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Picking the Lift for Your Garage

Now that you have mentally decided upon what type of lift that you want, PLEASE consider the following as well.

	While various manufacturers and their salespeople will tell you that their lift is the best and that the other companies are a piece of junk, listen to what the sales people have to say, discount the rhetoric, and you will eventually come away with kernels of information to help form your decision.
	When researching the web about a particular lift, you will find people on the various bulletin boards who will swear by a lift and those who will swear at it. Remember that everyone comes from a different perspective; it's like the old Ford vs Chevy argument. Try to separate the truth from the opinion.
	Pay attention to the necessary power requirements of each lift. Some come with 110V, some with 220V, and some with your choice of electrical power source.
	Pay attention to the necessary anchoring requirements of each lift. Most lifts require that you have a 4 inch concrete slab. This will cover the majority of home use lifts.
	Many lift users will remind you to pay attention to the quality of the steel that is used to manufacture the lifts. As with anything, there are varying thicknesses and steel grades amongst the manufacturers.
	Check with the manufacturer about replacement parts. Having a lift is meaningless if you can't replace a worn or broken part.
	If you are not comfortable about installing a lift yourself, check to see if a local contactor is available to install it for you. This service may cost you several hundred dollars. Also check transportation costs to get the lift to your house.
	Regardless of what type of lift you choose, do your homework on all the brands in that category. You may find that the lift that you are looking at is actually a spin off of another company. For example, Direct Lift is a spin off using Rotary Lifts engineering.
	Find out if the lift is ANSI/ALI certified and ETL approved. This can either be done through the manufacturer, or by checking the http://www.autolift.org/ website. Some manufacturers will play down the need to certify their lift, usually because their lift isn't certified. My thinking leans towards safety. I want a properly engineered lift that has redundant safety features so that I do not have worry while I am under the lift.
	See if demonstration lifts are available in the area to go inspect.

So, which lift should you buy? There is no perfect answer for everyone.
Individual needs are diverse and dependent upon garage space, needs, personal desires, and available funds.
Personally I chose a 4-post lift that allowed me to put 3 cars in a two car garage. If I had more room to store cars and was more interested in a maintenance-only lift, I would have made a different decision. Maybe someday I'll have that heated 8-bay garage with 13 foot ceilings!



Editors Note:
Written by Lee Orphan - Created 2011-04-08 Published 2011-04-08
Contents © Copyrighted and published under the following terms:
Released under the terms of the CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License