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Home Elevator Models: How to Read a Model Sheet Before You Quote
September 28, 2026
Two quotes can both say “400 kg home elevator” and still describe two different machines. The model sheet is where that difference lives.
This guide takes a home elevator model sheet apart, field by field: what each line means, which lines decide whether your building can take the model at all, and how to work backwards from shaft, pit, headroom, door and power conditions to the model family you should be quoting. It is written for the people who have to compare sheets rather than admire them — distributors, installers, builders and technical homeowners holding two or three supplier documents side by side.
01Six questions a model sheet is supposed to answer
A model sheet is not a brochure. It is a compressed answer to six questions, and if any of the six is missing or vague, the sheet cannot be used to compare anything. The six are: how much the car will carry, how far it will travel, how many landings it will serve, how fast it moves, what the building must provide before installation, and what commercial terms wrap the machine.
Read those four numbers together and something important appears: the spread inside a single product family is larger than the spread most buyers assume between families. A screw-drive line can run from a personal lift at walking-pace speed to a 5 tonne goods-capable unit, while a traction line sits at four to six times the screw speed but on a different set of building conditions. The model sheet is what tells you which of those you are being quoted.
Working rule. If a sheet answers five of the six questions and leaves one blank, that blank is not a detail to settle later. It is the line the price difference will hide in.
02The ten fields to read before anything else
Supplier sheets use the same vocabulary loosely. One manufacturer’s “capacity” is another’s “rated load”; one sheet’s “cabin size” is an internal clear dimension while another’s is the footprint of the whole unit. Before comparing two documents, fix the ten terms below. Everything else on the sheet is built on them.
Two of those ten fields need a second reading, because suppliers use them in two different senses. “Cabin size” may be the clear internal dimension or the outer envelope of the car, and “footprint” may be the shaft the machine expects or the base area it stands on. When a sheet does not say which sense it uses, read it in the direction that makes the machine larger — cabin measured inside, structure measured outside — and ask for the missing figure rather than assuming the friendlier one.
Notice what is not on that list: colour, cabin finish, brand of controller, or how many photographs appear in the brochure. Those are configuration choices. They matter, but they are downstream of the ten fields above — and a sheet that leads with them usually has something to hide about travel, pit or power.
03The twelve lines a complete model sheet should carry
Below is the checklist we would apply to any home elevator model sheet, whether it comes from a European assembler or a Chinese factory. Line by line, it is also the minimum content of a specification request. Tick the lines your own sheet already covers; the unchecked ones are exactly what to ask for in writing.
When a sheet carries all twelve, it becomes a comparison instrument. When it carries eight, the missing four will be settled by email, and every email is a place where scope quietly changes. In the model pages reviewed for this article, most sheets carry four to eight of the twelve, and the least populated lines are consistently pit depth, top clearance and power supply — the three that decide whether the site has to be modified.
04Where the drive types actually divide
Marketing pages divide drive types by feeling: hydraulic is smooth, traction is fast, screw is compact. Model sheets divide them by numbers. The table below sets out the published figures from the home elevator model pages we reviewed in September 2026, so you can see where the real boundaries sit rather than where the adjectives sit.
