The electric lift truck is normally the best option for indoor use within manufacturing and warehousing environments. This is mainly because of 2 reasons with the first being that they produce zero emissions. This is an extremely essential factor to take into consideration for indoor work places. Amongst the Internal Combustion or IC units, just the propane-fueled units are able to be used inside and these models still need extremely good ventilation. Models that work on diesel and gas are not able to be used indoors under any circumstances.
The primary benefit of electric lift trucks is fuel expenses. Compared to IC or internal combustion models, these have lower costs per hour. One of the main disadvantages to the electric forklifts is their higher initial cost. New electric forklifts could range from 20 percent to 40% more compared to internal combustion units that are rated the same.
Electric forklifts on the other hand, provide numerous benefits such as quiet operations, which can be a huge plus for indoor settings. In addition, no need for fuel storage mean no room has to be allotted for tanks of flammable and dangerous fuels. As electric lift trucks have less components that move compared to IC units, and they are usually utilized in cleaner environments and inside, they tend to have a longer lifespan overall.
The electric lift trucks biggest downside is the batteries downtime. The big and very heavy, lead acid batteries are quite similar to those now found inside cars. These batteries are very strong and very big. Normally, batteries provide an adequate amount of power for one standard 8-hour shift, and this translates into 5 or 6 hours of nonstop use.
Charging a forklift battery will take roughly 8 hours. An additional 8 hours of cooling time is needed before it can be utilized after the charging process is done. Because of this long method of slow charging speed and extra cooling time, if you need lift trucks for 2 or 3 shift operations, you must buy additional batteries so you could always be charging the next battery. These additional batteries will add roughly $1000 to $2000 to buy.
There are some new fast charge electric lift trucks on the market. These specialized batteries have revolutionized the electric lift truck industry. Their charging can be completed in the course of coffee and lunch breaks, allowing them to get back to work a lot sooner.