nameplate record, circuit schedule and warranty terms. The one-year cover starts here.

The timeline is deliberately written in stages rather than days. A factory delivery time is a commitment the supplier controls; the site stages are commitments the project controls. Projects that slip usually slip because a base, an opening or a supply was discovered late, not because the machine was late.

Service, and what the 1-year warranty actually covers

The published warranty on this page is 1 year. That is a cover period, not a maintenance plan: the warranty says what happens if a covered part fails, the plan says what is done, when, and by whom.

What to ask about the warranty

Ask when the period starts, what is excluded, whether consumables such as oil and seals are covered, and whether the warranty depends on the maintenance visits being carried out. A warranty that is void without a service contract is not unreasonable, but it should be explained before the order rather than discovered after a failure.

The start date matters on a project with a long fit-out. If the lift is commissioned months before the house is occupied, a one-year period can expire before the family uses the machine. Ask for the start to be tied to the handover date, and put that date in the contract.

The maintenance items that matter on a hydraulic lift

What a service visit should cover

The service interval is not published on this page, and it should not be guessed from a generic rule. It depends on usage, the environment, the oil volume and the local maintenance rules. Ask the supplier to state the interval for this installation in the quotation, and ask what a visit includes. A plan that says “annual service” without a scope is a calendar entry, not a maintenance plan.

Single-phase hydraulic, three-phase hydraulic, or traction: choosing without loyalty

Most buyers arrive at this page because the house has single-phase power, not because they have decided that hydraulic is better. That is the right starting point. The drive should follow the building and the use, and the honest comparison below includes the cases where this machine is not the best answer.

Read the table as constraints, not a ranking. Single phase wins where the supply is fixed and the pit is expensive; three-phase hydraulic wins where the supply is available; traction wins where the building can give it the shaft, pit and overhead.

Where the single-phase machine is the weaker choice

It is the weaker choice when the house already has three-phase power and no other constraint. A three-phase motor draws less current for the same shaft power and starts more comfortably; choosing single phase in that house buys nothing and gives up electrical margin.

It is also the weaker choice when the travel goes beyond the published range, when the building needs a rated load or a speed that the approval drawing cannot support, or when the plant position has no serviceable space. In those cases the correct answer is a different machine, not a longer brochure.

And it is the weaker choice when the supply is marginal. If the voltage already dips when the oven or the pump starts, a 4.7 kW single-phase motor with its starting surge will make that worse. The electrical upgrade comes first, and the lift decision follows it.

Where it is the stronger choice

It is the stronger choice in a completed house where cutting a pit would mean breaking a floor, tanking a sump and losing a room. It is stronger where the supply is single phase and upgrading to three phase would mean a new service, a new meter and a negotiation with the utility. And it is stronger where the household wants a quiet, slow, predictable ride rather than the fastest possible journey.

Those are not marketing advantages. They are the conditions under which the machine's compromises — higher current, a local power unit, an oil system to maintain — are worth accepting. If the project sits between two columns, send the measured supply and the section and ask for the comparison in writing. Contact the engineers.

Questions buyers ask about this machine