Generally, electric lift trucks are the most ideal choice for indoor use within manufacturing and warehousing applications for 2 main reasons: First off they produce zero emissions. This is a really important factor to take into consideration for indoor work places. Amongst the Internal Combustion or IC models, only the propane-fueled models are able to be utilized indoors and these models still require really good ventilation. Units that work on gas and diesel are not able to be used indoors under any circumstances.
The primary advantage of electric forklifts is fuel expenses. Compared to internal combustion or IC units, these have lower expenses per hour. Amongst the main disadvantages to the electric forklifts is their higher initial cost. New electric forklifts could vary from 20% to 40% more than internal combustion models which are similarly rated.
Electric forklifts on the other hand, offer many advantages such as quiet operations, which can be a big plus for indoor environments. In addition, no need for fuel storage mean no room has to be allotted for tanks of fuels that are flammable and dangerous. As electric lift trucks have less moving parts as opposed to IC units, and they are typically used indoors and in cleaner settings, they tend to have a longer lifespan overall.
The electric lift trucks biggest disadvantage is the batteries downtime. The big and very heavy, lead acid batteries are quite like those now found inside cars. These batteries are really strong and really big. Usually, batteries provide sufficient power for one standard 8-hour shift, and this means 5 or 6 hours of nonstop use.
Initially, charging a forklift battery takes roughly 8 hours. After the charging process is done, an extra 8 hours of cooling time is needed before it could be utilized. Because of this long method of additional cooling time and slow charging speed, if you need forklifts for 2 or 3 shift operations, you would have to purchase additional batteries so you can always be charging the next battery. These extra batteries would add approximately $1000 to $2000 to the acquisition price.
There are some new fast charge electric forklifts available on the market. These specialized batteries have revolutionized the electric forklift business. Their charging could be done in the course of lunch and coffee breaks, allowing them to get back to work much sooner.