Slim MRL Backpack Traction Lift | 400 kg, Up to 30 m

How a backpack MRL traction lift is arranged

A conventional traction lift puts the machine in a room above the shaft. In a machine room less arrangement it moves onto the shaft itself, and in a backpack arrangement it moves onto the car. The host frame — sheave, motor, brake and the deflection that guides the rope — is bolted to the rear of the car sling, behind the guide rails rather than above or beside them. The car therefore carries its own drive, and the shaft only has to be tall enough for the car and its travel.

Two structural consequences follow. The load path changes: the suspended mass is carried through the guide rails into the shaft structure instead of through a machine-room slab, so the fixing points behind the rails have to be solid. And the car becomes deeper, because the host sits behind it. A buyer who sees the same machine listed as a backpack elevator is looking at exactly this host position. That is the trade the layout makes — cabin depth for a machine room — which is why it suits a narrow plan but not a shallow one.

What the mechanism means in practice

The car carries the host, so its weight is higher than in a hydraulic installation and the guide rails are loaded differently. Rail brackets therefore want to land on solid structure — a beam, a ring beam or a cast wall — not on a single-skin partition. On a retrofit, that detail decides whether the existing structure is usable or needs strengthening.

The drive is gearless and electrically braked, so there is no hydraulic oil, no jack and no tank. Nothing has to be emptied or refilled at service. What remains to be maintained is the rope, the sheave, the brake and the door operator — items a service partner can reach from the shaft and the landings.

With the machine mounted on the car rather than the roof, the headroom above the shaft is governed by the car, the sling and the top of the rails. That is the biggest single reason a slim backpack lift goes into a house where a machine-room lift cannot, and it is why the top landing must be measured rather than estimated.

Key specifications, on one screen

Everything below is taken from this product page's own specification table. Nothing is inferred from a similar model and nothing is rounded up to look better. If a figure you need is missing from the table, it is missing from the source as well.

Imperial values are direct conversions of the metric figures in the same row (1 kg = 2.20462 lb, 1 m = 3.28084 ft, 1 m/s = 196.85 ft/min). They are a convenience, not a second specification: where a contract needs one system of units, use the metric column, which is what the specification table states.

One more thing worth stating plainly: the specification table on this page carries no certification row and names no standard. Where a project needs certification documents, tell us which approval your building authority wants and the documents are checked against that list before shipping — but the declarations are not made here, because the page does not carry them.

Shaft clear dimensions and the headroom over the top landing

Two measurements decide most slim backpack projects: the clear internal width and depth of the shaft, and the headroom above the top landing. The machine room less layout removes a room, but it does not remove the need for space inside the shaft — the car, the host behind it, the counterweight lane and the sliding door all compete for the same box.

Three checks before you order anything

Measure, do not estimate. A tape measure against the clear faces of the shaft, taken at the lowest and highest levels, is worth more than a floor plan, because plans rarely show finishes, insulation or a later-built partition. Work through the three checks below and use the counter to keep track of what is still open.

Why headroom is the one people get wrong

In a machine-room lift the headroom question is answered by the room above. In a machine room less lift it moves into the shaft, and it is answered by the car height, the sling and the top of the rails, plus whatever the counterweight needs to overrun. A shaft that looks generous in plan can still fail on headroom, particularly in a converted building where the top floor sits under a sloped roof.

The practical test is simple: stand at the top landing and look up. A flat soffit with usable fixing points and enough clear height for a car plus its sling is workable. If the soffit slopes, or a duct or beam crosses the shaft, note where it crosses and at what height — that note is often what changes the design from a standard layout to a shortened car.

Width, depth and door opening are one decision

Clear width is shared between the car front, the counterweight lane and the door. Asking for a wider door in the same shaft narrows the counterweight lane, and asking for a deeper car pushes the host further back. That is why the enquiry asks for the door clear opening you actually want rather than only the shaft size: the two are negotiated together, and the answer is a drawing rather than a table.

If the space is shaped so that no rectangular shaft fits — a corner, a curve, a gallery void — say so and send a photograph. Where the plan is genuinely constrained, one of our other drives is usually a better answer than forcing a slim backpack layout into a box it was not designed for.

Single-phase supply and a touch-screen car panel

The specification table gives the supply as 220 V, 50 Hz, single phase. In a house that is usually already present, which is why this configuration is popular in converted buildings: the three-phase upgrade another drive might need is not on the critical path. It does not follow that the lift can be plugged into a nearby socket. A lift is a fixed machine with its own circuit, protective device and isolator.