| Line on the sheet | Screw drive | Hydraulic | Rope traction (gearless) | Capsule / platform |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Published rated load | 500–5,000 kg on a 2–5 stop model; smaller personal units publish no load row | Not published on the hydraulic sheets reviewed | Not published on the traction sheets reviewed | Up to 400 kg on the capsule sheet reviewed |
| Published travel | Up to 15 m; a 3 ft × 3 ft personal model publishes 50 ft (about 15 m) | Up to 14.5 m | Not published as a distance; stops are published instead | Not published on the sheet reviewed |
| Published speed | 0.15 m/s | 0.25 m/s | 0.4–1.0 m/s, or up to 200 ft/min | 0.25 m/s |
| Stops | 2–5 | 5 stops published on a glass-cabin unit | 2–5 | Configuration-dependent |
| Pit | Personal screw units are quoted with no pit; the screw column and nut still stand on the floor | No-pit and deck-floor units are published | One sheet publishes installation as “no pit required” | Unit sits on the finished floor |
| Power | 220 V 50 Hz single phase on a personal model; three-phase systems appear further up the screw range | Single-phase AC published on a compact unit | Not published on the sheets reviewed | Not published on the sheet reviewed |
| Control | Microprocessor control on the sheets reviewed | Microprocessor control listed | VVVF control listed | Microprocessor control listed |
| Typical published price band | USD 20,000–30,000 per set | USD 4,000–10,000 per set | USD 10,000–20,000 per set | USD 4,000–10,000 per set on the capsule sheet reviewed |
Three things follow from that table. First, price band and drive type are not aligned the way buyers expect: the cheapest published band in this set is the hydraulic family, and the most expensive is the screw family, which is also the slowest. Second, travel and speed travel in opposite directions — the screw sheet that publishes the longest travel also publishes the lowest speed. Third, the columns with the most blanks are the ones that decide site work: pit, headroom and power.
A blank cell is not the same as a zero. Where a sheet publishes no travel figure, it has not claimed unlimited travel; where it publishes no certification row, it has not claimed a certificate; and where it publishes no pit figure, it has not confirmed that no pit is needed. The correct reading of a blank is “ask”, and the correct place to record the answer is the written specification, next to the line it belongs to.
05Capacity bands, and what each one buys you
Capacity is the first line most buyers read and the last line they should use to choose. It answers “how much can this carry”, not “what will fit”. Treat the published loads as bands, and check the band against what the household actually has to move: a person, a person plus a wheelchair, a carer plus a wheelchair, a mobility scooter, luggage, or goods on a pallet.
Up to 400 kg
Personal and capsule-class machines. One or two passengers, no goods traffic. Watch the cabin footprint rather than the load figure: at this band the car is sized around a single occupant, and a wheelchair may fit in the load but not in the doorway.
About 200–450 kg
Compact residential units on traction or platform drive, published in the sheet set at 450–1,000 lbs. This is the band where “home lift” and “small residential elevator” usually sit, and where door opening width, not load, limits wheelchair use.
500–1,000 kg
Household elevators that carry a wheelchair plus an attendant comfortably, or three to four passengers. Screw and traction lines overlap in this band, so the deciding lines move to travel, speed and pit.
1,000–5,000 kg
Goods-capable screw-drive units published at up to 5 tonnes on 2–5 stops. Villa service lifts, wine and furniture movement, and light commercial use. At this band, floor loading and power supply move to the top of the checklist.
One practical warning about this line. Rated load is quoted for the machine, not for the person using it. A 400 kg capsule with a narrow door opening and a small car will not take a wheelchair plus a carer even though the arithmetic says it could. Compare the load band, the cabin clear size and the clear door opening as one group; that group is the real capacity of the installation.
06Travel and stops: the two-stop question and the three-stop wall
Stops and travel are usually listed next to each other and then read as if they were the same thing. They are not. Stops are a count of landings; travel is a distance in metres or feet. A three-stop unit in a low building may travel less than a two-stop unit in a tall one, and the machine that serves three landings is not simply a two-landing machine with one more door.
Two stops
One lower landing and one upper landing. This is where compact and personal units concentrate, and where the published no-pit arrangements are most common. Two-stop work is also where a platform or capsule machine can be viable, because the car never has to pass a landing door it cannot serve.
- Most model sheets in this class publish a single travel limit rather than a table of limits
- Door arrangement is usually one lower and one upper opening, sometimes on different walls
- Retrofit into an existing house is realistic, but the upper floor opening still needs structural work
Three stops and above
From three landings up, the sheet has to describe how the car passes the middle landing and where the intermediate door sits. Screw and traction lines publish 2–5 stop configurations; hydraulic units publish up to five stops with the cylinder length stated, because cylinder length and travel are tied together.
