Stainless-Cabin Hydraulic Home Elevator – 14.5 m, 5 Stops

1. Whether this lift fits your building

Start with the three numbers that decide almost everything on a hydraulic home lift: how far it has to travel, how deep a pit you are willing to dig, and how much headroom you have above the top landing. On this model the published answers are 14.5 m of travel across 5 stops, a 0 m pit depth, and 3 m of overhead clearance.

Read together, those three figures describe a particular kind of building: a property where the lift has to reach four or five levels, where there is no appetite for breaking a floor slab or casting a well, and where the ceiling above the top stop can give up about three metres.

The short answer

If your run is within 14.5 m, your top landing has the listed 3 m overhead, and you can bring 220 V single-phase power to the machine, this configuration is normally workable. If any one of those three does not hold, the honest answer is that you are looking at a different machine rather than a different set of options on this one. The hydraulic home elevator range carries the neighbouring configurations — including a single-phase model with microprocessor control and a 5-stop pitless unit with automatic doors — and it is worth reading those pages side by side with this one before the layout is fixed.

2. Choosing the cabin material on this stainless cabin home lift

The specification table on this page lists the cabin as 304# stainless steel or aluminium alloy. Those are two different skins on the same machine, and the difference shows up in three places buyers notice: how the cabin looks when it is installed, how it looks after years of hands and cleaning cloths, and what the cleaning takes out of your week.

The machine behind the cabin is common to both options, so the cabin question can be settled on its own:

• Shared by both skins: hydraulic drive, 14.5 m travel, 5 stops, 0 m pit, 3 m overhead clearance.
• Shared electrical package: 4.7 kW motor on a 220 V, 50 Hz single-phase supply, microprocessor control and automatic doors.
• Open to either skin: a closed cabin in metal, or the same structure carrying glazed panels.

What the cabin actually decides

A lift cabin is a box inside a shaft. Everything a passenger experiences — light, sound, the sense of space, the visibility of a fingerprint — comes from that box rather than from the drive. It also decides a large part of the maintenance routine, because the three surfaces require three different habits. Section 5 covers those habits in detail.

The three skins side by side

The table below compares the three options on the points that decide a residential purchase.

Four questions settle it:

• Used daily by children and guests? 304 stainless steel with a brushed finish needs the least attention.
• Must the cabin match a colour or a shape? Aluminium alloy is the flexible skin.
• Does the shaft run past a living area? If a solid box would be oppressive, choose glazing.
• Is the property near water, salt air or a humid climate? Then the grade matters more than the finish — read the 304 stainless steel hydraulic model.

One caution about material names. “Stainless” and “aluminium” are families, not single materials, and two suppliers can both write “stainless cabin” while delivering different grades. This page's table states 304# stainless steel or aluminium alloy, and that is the statement to hold a supplier to in writing.

3. Specification, in metric and imperial units

Everything below is transcribed from this product's own specification tables. Nothing has been carried over from a neighbouring model, and nothing has been converted from a figure that is not on the page. Switch the units to see the same values in imperial measure.

If you arrived looking for a 14.5 m home elevator, this table is the whole of the machine: travel, stops, pit, headroom, cabin, cylinders, motor, supply, control and doors.

Source: this product's specification tables, read on the page you are on. Nothing in this table is estimated, interpolated or copied from another model.

Where each figure comes from

The specification appears twice on this page, in two different shapes: a short commercial table and a longer feature table. The two agree on every value that appears in both. Where they differ in wording — the warranty is written both as “1 Year” and as “12 months” — the meaning is the same and the table above keeps both spellings visible.

That matters because a lift is bought against a document. If a supplier quotes a travel height, a pit depth or a motor power that is not written here, ask for the source of the difference before you sign rather than after.

Two things this table deliberately does not say

The rated load is not stated. There is no load figure in either specification table. That is a real gap: the rated load decides how many people the cabin may carry, what the overload protection is set to, and whether a wheelchair user plus a carer is within the design. It is not guessed here: ask our engineers for the figure.

The travel speed is not stated either. A hydraulic home lift runs at a domestic speed, but this page does not publish the figure, so none is quoted here. If speed is a deciding factor, ask for it in writing with the quotation.

Two further items belong on the same list: the shaft, cabin and door dimensions, which are set per project, and any certification or standard the machine is delivered against.

What to check on the drawing, not on this page

Four numbers decide whether a hydraulic home elevator actually fits, and none can be read off a catalogue page: the internal clear size of the shaft, the cabin outline it will accept, the door opening at each landing, and the position of the pump unit. Those come back on a project drawing after you supply the shaft plan — section 8 lists the whole set.

