A lift remote monitoring system uses the phone system in the lift to connect via the internet to the maintenance company computer system. There are many claims made about the benefits of remote monitoring. This article is a brief exploration of these claims and who really benefits from “remote monitoring”.

Of lifts in Melbourne, more than 95%, are low rise, up to five levels with the remaining being medium to high rise. This article is focused on low rise lifts as the claimed benefits to Customers are easier to understand and as most of the benefits of remote monitoring apply to the medium to high rise lifts.

Advantages to the low rise lift Customer
• The lift company is notified automatically by the lift if the lift has gone out of service. In theory, a technician can then be promptly dispatched to fix the fault. However, this depends on work loads and technician availability, the major lift companies have reduced staffing to minimise costs.
• Some intermittent electrical issues can be logged by remote monitoring so issues can be diagnosed faster. However, most mechanical faults still require a technician to visit site to diagnose and repair.
• Some developing electrical issues can be identified by remote monitoring before a lift breaks down, however, good quality maintenance will capture most of these issues anyway.
• Lifts can be re set remotely after perceived power outages, however, this can mask intermittent faults. This may become an increasing annoyance to customers until a technician attends site to diagnose the underlying issue..

Disadvantages/limitations to the low rise lift Customer
• Remote monitoring diagnostics only apply to some of the electrical systems of the lift. It can only monitor what it can test. If a lift breaks down it can point the lift company to the area of the lift that may be at fault but the lift still requires a lift mechanic to track through the system on site to determine the exact issue and then fix it.
• Remote monitoring can’t detect most mechanical faults or feel or hear vibrates that would alert a lift mechanic on site to a likely issue. Monitoring is limited to the type and number sensors that are monitoring the lift. The sensors are generally limited to some of the lifts electrical systems.
• The SIM card in the phone system needs to be data so is significantly more expensive than a voice only SIM in standard lift phones.
• Most remote monitoring systems use a single SIM card system in combination with the lift emergency phone. This is less robust than the traditional duel-SIM card voice systems that are standard for lift phones.
• As remote monitoring is poorly understood it is used by lift companies to keep Customers locked in to expensive and long term agreements.
• Remote monitoring on low rise lifts is a good marketing tool.
• Remote monitoring is only as good as the monitoring company when it comes to responding to lift outages.
• Claims that “Health Checks” can be conducted remotely are spurious at best, as the checking only indicates if the electrical systems are functioning, Mechanical issues that may result in expensive repairs and outages can only be seen by a mechanic on site. Cleaning lift shaft components, adjusting and lubricating all require a technician on site.
• Cyber security issues have been raised as a lift connected to the internet for monitoring can be hacked. This issue is being examined by national security experts who are concerned by the potential for shutting down infrastructure, conclusions are yet to be reached.

Advantages to the Lift Company of “Remote Monitoring”:
• Great marketing tool.
• Exclude other companies quoting their maintenance as customers are locked in to the lift companies systems.
• Companies are starting to “remotely service” lifts with every second service being remote. This saves significant labour costs but the customer still pays for the service.

Let’s look at the claims of the lift industry leading proponent of remote monitoring:

In the category of high to medium rise lifts (more than 6 floors) lift infrastructure is critical to the functioning of a building so even small reductions in lift down time can be significant. However, with low rise lifts the contract obligations for the lift company are significantly reduced, so, even if remote monitoring is working as claimed, this does not result in the immediate dispatch of technicians to low rise lifts that are faulty.

The leading remote monitoring company claims:
1. 70% automated fault finding.
As remote lift monitoring mainly monitors the electrical systems of the lift it can’t diagnose mechanical issues, with older lifts this is a significant percentage of faults. The remote monitoring is limited to some specific electrical components but not mechanical issues ,so on site diagnosis is generally required to complete the diagnostic process. An example of one of the many complicated systems on a lift is the lift doors.

Lift doors are a highly complicated interaction of electrical and mechanical systems and checking mechanisms. To remote monitor all parts of the door operating systems is simply not realistic, it still requires trained technicians to diagnose and repair the fault. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that 70% of faults are diagnosed remotely to the exact cause of lift faults.

2. 3 hour time advantage through self-detection of breakdowns.
This may refer to how quickly a lift company knows about a lift breakdown and this might be realistic. However, the 3 hour notification advantage in the low rise market does not necessarily translate into three hours quicker to site to have a problem fixed.

My experience, is that the major companies do not prioritise low rise lifts. Faster response times assumes available staff ready to respond to faults. In reality, major companies have service and repair technician’s time planned days in advance. All staff are fully booked, all of the time, there are not staff waiting around to repair a lift.

In conclusion, as lifts are complex interactions of electrical and mechanical systems, remote monitoring is of limited value, especially to customers with low rise lifts as they are a relatively low priority for large lift companies.

Andrew Lewis.

Published: October 27, 2025