- Intermediate landing doors must be aligned, so the sheet has to give the door arrangement per landing
- Headroom at the top landing becomes a hard constraint, not a preference
- Travel limits published per model matter more than the family maximum
If your project needs three stops or more, ignore the family maximum printed at the top of the sheet and find the row that covers your own travel. A 15 m family limit does not mean every model in the family is published at 15 m, and the difference between a two-stop and a five-stop unit of the same family is often the arrangement of the structure rather than the drive itself.
Travel height also has to be measured the way the sheet measures it. Floor-to-finished-floor distances are not the same as structural floor thicknesses, and a building with thick screed or a raised ground floor can lose several hundred millimetres between the architect’s drawing and the lift supplier’s assumption. Take the six dimensions from section 13 from the finished surfaces, and state the unit you are using.
07Cabin size and footprint: the line buyers misread most
Cabin size is an internal clear dimension. It is not the shaft, not the footprint, and not the space the machine occupies in the room. Three numbers have to line up before a model will physically fit an existing house: the cabin clear size you need, the structural footprint the model demands, and the route the car and its frame will take through the building on the day of installation.
Switch the table between millimetres and inches to compare sheets that use different units. The millimetre column is what drawings are normally dimensioned in; the inch column is what most US and UK quotation documents use.
| Dimension on the sheet | Published value | What it actually constrains |
|---|---|---|
| Compact cabin, published as 3 ft × 3 ft | 914 mm × 914 mm | One person, standing, no wheelchair. The car is deliberately minimal, so the door and the frame become the limiting elements. |
| Clear door opening option, published as 500 mm | 500 mm | Whether a standard wheelchair or walker passes with the door fully open. This figure is a minimum width option, not a standard on every model. |
| Ceiling height published on a compact platform unit | 2,134 mm (7 ft) | The car interior height, which must sit under whatever headroom the top landing offers. |
| Hydraulic cylinder length published on a villa unit | 2,900 mm | Where the drive equipment goes and how deep the below-floor arrangement has to be if the unit is not running a deck floor. |
| Travel published as 50 ft on a personal screw model | 15,240 mm (50 ft) | The vertical distance the model is published for — about 15 m, or roughly five residential storeys depending on floor-to-floor height. |
Footprint versus cabin. A 3 ft × 3 ft car does not mean a 3 ft × 3 ft opening in the floor. Rails, structure, door frames and running clearance all sit outside the cabin dimension, and the self-supporting arrangements that avoid a shaft still stand on the floor and still need their own base area.
08Doors and opening configurations
The door line is shorter than the others and decides more retrofit projects than any single number on the sheet. Filter the configurations below by what your building can accept; on existing houses the constraint is usually the wall you can cut, not the machine you would prefer.
Showing 4 of 4 configurations
Automatic sliding door
Published as standard on several models across the screw, hydraulic, traction and capsule lines. Best fit for new builds and for retrofits where a landing wall can take the frame.
Check: frame depth, landing wall thickness, and whether the door needs a recess.
Centre or side opening
Published as “centre or side opening” on a high-capacity screw model. Side opening buys clear width where the landing is narrow; centre opening keeps the load balanced and is easier to align on small cars.
Check: swing direction and the clear opening that remains after the frame.
Narrow opening, from 500 mm
A compact traction model publishes a 500 mm minimum door width option with a stainless-steel door. This is the configuration for stairwell retrofits and tight landings where a standard powered door will not fit.
Check: whether the wheelchair or walker that has to pass is under the clear width.
Doors per landing
The number of doors is a stop-by-stop decision, not a model decision: a five-stop unit may open on three landings only. Sheets usually publish the door type but not the per-landing pattern, which is why the pattern belongs in the written specification.
Check: which landings are served, and on which wall.