About the cylinders and the travel. The specification lists 2.9 m long large hydraulic cylinders and, separately, a maximum travel of 14.5 m. This page does not describe the ram arrangement that produces that travel, so this document does not explain or derive it. Both figures are quoted as listed; the arrangement is an open item to confirm with the factory if it affects your shaft design.

4. Pit, headroom and power: the three conditions

A pitless hydraulic home elevator is bought for one reason above all others: it removes the excavation. On this model the pit depth is listed as 0 m, so the car travels down to the lowest floor level instead of into a well below it. In a completed building, or a house where the ground floor is a slab on grade, that single figure often decides whether the project is possible at all.

In short, this is a 5 stop hydraulic home elevator whose whole appeal is the absence of a well. Removing the pit does not remove the conditions, though — it moves them. The machine still needs somewhere for the pump unit, the shaft still needs headroom above the top landing, and the power still has to reach the machine.

What 0 m pit depth actually means

A conventional hydraulic lift descends into a pit: a lined depression below the lowest landing. This model's table states 0 m, so the lowest landing is also the lowest point the car reaches. The practical consequences are worth spelling out, because “pitless” is often read as “no site work”:

• No excavation, no water table problem, no drainage. In a basement or on a slab, this is usually the deciding advantage.
• The lowest floor stays flat. There is no well to detail around, which simplifies flooring and thresholds.
• Site work does not disappear. The shaft still needs a defined structure, the lands still need door openings, and the pump unit still needs to sit somewhere with a route for the oil line to the cylinders.

Overhead clearance: the 3 m condition

The listed 3 m of overhead clearance is the clear height above the top stop. It is there for the machine, not for the passengers: the car has to reach the top landing with the drive system above it, and a technician has to be able to work on the equipment.

If your top landing sits under a shallow ceiling, in a converted attic, or under a roof structure you cannot alter, measure this figure first. Where the 3 m is not available, the decision is normally to move the top stop down one level rather than to argue with the number.

Power, wiring and the 4.7 kW single-phase motor

The listed electrical conditions are 220 V, 50 Hz, single-phase AC with a 4.7 kW motor (≈ 6.3 hp) — the supply a house normally already has, which is why this lift can go in without a three-phase service upgrade. Three things are still worth settling with your electrician before installation:

• A dedicated circuit from the distribution board to the machine position, sized for the listed motor.
• Where the supply lands. The pump unit position decides this, and the pump unit position is chosen when the shaft is laid out.
• Frequency and voltage of your supply. The listed condition is 50 Hz. If your building runs a different frequency or voltage, say so at enquiry stage — this page describes one electrical configuration, not a range.

Not published on this page: the running current, the starting current, the recommended cable size and the type of protective device. Those are electrical design figures, they do not appear in either specification table here, and they should come from the factory with the quotation rather than from a supplier's estimate.

Cylinders, and where the pump unit goes

The specification lists 2.9 m long large hydraulic cylinders and a pump unit driven by the 4.7 kW motor. The page does not describe how the cylinders are arranged to produce 14.5 m of travel, so treat the ram arrangement as a drawing-level question for the confirmation drawing. The pump unit is the part with a footprint in the building: it needs to sit where a technician can reach it, where the oil line runs sensibly to the cylinders, and where its noise is acceptable on the other side of the wall. That location is normally chosen during the survey.

How the installation actually runs

From the published terms on this page, the sequence below is what a project looks like.

5. Cleaning and maintenance, by cabin material

Maintenance on a hydraulic home elevator splits into two jobs. One is the cabin: cosmetic, weekly, and done by whoever lives in the house. The other is the machine: periodic, technical, and done by someone who knows what a hydraulic safety set is meant to do.

The five-minute weekly routine

Whichever skin you chose, the same order of operations keeps it presentable. Doing it in this order matters more than the products you use.

1. Dust first, wipe second. Wiping a dusty panel moves grit across the surface, and grit is what leaves fine scratches. A dry microfibre cloth first, a damp one second.
2. Use the mildest thing that works. Warm water with a little mild household detergent handles almost everything on a cabin wall.
3. Clean the high-touch zone. Handrails, door edges, call buttons and the panel beside the door collect more marks than the walls, and they are what a guest notices.
4. Dry the surface. Water left to dry leaves mineral spotting on metal and streaks on glass. A second dry pass removes both.

