Why six months rather than twelve?
Because it carries people. LOLER Regulation 9 puts passenger-carrying equipment on the six-monthly interval and goods-only plant on twelve. A goods lift in the same building is therefore on a different cycle from the passenger lift beside it, which is why buildings with both so often have one of them out of date.
Does my maintenance contract cover it?
Not unless it explicitly says so, and even then it is worth asking who carries it out. Maintenance keeps the lift running; a thorough examination is a statutory assessment of whether it is safe to remain in service, made by a competent person who should be sufficiently independent and impartial to reach an inconvenient conclusion. Many duty-holders discover the distinction only when asked for a report they have never been given.
What does the examiner check?
Suspension ropes or belts and their terminations; the traction sheave or, on a hydraulic lift, the ram, jack and pipework; the machine brake; the overspeed governor and the safety gear it operates; car and landing doors and their interlocks; the buffers at the pit; the controller's safety circuits; and car and counterweight guides. The governor and safety gear matter most — they are the system that stops the car if everything else fails.
What usually comes up on an older lift?
Door equipment, far more than anything else. Landing door locks, closers and gibs take more cycles than any other part of the installation, and most entrapment and shearing incidents involve doors. After that: rope wear at the terminations, brake lining and pin wear, and worn guide shoes showing as ride quality long before they show as a defect.
Is the emergency alarm part of the examination?
The examiner will check it operates and that two-way speech works. What that cannot prove is that the call will be answered at three in the morning in six months' time — that depends on a monitoring contract and on somebody testing it between visits. Alarms that fail silently when the phone line behind them changes are a common fault on otherwise well-kept lifts.
What should I be given afterwards?
A Report of Thorough Examination — not a certificate, whatever it gets called — identifying the lift, the date of this examination and the next due date, any defect with its severity and the timescale for putting it right, and the name of the competent person. If a defect is or could become a danger, you must be told straight away; where it involves an existing or imminent risk of serious personal injury, Regulation 10 also requires a copy of the report to go to the enforcing authority.
Sources & Further Reading
Independent inspection, same-day report with photos
We reply within one business hour, and the inspection is carried out by an engineer with hands-on experience of that kind of plant.