09Power, control and the safety lines worth checking
Power supply is the quietest line on a model sheet and one of the most expensive to change after the fact. A compact unit published on 220 V 50 Hz single phase can be fed from a domestic supply; larger screw units move up to three-phase supply, which may mean a new cable run, a supply upgrade, or a generator decision on a remote site.
Read the power line with three questions. What voltage, phase and frequency does the model require? What does the site already have at the point of connection? And who signs off the electrical installation — the lift supplier, the electrician, or the general contractor?
On the safety lines, the published vocabulary in this model set is narrow and specific: emergency stop button, overload protection, safety sensors and safety brake, with microprocessor or VVVF control. If a sheet lists a safety device, it is worth asking which landing it acts on and whether it is duplicated at each door. If a sheet lists no certification row at all, the honest reading is that none is claimed for that model — not that the machine is uncertified, but that you cannot cite a standard in your own submission without written confirmation.
10Working backwards: from building conditions to model family
Most buyers start with a model and then discover the building cannot take it. Reverse the order. Answer the three conditions below in the order a supplier would ask them, and the answer narrows the family before any price is discussed.
1. How many landings will the lift serve?
2. What vertical space can the building give?
3. What supply can the site provide?
The tool is deliberately blunt. Its purpose is not to pick a model for you but to eliminate families that cannot match the building, so that the next conversation starts with two or three candidates instead of twenty. In practice, “three landings, no pit, single phase” points at compact screw or no-pit hydraulic machines; “four or five landings, shaft available, three phase” opens the traction and higher-capacity screw ranges; and “two landings, no pit, single phase” is where personal and platform arrangements live.
11Standard models and custom configurations are not opposites
Model sheets mix two different kinds of offering, and buyers often treat one as cheap and the other as expensive. In the pages reviewed for this article, the split is not between a fixed catalogue and a bespoke machine: it is between the parts of the specification that are fixed by engineering and the parts that are fixed by the room.
What is genuinely fixed
- Drive type and its speed band, published per model
- Maximum travel the structure is designed for
- Pit and top clearance, where the model publishes them at all
- The control system and the safety devices that go with it
- The certification the manufacturer actually holds
These lines cannot be negotiated into a different answer. Trying to do so is the single most common source of late changes on a home lift project.
What is normally configured
- Cabin finish, flooring and ceiling treatment
- Door material and, within limits, door arrangement
- Cabin dimensions inside the published envelope
- Landing call stations and interior options
- Where the machine sits in plan, within its footprint
These lines are where two suppliers quoting “the same” model can legitimately differ by a clear margin, and where a custom home elevator model request is answered without changing the drive.
The practical consequence is that a custom home elevator models request is usually answered by configuration within an existing drive family, not by designing a new machine. When a supplier does quote a completely new structure, the model sheet stops being comparable with anything else on the table, and the price stops being comparable too.
12Three things a model sheet cannot tell you
Every sheet has gaps, and the gaps are invisible until they are expensive. The three below do not mean the sheet is bad — they mean the sheet is a component document, not a project document.
1. Whether the building will accept the load. A model sheet publishes the mass it can lift, not the load its base will put into your floor slab or the wall it will hang from. That calculation belongs to the structure, and no catalogue answer replaces it.
2. Whether the installation route exists. The machine must reach the room: door widths, stair turns, lift shafts in the building, cranes and floor protection are project facts. A sheet that publishes a compact footprint can still arrive in sections too large for the route.
3. What local compliance requires. Certification held by a manufacturer and acceptance by a local authority are different documents. The sheet can tell you which standards the maker holds; it cannot tell you what your jurisdiction will ask for at inspection.
13Ten building facts to send before you ask for a quote
A model sheet can only be matched to a project when the project is described in its own terms. The list below is the minimum set that lets a supplier answer with a specific model instead of a placeholder. Send it once, in writing, and the first return quote is usually usable rather than provisional.
Two of those ten are structural (footprint and the wall), two are electrical, and six are dimensional. In our experience of residential projects, the two that are most often missing are the clear height above the top landing and the door opening at each landing — the same two that decide whether a standard model can be used or whether the landing has to be rebuilt.
