Generally, electric lift trucks are the best option for indoor use in manufacturing and warehousing applications for 2 key reasons: First off they produce zero emissions. This is an extremely important factor to take into account for indoor work places. Among the IC or internal combustion models, just the propane-fueled units are able to be used inside and these units still need extremely good ventilation. Gas and diesel powered models could not be utilized inside under any circumstances.
The primary benefit of electric lift trucks is fuel expenses. Compared to internal combustion or IC models, these have lower expenses per hour. Amongst the main drawbacks to the electric forklifts is their higher initial cost. Brand new electric forklifts could range from 20% to 40 percent more compared to IC units that are rated the same.
On the other hand, electric forklifts provide many benefits like quiet operation. This is a huge plus for indoor applications. Moreover, no fuel storage requirements mean no room has to be allotted for tanks of flammable and dangerous fuels. Since electric lift trucks have less moving parts as opposed to IC models, and they are normally utilized indoors and within cleaner settings, they tend to have a longer lifespan overall.
The battery downtime is the biggest disadvantage of an electric forklift. These units run with heavy, big, lead-acid batteries, similar to the ones found inside your automobile. These batteries are very powerful and very large. Usually, batteries provide an adequate amount of power for one standard 8-hour shift, and this means 5 or 6 hours of continuous utilization.
Charging a forklift battery will take about 8 hours. An additional 8 hours of cooling time is required before it could be used after the charging process is done. Because of this long method of extra cooling time and slow charging speed, if you need forklifts for 2 or 3 shift operations, you should buy extra batteries so you could always be charging the next battery. These extra batteries would add around $1000 to $2000 to the purchase price.
There are a few new fast charge electric forklifts available on the market. These specialized batteries have changed the electric lift truck industry. Their charging can be completed during the course of lunch and coffee breaks, enabling them to get back to work a lot faster.