What does a lift alarm actually have to do?
Summon help, and get an answer. BS EN 81-28 is the standard covering remote alarm systems on passenger and goods passenger lifts, and the principle behind it is two-way voice communication between the car and somebody who can actually respond — not a bell in a plant room, and not a phone that rings out. A trapped passenger needs to speak to a person and be told that help is coming.
Why do working alarms stop working?
Because the line changed underneath them. Most lift autodiallers were installed on analogue telephone lines, and the UK's move away from the traditional PSTN to digital voice means those lines are being withdrawn. A dialler that worked for fifteen years can stop connecting without any visible sign in the lift car. It is one of the commonest causes of a dead alarm, and it is silent — nothing lights up to tell you.
Does the alarm have to work in a power cut?
Yes, and this is the point of having battery back-up on the alarm circuit. A lift stopping is often the result of a power failure, so an alarm that depends on mains power is at its least useful precisely when it is most needed. Back-up batteries have a service life and degrade quietly, which makes them another item worth testing rather than assuming.
What does an examiner check on the alarm?
That it operates from inside the car, that two-way speech works in both directions, that the call reaches somebody who answers, and that the system still functions on back-up power. Pressing the button and hearing a tone proves very little. The test that matters is whether a person responds and knows which lift in which building they are speaking to.
Who should release a trapped passenger?
Someone trained to do it, working to a written release procedure. Untrained release attempts are how entrapments become injuries — doors forced, cars moving unexpectedly, people stepping into a shaft because the car was not level with the floor. If your arrangement is that whoever is on site has a go, you do not have a release procedure, you have a hazard.
Is the alarm covered by the thorough examination?
The alarm is a safety device on the lift and a competent person will check it as part of the examination. What a thorough examination cannot do is prove the call is answered reliably every day of the year — that depends on a monitoring contract and on someone testing it between visits. The examination tells you it worked on the day; a routine test regime tells you it works.
What about passengers who cannot hear or speak?
An alarm that relies solely on a voice call excludes some of the people most likely to need it. Visual confirmation that the call has been received and answered, and induction-loop provision, exist for that reason. Under the Equality Act an organisation serving the public has to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people, so an emergency system only usable by a hearing passenger is a reasonable-adjustment question as well as a safety one.
Sources & Further Reading
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