WHAT IS SUITABLE MAINTENANCE AND WHY IS MY CHAIN HOIST SO NOISY NOW?

Chain Hoists serve as a really useful lifting tool on a day to day basis for riggers. Lifting loads up to 50,000kg, that's a huge amount of pressure for such a machine, however, a chain hoist is built and tested to take the pressure of such activities. If maintained correctly and used within its capacities a well build industrial hoist should last for a very long time, we have seen GIS hoists in particular at almost 50 years old, still in action and running sound!

What is suitable maintenance?

Suitable maintenance programmes meet the requirement of the hoist and by this we mean based upon the usage of the hoist; if the hoist is used infrequently then you may find you only need to run a maintenance every 6-12 months, if the usage is more intense then maintenance might even need to be run every month. This would include essential checks to the hoists body, electrical panel, load chain and other vital components along with lubricating the load chain or wire rope. This is to be performed by a professional hoist maintenance engineer, when we do this we provide a report of inspection to suit. This is not forgetting about the daily checks that should be made by the operator, including if necessary lubricating of the load bearing moving components.

Why is my chain hoist so noisy now?

So, you purchased a powered or manual chain hoist and have been using it for a little while and it's become noisy when under operation. This noise can be concerning and you should stop lifting operations as soon as possible and unload the hoist. There could be a few reasons as to what is making the noise, it could be the motor, but more commonly the load sprocket or chain guide. However, the most likely culprit if the sound is very recent is a dry load chain. Lubricating your load chain is essential to the longevity of your chain hoist, a quality chain hoist is expensive and you want to get the best from your investment, be sure to lubricate your load chain regularly especially if working outdoors. This should be done with a grease that can deal with high pressure and should be applied to the inside of the links where the chain connects. The best way to do this is to get a large bucket under the hoist and run out the load chain in to the bucket (or most of it) and this will make it easier to apply between the links.

We recommend you always ensure you are maintaining your hoist in the same sense that you wouldn't miss a service for your car. It's essential to ensure a long service life of any lifting equipment, feel free to contact a member of our friendly sales team for maintenance advice and servicing costs on any electric chain hoist.