What a touch screen changes for the user

A touch screen replaces the engraved button plate with a display. In a domestic lift that means three practical things. Floor labels can be written the way the family actually names the floors rather than as numbers alone. A service message or an out-of-service state can be shown on the panel instead of being discovered by pressing buttons. And the trip control can be grouped with the alarm and emergency stop buttons so a passenger who has never used the lift can read the panel at a glance.

Two design points are worth settling before the car is built. The emergency stop and the alarm stay as physical controls independent of the screen: if the display fails or the car loses power, those two buttons still have to work. And the panel height should be set for the shortest regular user of the lift, not for an average adult — a panel comfortable for a standing adult can be out of reach from a wheelchair or a walking frame.

Controller, isolator and the space beside the lowest landing

Machine room less does not mean control room less. The controller cabinet is a real box with a real footprint. It wants to live where an engineer can open it and work on it — normally at the lowest landing, in a cupboard or a recess, outside the travel path of the car. Plan that space with the shaft, because finding a home for the cabinet later is the most common late change on a retrofit.

Alongside the cabinet you need an isolator that can be locked off, labelled and reached without entering the shaft. If the building is rented or shared, agree who holds the key, because that detail decides how quickly a service visit can start.

Backpack traction against hydraulic and screw-driven drives

The three drives sold for houses are not better or worse in the abstract; they fail in different places. A traction lift fails when there is no vertical run or no structure to hang it from. A hydraulic lift fails when there is nowhere to put the jack, the tank and the oil. A screw-driven platform fails when the load and travel asked for exceed what a screw column should be asked to do. Choosing between them is a question about your building, not about a specification sheet.

Only the backpack traction column describes the machine on this page, and every figure in it comes from this page's specification table. The other two columns describe drive types in general terms so you can see the trade; the specifications of our hydraulic and screw-driven ranges live on their own pages.

The trade the backpack layout makes

Compare the second and third columns and the bargain is visible. The backpack layout removes the machine room and keeps the smoothness of a rope-driven lift, and in exchange it takes car depth. On a plan that is generous front to back and tight side to side, that is a good trade. On a plan that is short front to back and wide, it is the wrong one, and the same family places the machine differently.

Hydraulic and screw-driven drives make the opposite trade. They buy compactness and headroom tolerance, and they pay either with a plant space and oil, or with a direct mechanical drive that behaves differently underfoot. Neither is a compromise machine; both answer a different constraint.

Where this drive usually wins

• A house or small commercial building with three or more floors and a genuine vertical run.
• Any building where a plant room at the top would eat a usable room, or where the roof cannot be penetrated.
• Properties with single-phase power where bringing in a three-phase supply would dominate the project.
• Projects that want a longer travel than a jack or a screw column is usually asked to serve.

If more than one of those does not describe your building, treat this page as background and look at our hydraulic home elevator and screw-driven elevator ranges instead. Choosing the right drive at the enquiry stage saves more money than any later negotiation.

If a brief asks for a traction home lift without saying which machine should carry it, this is usually what is meant: a rope-driven car with the host on the car, no plant room and single-phase power. The full product range lists every drive we build, and the residential traction elevator range shows where this model sits among the others.

Safety devices, and what to check before handover

The specification table lists three safety devices on this machine: an emergency stop button, overload protection and door interlocks. Three items can read as a short list, so it is worth saying what each one does at the machine, and what remains the installer's and the owner's responsibility.

Beyond those three, this page carries no certification row and names no standard. That is a statement about the page, not about the machine: where a project needs approval documents, tell us which authority is approving the installation and the documentation is checked against that list before shipping. Do not assume from silence that a document exists, and do not assume it does not — ask.

Handover checks worth doing yourself

Whether or not your contract includes an independent inspection, these are the checks a building owner can see for themselves, and each one takes a minute. Tick them off as the installer works through the handover.

Installation sequence on a retrofit project

A lift added to an existing house follows a different sequence from a lift built into a new one. In a new build the shaft is drawn first and everything else follows. In a retrofit the building sets the constraints and the design fits around them, which means the first two steps below carry most of the risk and deserve most of the attention.

1. Survey the space and take the two measurements

   Clear shaft width and depth, and clear headroom over the top landing, measured rather than read from a plan. Photograph the run from the lowest level upwards, note where any beam or duct crosses, and record the floor-to-floor heights for each stop. This is the step where an enquiry either becomes a design or gets redirected to a different drive, and it costs nothing but an hour with a tape measure.

