Elevator for Home

Personal elevators.

• Personal Elevators - Caring for Aging Parents
• Home Elevators - Country Home Elevator
• Plan on spending at least $15,000.00.

"Safety is our main concern"- don't even consider DIY. Get qualified installers to handle it. They should know your local regulations and be able to make needed suggestions, and knowing that someone else is bidding can also be a great help.

As an aside- one was recently installed for my 92 year old nana (elevator shaft etc. was DIY by old pharts that used to build houses and were bored, installation was professional). She tried it for the first time-"Goodness! That thing is so slow, I hope I never have to use it!!"

Found this....looks good......meets all criteria

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUDuPmVUvig

http://www.terrylifts.co.uk/products/home-lifts/lifestyle-home-elevator-lift/

Oh no!

The cat was sleeping under it on the main floor.

Squish - oh well, it was just a cat.

It has sensors on the bottom and will stop if any resistance is encountered....also has battery backup so it will continue to function in a power failure....

There is a new concept for residential elevators that uses a vacuum on the upper surface to generate a pressure differential to do the lifting. Promises to be lighter, quieter, and cheaper than cables, gears, hydraulics and compressed air. Don't think there are any commercial units on the market yet but you might want to do a search on the concept.

Agreed. There was an example recently here on CR4, but I've forgotten the title. A bellows with a regenerative blower can do this with modest noise.

Thanks. I saw itat http://www.vacuumelevators.com/

The vacuum elevator suggested meets all your stated criteria.

Plus points. Compared to all other lift options it is cheaper to buy and install. It is also cheap to maintain as there are few moving parts. Loss of power between floors, it just drifts to the ground level. Quick to install, I was quoted two working days. No pit required just a hole in your apartment floor.

Minus points. Because you will be cutting a hole into your garage roof, check that this does not breach local fire regulations (applies whatever lift you install). Some models come with key activation but it would effectively reduce the security of your apartment to the same as the level of security of your garage.

This problem has remained unsolved for Sr.Citizens from developing world as they can not afford stair lift and they live in apartments they have to obtain permission from housing society. Home elevators are also very expensive. My crude suggestion is to install Hydraulic Lifting Platform if you have access to your home from external source. These platforms are not so expensive but slow in motion and need to be modified for home application. Also they are suitable only for maximum heights of 20'. There are many mfrs. in India who can help Mr.Saxsena.

Will you please elaborate. Do you mean a scissor type hydraulic lifting device.

No it is pillar type Hydraulic Lift you can search on google or I will send you web addresses.

Do you mean pillar type lift used in car repair garages. It calls for a 10 feet deep pit. Please elaborate.

Do not even consider a hydraulic elevator, unless you like the smell of old hydraulic fluid permeating your house.

The Wall Street Journal says: "Called a pneumatic vacuum elevator, it was developed two years ago specifically for the residential market. A basic two-story or three-story pneumatic version will cost $20,000 to $28,000, including installation."

No I did not mean garage lift. There are many Hydraulic Lift mfr. in Mumbai, who have installed such lifts in the malls and public places. One of them is Eros Elevators. There are many small mfrs located in Ahemdabad. You can visit web sites through Google. My friend is also mfr of scissor type lifting platforms here in Mumbai but such platforms are too slow in speed but quite safe and occupy little space when at bottom level.

The way I would go is hydraulic, if there is a power fail hydraulic will lower automatically at a steady slow rate under its own weight, If it is up & the doors open it will stay put. The principle is the same as a fork lift mast, as long as it is against a solid wall it can sit on the floor without digging so more economical to install.

Bazzer

Elevators are expensive, as well as maintenance costs, have you considered moving to an apartment that can accommodate your physical needs.

One of my uncles was faced with similar challenge.

He built an hydraulic system that used the house water supply as the perssure source and an arrangement of taps to control water flow into and out of the lifting cylinders.

Farmers have demonstrated significant ingenuity in many areas of practicality.