14Lead time, quantity, payment and packing: reading the commercial lines
The commercial block at the foot of a model sheet is where two quotes become comparable in a different dimension. The published terms across the model pages reviewed here follow a consistent pattern, which makes them a useful template for what to demand from any supplier.
Enquiry with the ten facts
The sheet is matched to the building. Only at this point does a specific model number mean anything.
Drawing confirmation
Layout, door arrangement and site conditions are confirmed in drawing form. Published lead time normally runs from the confirmed drawing and the deposit, not from the enquiry.
Production
Published figures in this model set run from 20 to 50 working days depending on the drive type and the configuration.
Packing and shipment
Export non-fumigation wood box is the published packing for every model reviewed, and packing method is part of the commercial lines worth confirming in writing.
Site work and installation
Opening, frame fixing, electrical connection and commissioning. Who performs each step is a project decision, not a catalogue one.
On quantity, every model reviewed publishes a minimum order quantity of one set, which is what makes single-house projects possible. On supply, published monthly capacity ranges from 5 to 20 sets depending on the line. On payment, the published terms are T/T or L/C at sight. Read those three lines together with the price band and you have the commercial half of the model sheet: what one unit costs as a range, how long it takes, how it is paid for, and how it is packed.
15Six misreadings that change the answer
The same six mistakes appear in most model comparisons we see. Each one has a specific line on the sheet that resolves it, which is why the fix is to reread the sheet rather than to ask for another quote.
Misreading
“Both sheets say 400 kg, so the machines are equivalent.”
Reading
Load is one line of twelve. Two machines at the same load can differ in drive, travel limit, speed, stops, cabin clear size and door opening. Compare the group, not the number.
Misreading
“The family travels 15 m, so this model travels 15 m.”
Reading
Family limits are ceilings, not specifications. Find the row for the model and configuration being quoted, and check it against your own floor-to-floor total.
Misreading
“No pit required means no building work.”
Reading
No pit means the machine does not need a recess below the lowest landing. It still needs a level base, fixings, a floor opening at each landing it serves, and power.
Misreading
“Cabin size is the space the lift occupies.”
Reading
Cabin size is the internal car. Structure, rails, door frames and access clearance sit outside it, and self-supporting units occupy their own base area in the room.
Misreading
“The sheet lists a certification logo, so the model is certified.”
Reading
Read the row, not the badge: which standard, held by whom, covering what scope. Where a model page lists no certification row, treat the claim as absent until confirmed in writing.
Misreading
“Faster speed and longer travel are simply better.”
Reading
In this model set the longest-travel sheet is also the slowest: screw drive publishes 0.15 m/s, hydraulic 0.25 m/s and gearless traction 0.4–1.0 m/s. Speed and travel belong to different drive choices, and neither is a quality ranking.
16Four scenarios, and the family each one asks about
The scenarios below cover most of the residential enquiries that reach a home elevator model sheet. Use them as a second check on the reverse-lookup above: if the family named in the scenario is not the family you were quoted, one of you is reading a different sheet.
Retrofit into an occupied house
Two or three landings, no pit, tight landings and a finished interior that cannot be rebuilt. Look for published no-pit arrangements, narrow door options from 500 mm, and a footprint that can stand on the existing floor structure. Compact screw and no-pit hydraulic models are the two families that answer this brief in the reviewed set.
New build with a designed shaft
Three to five landings, a shaft dimensioned on the drawings, three-phase supply available. This is where gearless traction at 0.4–1.0 m/s sits, and where cabin finish and landing door alignment become the main design decisions rather than clearance.
Mixed household use with goods
Passengers plus luggage, tools or deliveries, in a villa or a live-work building. Screw models published from 500 kg to 5 tonnes on 2–5 stops cover this brief; the decisive lines become rated load, car floor size and the door opening, not speed.