2. Layout drawing and a quotation against it

   The dimensional layout comes back as a drawing: car position, host position behind the car, counterweight lane, door opening and the controller cabinet location. Price is quoted against that drawing rather than against a generic model name, which is why two quotations for "a 400 kg home lift" can differ without either supplier being wrong. Expect the drawing to change once after the site visit; that is normal.

3. Manufacture and pre-dispatch checks

   Once the drawing is signed off, the machine is built to it. The specification quotes a delivery time of 45 working days; treat that as the window that starts at sign-off, not at the first email. Any approval document your authority requires should be settled during this window rather than after the crate is on the water.

4. Site preparation and shaft work

   While the machine is being built, the building side is prepared: the opening is formed, the rail fixing surfaces are made good, the lift circuit and isolator are installed, and the door frames are set. Most retrofit delays happen here rather than in the factory, and most are structural — a partition that looked solid turning out not to carry a bracket. If the shaft work is done before the crate is booked, the installation itself becomes predictable.

5. Installation, testing and handover

   The machine is assembled, wired, levelled and run through its tests, then handed over against the acceptance list in the section above. The headroom available over the top landing, the door interlock behaviour at every floor and the overload signal should all be demonstrated rather than described. Ask for the demonstration, and write down the date: it becomes the start of the one-year warranty.

What to prepare before the crate arrives

• A route for the crate from the delivery vehicle to the shaft. A slim backpack lift is compact for a lift, but it is still a crate with a machine in it, and a 900 mm doorway on the only route is a real problem.
• Power, light and a working area at the shaft for the installation team, plus a safe edge at every opening once the floor is cut.

If any of the five steps is unclear, send the measurements you have and the ones you are missing. Working out what is missing before the drawings start is the cheapest engineering in the project, and it beats quoting against assumptions. Contact our engineers with your floor heights and photographs.

Maintenance, and what the one-year warranty covers

The specification table gives a warranty of 1 year. It does not state a recommended service interval, so this page does not invent one: the schedule depends on trips per day, the environment (dust, humidity, salt air, animal hair) and what your local inspector expects. Ask us or your service partner, and set the interval from that answer.

Why a gearless traction lift is maintained differently

There is no oil to change and no jack to reseal, because the machine is rope-driven and electrically braked. The things that wear are the rope, the sheave, the brake and the door mechanism, and the thing that detects a drift early is the control system's own fault log. That changes the shape of maintenance rather than removing it: fewer consumables, but the brake and the rope still need a trained eye at intervals, and the door interlock still has to be tested rather than assumed.

Two habits make a domestic lift last longer than its warranty. Keep a written record of every visit, with the date and what was found — a fault six months after a service is far easier to trace against a written history than against memory. And report a change the first time you notice it: a car that stops slightly low, or a door that takes a moment longer to close, is usually an adjustment, and left for a year it is a repair.

Spares and support after the warranty

Wear parts are the rope, the brake lining, the door rollers and the landing door hardware. When you order, ask which of these are standard components and which are specific to the model, and get the answer in writing: that single question decides how quickly the lift can be repaired in year four. Contact our engineers if anything on this page needs confirming against your project, including the warranty terms that apply to your order.

Questions buyers ask before ordering a slim backpack lift

Twelve questions, answered against this page's own specification table. Where the page has no figure, the answer says so.

What to send us for an accurate quotation

A quotation for a slim backpack traction lift is only as good as the dimensions behind it. The checklist below is the shortest set of answers that lets us price the machine you need rather than a generic model.

How the order runs

Minimum order quantity is 1 set, supply ability is 10 sets, payment terms are T/T or L/C, and the quoted delivery time is 45 working days. The machine ships in an export non-fumigation wood box, which matters in markets that reject fumigated packing. Price sits in the specification table beside this text rather than here, and it is quoted against the drawing rather than against a model name.

Three things tighten a quotation further, and all three are free. Say which market the lift is going to, because destination rules change what documentation travels with the crate. Say whether the shaft already exists or is still to be built, because a lift designed into a new shaft uses the space more efficiently than one designed around an old one. And say who is installing it, because that changes what has to be in the box, on the pallet and in the manual.

Two tools: unit conversion and a printable survey sheet

Both tools exist because the same two mistakes recur on every international enquiry: a drawing in millimetres read as inches, and a survey that reaches us with three of the nine answers missing. Neither tool changes a specification; one converts units, the other helps you write the answers down.