Should I buy an all-electric (traction) lift or an hydraulic lift?

This is a question I am frequently asked. I believe I can speak impartially on this topic as I have owned lift companies for 25 years. I have been involved in the selection and sale of many products. My company no longer supplies new lifts to new buildings as it is a specialist lift maintenance and repair company looking after a wide range of products, I have no vested interest in any product types.
As with most discussions as to what is “better” there are a range of opinions. However, there are a number of trends that appear to be making the choices a little clearer.

1. Power supply required to run hydraulic versus traction.
Hydraulic and Traction lifts require similar amounts of power to run through a complete run to the top of the building and then back to the bottom. However, the hydraulic lift uses all its power in one direction whilst the Traction lift spreads it out over both directions of travel. If you require a lift that travels faster than 0.3 M/second with a greater rated load than 400 kg then a hydraulic lift will place a significant demand on the power supply entering a domestic building. This is becoming more of an issue as power is being increasingly limited to domestic properties. A good electrician or an engineer will be able to assess the overall power requirements of your building. Small hydraulic home lifts, typically, work within the power supply available in most homes. If you want a larger and fast home lift I advise thinking carefully about power requirements and overall building load before making a decision.

2. Should I buy a cheap hydraulic or traction lift for my home?
Traditionally, hydraulic lifts offered higher quality and reliability at a better price than low rise traction lifts. As the lift market has expanded exponentially over recent years, there is a wide range of cheap traction lifts appearing on the market. For the purposes of this discussion I will exclude the pop up through floor lifts with no fully enclosed lift shafts. This article will focus on lifts that meet traditional safety requirements for lifts in fully enclosed lift shafts. Simple and relatively cheap hydraulic lifts have been around for many years. To meet customer demand for lower prices most manufacturers are now supplying traction lifts to meet the hydraulic price point. From what I have seen so far, the budget priced traction lifts particularly for homes, have compromised quality and reliability to achieve a price point. It is my opinion, that the cheaper hydraulic lifts are more reliable and cheaper to repair than the cheaper traction lifts.

3. Should I buy an hydraulic lift or traction lift for my low rise commercial project?
For low to medium use lifts my recommendation used to be ,go hydraulic, as long as you have somewhere to put the machine cabinet. However, commercial traction lifts have come down in price without overly compromising quality. Meanwhile, the price of hydraulic lifts has increased to be similar to hydraulic lifts. My advice for small commercial projects is to buy a traction lift and, if you can, pay about $10,000 more for a really good quality European product! Traction lifts generally enable more trips per hour without over heating. Most lift companies can maintain traction lifts but as de-skilling is taking place the ability to tune and fault find on hydraulic lifts is disappearing, a sign of our times.

Having said all the above, it is my opinion that there is no such thing as a good quality cheap lift. If you base your decision making process only on price then, generally, you will be disappointed with reliability. If you buy high quality European you have a much higher likelihood of having a lift that will last 20-30 years and have parts and technical support available.

Good luck!

Andrew Lewis
Director

Published: February 17, 2025