Last week, the Anglian Lifts installation team completed another Stiltz home lift installation, this time fitting a brand-new Stiltz Duo Classic into a particularly tight cupboard area within the customer’s home.
The available space was certainly limited, but installations like this demonstrate one of the major advantages of the Stiltz concept: a home lift does not necessarily require a large shaft, machine room or a significant amount of floor space.
After the necessary preparation works had been completed, our engineers installed and commissioned the new lift within a single day, leaving the customer with a compact and practical way of travelling between floors with minimal disruption to the property.
As you can see from the completed installation, the Duo Classic fits neatly into the existing cupboard area and makes excellent use of what would otherwise be relatively limited space.
Why Choose the Stiltz Duo Classic?
The Stiltz Duo Classic is the original Stiltz home lift and remains an extremely practical option for customers looking for a compact two-person through-floor lift.
Rather than travelling within a conventional enclosed lift shaft, the Duo Classic runs on Stiltz’s distinctive self-supporting twin vertical rails. These rails carry the load of the lift, meaning the system does not normally need to be fixed to a load-bearing wall.
That provides considerably more flexibility when deciding where the lift can be positioned.
Depending on the layout of the property, a Stiltz lift can potentially be installed in a lounge, hallway, bedroom, stairwell void or, as in this particular installation, within a cupboard area.
Stiltz states that its Duo range occupies approximately 0.55m² of floor area, making it one of the smallest domestic home lift solutions available in the UK. (Stiltz Lifts UK)
For properties where every centimetre matters, that compact footprint can make the difference between a lift installation being practical or not.
Stiltz Duo Classic Dimensions
One of the questions we are regularly asked is simply:
“How much room does a Stiltz Duo Classic need?”
The latest Stiltz UK literature gives the Duo Classic an overall width, including the rails, of approximately 1046mm. The external car depth is approximately 797mm, with an internal cabin area of approximately 792mm x 629mm and an entrance width of approximately 589mm. The maximum rated load is 170kg / 27 stone / 375lb, allowing the lift to carry up to two standing passengers. (Stiltz Lifts UK)
These dimensions are always subject to site survey and should not be used for construction purposes, but they give a good indication of just how compact the Duo Classic really is.
The lift can travel up to 4.5 metres between floors and has a maximum travel speed of approximately 15cm per second. Stiltz states that the Duo Classic can transport two people between floors in less than 30 seconds in a typical installation. (Stiltz Lifts UK)
A Very Different Installation Process
There is also an interesting installation advantage to choosing the Duo Classic rather than the newer Duo+.
Although both lifts use the same basic Stiltz philosophy, their construction and installation processes are slightly different.
With a Duo+, significant parts of the cabin assembly are brought to site in sections and assembled during the installation. This is an excellent modular system and makes it possible to transport the lift through normal doorways and into locations that would otherwise be extremely difficult to access.
The Duo Classic, however, can arrive with the main cabin section already substantially complete.
Where access through the property allows us to bring that assembled cabin to the installation position, this can remove a considerable amount of on-site assembly work.
That was particularly useful on this installation.
Once the lift position, aperture, rails and associated components were ready, our engineers could concentrate on positioning and completing the installation rather than spending additional time constructing the main cabin body.
This does come with one important condition: we need sufficient access to physically get the assembled Duo Classic cabin into the property and to its final installation position.
Every property is different.
Narrow external doors, tight hallways, sharp corners or restricted access can all influence the installation method. This is why a proper technical survey before installation is so important.
However, where access is suitable, the pre-assembled nature of the Duo Classic cabin can help us reduce the amount of installation time required on site.
Installed and Operational in One Day
For this particular project, the compact cupboard location presented its own challenges, but careful planning before installation meant everything came together extremely efficiently.
The lift was installed, set up, tested and commissioned within one working day.
Fast installation is one of the key advantages of the Stiltz system. Stiltz itself describes a standard Duo installation as typically taking a single day once the required building preparation and floor aperture have been completed. (Stiltz Lifts UK)
That means customers can often have a fully operational home lift without the prolonged construction project traditionally associated with installing a domestic lift.
No Hydraulics or Separate Machine Room
Another advantage of the Stiltz design is what isn’t required.
There is no hydraulic power pack and no conventional external machine room.
Instead, the Duo Classic uses a roped drum drive with a braked geared motor, with the compact drive system incorporated into the lift itself. The self-supporting rail arrangement also means that the lift is not dependent upon a conventional structural lift shaft. (Stiltz Lifts UK)
The electrical requirements are relatively modest too, with the UK Duo Classic specified for a 230V AC supply, making the system much simpler to integrate into a domestic property than many people initially imagine. (Stiltz Lifts UK)
Safety Built In
Despite its compact size, the Stiltz Duo Classic incorporates a substantial range of safety systems.
These include overload detection, out-of-balance monitoring, obstruction detection, an interlocked entrance, emergency stop controls, battery backup and a fall-arrest system. The lift also incorporates an upper light curtain above the half-height entrance door, preventing operation if an obstruction is detected within the protected area. (Stiltz Lifts UK)
Two wireless call-and-send remote controls are also supplied, allowing the lift to be called from another floor.
That can be useful not only for passengers but also for moving items such as laundry, shopping or luggage between floors.
Making Use of Space You Already Have
Perhaps the best feature of this particular installation isn’t the lift itself — it is where we managed to put it.
Giving up living-room or bedroom space for a home lift isn’t always desirable, particularly in smaller properties.
By using an existing cupboard area, we were able to incorporate the Duo Classic into the house while keeping its impact on the usable living space to an absolute minimum.
It is exactly the sort of installation where a detailed survey and an understanding of the different Stiltz models makes a difference.
Sometimes the obvious location isn’t necessarily the best one.
Stiltz Premier Partner – Installed and Supported by Anglian Lifts
As a Stiltz Premier Partner, Anglian Lifts can provide the complete package, from the initial survey and advice through to building works, installation, commissioning, servicing and ongoing technical support.
Importantly, our customers aren’t simply purchasing a lift.
They are purchasing a lift that will be installed and subsequently supported by experienced lift engineers.
Whether you are considering a brand-new Stiltz Duo Classic, Duo+, Duo ThruCar or the larger Trio range, we can survey your property and advise which model and location will work best.
And, as this latest installation demonstrates, even a cupboard that initially appears extremely tight may provide enough space for a fully functioning home lift.
Another Stiltz installation completed in a day. Another customer able to move between floors more easily.
Anglian Lifts – Doing it right.