It was not a closed system. Water under pressure provided the lift, house to waste provided the lowering effect. Speed of operation was controlled by taps on the landing. The lost water went into the gardens on the property. Aunty was almost 120Kg at the time.

This is a wonderful idea. I have an overhead water tank at 12 meter height. Rough calculation indicate that a 6 inch standard schedule pipe (161 mm ID) water cylinder on ground can lift 244 kg. load (without considering friction). No worry of sudden power failure. Please elaborate on practical design aspect.

Was built by my uncle many years ago. From memory the four columns were all four inch pipe with another pipe sleeved inside those as pistons that lifted the platform. He used "full length" pipes (6m) so that the extra length assured alignment for the 2m lift that he was doing. An overhead canopy structurally held the pipes together. the platform was sort of like a gondola underneath that.

The supply water tap was on the platform. The hose from that tap went to a four way splitter and then to the columns. Turn it on and the platform was lifted by the pressure inside the four columns. Turn it off and the platform stopped. (All hoses around 12mm.)

To lower the platform, another tap was turned on that released the water from the manifold again through 12mm hose.

His premise was that if a hose burst, then the rate of flow from the manifold would regulate the decent to basically the same as normal.

Never heard of any fialures in 2 years of use.

I am getting sold on your uncle's idea. Can you provide any photographs / sketches (drawn from your memory). Few questions:

1. What kind of piston rings were used

2. What was the pressure of water available

3. Reason for 4 columns in stead of 1.

4. Did he use Steel or PVC pipes

Sorry, no pictures as it was removed 15 years ago after aunty died.

Four pipes was for "stability" and the guidance offered by the 6m lengths only travelling 2m or so.

here's another pneumatic elevator company.

www.daytonaelevator.com

Friends are using these folks for a wheelchair pneumatic elevator for their new salon. Will be installed in Dec. Price was reasonable.

"We want to have an elevator (for just 2 of us) with lifting capacity of 200 kgs. / 2 persons, from parking to our apartment."

I haven't read all the other posts just your request for ideas and I think I have the perfect solution for you. It's called a vacuum elevator and basically it consists of a polycarbonate tube with a cylindrical car in it that has is suspended from a plunger type arrangement that has and airtight seal on it. When you get into the car a vacuum pump starts sucking the air our from above the lift allowing the air to enter from below. As a result the atmospheric pressure pushes the car up the shaft until it reaches the level you wish to exit. It has several advantages over other types of elevators:

• It has very few moving parts and requires little maintenance. The only thing that really need servicing is the seal around the plunger arrangement at the top of the car every 5 years. Apart from that it's just the vacuum pump that needs to be kept clean.
• It's extremely safe. If the power fails then the it allows the air to slowly enter the cavity above the car allowing it to slowly descend to the lowest level where you can exit.
• It comes prefabricated and installation takes a day. All the prep work you would require would be the cutting of two circular holes in each of the floors for the cylindrical shaft to run through.
• It comes in three sizes, one person, two people or wheelchair capable.
• It's about half the cost of a conventional elevator.
• If you move you can take it with you and all you need to do is fill in the two holes.

Here's some links that might be of help.

• Pneumatic Vacuum Elevators
• Daytona Elevator

I hope that's been of help.

Your work is very impressive. Your lift is thought of the best method to make them.

Thank you for the feedback it is appreciated. This is an old thread and while we were contemplating purchasing one of these ourselves our situation has changed and we have moved into a single level house rather than the three level house we were in. Ironically the Australian distributor for these elevators is only a couple of kilometers from where we now live. How ironic is that?

The car parking entrance if it has extra space you can get a 3 feet wide and 4.5 feet deep elevator done. Of the 3500+ home elevators installed till date we have countered several complex scenarios and done them with ease. If you can share a photograph this can be specifically addressed by our lead design engineer.

Thank you for the response.

Actually your Pneumatic Vacuum Elevator was at the top of the list when we were trying to get the money to pay for the lift.

However, our situation changed and we ended up selling the 3 level house and moving into one that was on a single level so we don't have the need for a lift anymore.

Also this thread is some 5 years old now, but thanks anyway.