304 stainless steel: brushed and mirror finishes

Stainless steel is chosen for a reason no other skin matches: it does not depend on a coating to stay presentable, so there is no layer to wear through. The finish is what changes the routine, and it is where most cabin complaints originate:

• Brushed finish — the practical choice. Light marks blend into the grain and can often be removed by working along the direction of the grain with a non-scratching pad.
• Mirror finish — the sharpest look and the highest upkeep. It shows every fingerprint, so it needs a dedicated stainless cleaner and a frequent wipe rather than a weekly one.
• Never clean along the wrong axis. On a brushed panel, wiping across the grain leaves visible lines. Wipe with it.
• Avoid chloride-heavy cleaners. Bleach-based and aggressive bathroom products are the wrong choice for stainless steel — the one rule worth writing inside a cupboard door.

If grade rather than finish is your question, the 304 stainless steel cabin model covers the difference between grades and the coastal case in detail.

Aluminium alloy: what to avoid

Aluminium alloy is the lighter skin and the one that carries colour, profiles and shaped panels. Its weakness is surface hardness: an unprotected aluminium surface marks more easily than stainless steel, which is why practically every aluminium cabin is supplied with a coating or an anodised layer. That single fact sets the cleaning rules.

• Ask what the finish is, then clean for that finish. A powder-coated panel and an anodised panel tolerate different products.
• No abrasive pads and no scouring cream. They cut through the surface layer, and once it is gone it cannot be restored by polishing the way stainless can.

Glazed panels: lift the grit, do not wipe it

Glass is the least forgiving surface in a cabin, and not because it is fragile. It is because a scratch in glass is permanent, while a scratch in metal can often be blended out.

• Rinse or lift the dust off before touching the surface with a cloth. Dry-wiping a dusty pane is the single most common way a glass cabin gets marked.
• Use a glass cleaner and a clean, non-linting cloth. Work in an overlapping pattern, finish the edges last.

The hydraulic side: oil, cylinders and the safety set

A hydraulic home lift is driven by oil pushed from a pump into cylinders, with a valve group controlling the descent. The listed safety equipment is the hydraulic safety set, and it decides how the car behaves if pressure is lost. No owner should maintain that personally; what an owner can do is notice changes early.

• Watch for oil at the cylinder area. Any wet film where there should be none is worth a service call, not a wait-and-see.
• Listen for change. A new noise, a judder at one landing or slower levelling is the machine telling you something. Describe it in those terms when you call.
• Keep the pump area clear and ventilated, and do not top up oil yourself — the correct oil and level belong to the machine's specification, and this page publishes neither.

What the 12-month warranty does — and what this page does not say

The specification states a warranty of 12 months, written in one table as “1 year”. That is the only warranty figure on this page.

One habit worth building. Ask any supplier of this machine three things in writing before the lift is in the shaft: which cabin material and finish is actually being supplied and how it should be cleaned; what the 12-month warranty covers item by item and what happens in year two; and who services the hydraulic side in your region.

6. Where a 14.5 m five-stop hydraulic home lift is used

The configuration on this page — five stops, 14.5 m of travel, no pit, three metres of overhead, a single-phase 4.7 kW machine — turns up in a recognisable set of buildings. Recognising your own project in one of them is the quickest way to know whether the rest of this page applies to you.

What these settings have in common

Every one of them is a low-rise building where the constraint comes from the structure rather than the traffic: none needs speed, and all need the machine to fit a building that already exists. The reverse is also true — an application that needs a faster machine, a much heavier load or a longer run is not a better-configured version of this lift, it is a different product.

Comparing this lift with its neighbours

Three pages are worth reading alongside this one:

• 304 stainless steel cabin, pitless, 5 stops — start here if the question is which stainless grade, including how to think about damp and coastal locations.
• Panoramic pitless lift with an aluminium frame — start here if the question is how much glazing rather than which metal.
• Single-phase hydraulic home elevator with microprocessor control — start here if the electrical supply is your main constraint and you want to see how the single-phase case is handled elsewhere in the range.

All three are the same machine seen through a different decision.

7. Hydraulic home elevator FAQ

These are the questions that come up in enquiries for this machine, in roughly the order they are asked. Every answer is tied to what this page states, and where the page is silent the answer says so.

8. What to send for a quotation

The specification on this page answers the machine question. What it cannot answer is your building. These eight items are what turns a catalogue page into a configuration, and all of them come from a site visit or a shaft drawing rather than from a preference.

Tick what you already have. Whatever is still unticked is the list of things to measure before the enquiry goes out — and it is also the list of things that, if left unmeasured, come back as a change order later.

What comes back

A complete answer should return four things: a drawing of the cabin and shaft interfaces, the rated load and travel confirmed in writing, the cylinder and pump unit arrangement for your layout, and the electrical figures your electrician asked for.

If you are still comparing drive types, the pages worth your time are the hydraulic home elevator range and, for the grade question behind the cabin, the 304 stainless steel hydraulic model.