Single-person or capsule installation
A single occupant, a small plan footprint, and a preference for a visually light car. Capsule and personal models publish up to 400 kg at 0.25 m/s; check the clear door opening against the wheelchair or walker that has to pass, because at this size the doorway, not the load, is the constraint.
None of the four scenarios is decided by brand or by price band. Each one is decided by two or three lines on the sheet, and those lines are the same across suppliers — which is exactly why a comparison built on them survives a change of quote. When a supplier answers a scenario question with a product name instead of a figure, ask again for the figure.
17Questions that come up when the sheet is on the table
These are the questions model sheets raise most often during a comparison, with the answer each line of the sheet gives. They are the same questions a supplier should be able to answer in writing before an order is confirmed.
What do the published load bands actually mean for a wheelchair user?
Load tells you what the machine can carry; it does not tell you what fits through the door. Read rated load together with cabin clear size and clear door opening. A compact unit published at 400 kg with a narrow car may still not accept a wheelchair plus an attendant, while a larger car in the same load band will.
Why do the published lead times differ between 20 and 50 working days?
In the model set reviewed, lead time is published per model rather than per brand: 20 working days on a compact pitless unit, 40 on several compact models, 45 on a villa hydraulic and a high-capacity screw unit, and 50 on a personal screw model. The number also depends on what it counts from — normally the confirmed drawing and the deposit, not the enquiry.
Is a no-pit model the same as a shaftless model?
They describe different things. No pit means no recess below the lowest landing. Shaftless means the unit is designed to stand without a conventional enclosed shaft, using its own rails or frame. A model can be one, the other, or both, and the sheet should say which — along with the base area the structure needs.
Can I change the travel height after ordering?
Travel is one of the lines fixed by the structure and the drive, and it is normally confirmed in the drawing stage rather than after production starts. If the finished floor levels are not settled when you order, say so, and agree how a later change will be handled before the deposit is paid.
What does the power line have to state to be useful?
Voltage, phase and frequency at minimum, ideally with current draw or the recommended circuit rating. In this model set, compact units publish 220 V 50 Hz single-phase supply and larger models move to three-phase. A site that can only offer single-phase should be flagged before the model is selected, not after.
How do I compare two suppliers whose cabins are listed differently?
Ask both for the same five numbers in millimetres: cabin width, cabin depth, cabin height, clear door opening width, and clear door opening height. Then compare footprints. Unit conversion is a solved problem; missing dimensions are not.
What if the sheet contradicts itself?
This happens, and it is not a reason to abandon the supplier — it is a reason to stop reading and start asking. Pick the contradiction, quote both lines in an email, and ask for written confirmation of which applies to your order. A specification confirmed in writing is worth more than a specification that looks complete.
Which line should decide the purchase?
For most residential projects it is the building line, not the machine line: pit, headroom, footprint, door opening and power. Choose the family the building can accept, then compare models inside that family on load, travel, speed and finish.
How do I tell whether two sheets use the same definition of travel height?
Ask each supplier to confirm three things in writing: whether travel is measured finished floor to finished floor, whether the figure includes the top landing, and whether it is the model limit or the value for your specific configuration. Where the answers differ, the two travel figures are not comparable, however similar they look on the page.
18What to do with this, in order
Model sheets are meant to be worked through, not admired. The sequence below turns the checklist above into a short, repeatable procedure for one project — and it produces a written record that survives a change of supplier, contractor or buyer.
If you are working through a live project, the fastest next step is to send the ten building facts with the two or three model families the reverse lookup produced. That is enough for a supplier to answer with a specific configuration — cabin size, door arrangement, pit and headroom treatment, power supply, and the commercial lines — instead of a generic quotation you will have to rework.
Send the ten building facts, get a model answer
Tell us the landings, the floor-to-floor heights, the footprint you can spare, the pit and headroom conditions, the door openings and the supply you have. We will come back with the model families that fit, the cabin and door arrangement inside them, and the commercial lines that apply to your destination.
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