Usually, electric lift trucks are the most ideal alternative for indoor use in manufacturing and warehousing applications for 2 main reasons: First off they produce zero emissions. This is an extremely important factor to consider for indoor work places. Amongst the IC or internal combustion models, just the propane-fueled models can be utilized inside and these units still require extremely good ventilation. Units which run on diesel and gas can not be utilized inside under any circumstances.
The main benefit of electric forklifts is fuel costs. Compared to IC or internal combustion units, these have lower costs per hour. Amongst the main disadvantages to utilizing the electric forklifts is their higher initial expense. Brand new electric lift trucks can vary from 20 percent to 40% more compared to internal combustion units which are rated the same.
However, electric forklifts provide many advantages including quiet operation. This is a big plus for indoor applications. Moreover, no need for fuel storage mean no room has to be allotted for tanks of flammable and dangerous fuels. Since electric forklifts have less moving components as opposed to IC units, and they are normally utilized indoors and within cleaner environments, they tend to have a longer overall lifespan.
The electric lift trucks biggest disadvantage is the batteries downtime. The big and really heavy, lead acid batteries are somewhat like the ones now found in cars. These batteries are really strong and extremely big. Usually, batteries offer sufficient power for one regular 8-hour shift, and this translates into 5 or 6 hours of continuous utilization.
Charging a forklift battery would take approximately 8 hours. An extra 8 hours of cooling time is required before it can be utilized after the charging process is done. Due to this long method of slow charging speed and additional cooling time, if you require forklifts for 2 or 3 shift operations, you should purchase extra batteries so you could always be charging the next battery. These additional batteries would add about $1000 to $2000 to purchase.
There are several new fast charge electric lift trucks available on the market. These specialized batteries have revolutionized the electric lift truck industry. Their charging could be done during the course of coffee and lunch breaks, enabling them to get back to work a lot sooner.