Home Elevator Safety

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Safety is of paramount importance when deciding to install a residential elevator. Safe operation is the key to enjoying your elevator – whether stair chair, dumbwaiter or passenger elevator – safely and reliably. But it’s not enough for you to educate yourself on proper usage. You also have to teach everyone living in the household about the safety tips.

Especially if you have small children, there are ways to make teaching safety tips fun so that they retain the information better. Kids view elevators as magical toys, and if not taught to be respectful of their power, they can get hurt.

Here are some tips on making elevator education fun.

Start Early

Educate your children early on how to properly use the elevator. If you’re just installing it now, this is a great time to go over safety tips for the whole family. If you’ve had it a while but your children are approaching two or three years old, it’s time to have a lesson with them.

Tell them that elevators can be fun, but that there are rules that go with the privilege. These rules can include:

  • We enter the elevator together.
  • We press just one button.
  • We stand in the middle of the elevator.
  • We keep our hands and feet away from the door.
  • We exit the cab immediately when we get to our floor.
  • We don’t jump or play on the elevator.

You can reinforce these home elevator rules whenever you’re using elevators in commercial buildings. It’s good practice! As kids get older, you can explain rules in more detail, but for now, make sure they know elevators are not toys. Repeat your message early and often. Kids learn by repetition. Don’t expect them to remember something you told them last week. Every day is a teaching opportunity.

4 Safety Tips: Residential Passenger Elevators

  1. Address maintenance issues immediately, such as squealing noises or sticking doors. Call your trusted elevator repair professional.
  2. Know the emergency features, and you can do this by reading the instruction manual. Make sure everyone in the house knows all emergency features.
  3. Follow weight requirements: It may be true that commercial elevators can hold between 1,500 and 6,000 pounds, but residential elevators can only reasonably hold between 400 and 1,000 pounds.
  4. Enter and exit carefully: Take care when you enter or exit the elevator, especially if you have a tough time with mobility. Hold onto the handrails when the elevator is in motion, and move away from the doors when they are opening or closing.

6 Safety Tips for Residential Dumbwaiters

Now let’s discuss how to safely use a dumbwaiter:

  1. Only use it for the items it was designed to carry, such as trays of food and drink for small units, and grocery bags, luggage, bins of laundry, and sports equipment for larger units.
  2. Wait for doors to open fully prior to placing objects inside or taking them out. Do not pry the doors open or try to force them to come together.
  3. Make sure your kids know not to play with, ride or climb it.
  4. Do not use the dumbwaiter during a storm, as you could lose power.
  5. Never climb into the shaft or hoistway.
  6. When cleaning the unit, clean spills and crumbs with a damp sponge or cloth.

Contact Mowrey Elevator

If the need for a repair or new part arises, call Mowrey Elevator’s repair hotline at 800-441-4449. Don’t attempt a repair on your own.