Normally, electric forklifts are the most ideal choice for indoor use within manufacturing and warehousing applications for 2 key reasons: First off they produce zero emissions. This is an extremely vital factor to take into account for indoor work places. Among the IC or internal combustion units, just the propane-fueled models are able to be used indoors and these models still need really good ventilation. Units that run on diesel and gas can not be used inside under any circumstances.
Fuel cost is the other primary advantage of electric forklifts. These models have lower cost per hour as opposed to any of the other internal combustion or IC models. Amongst the main disadvantages to the electric forklifts is their higher initial cost. New electric forklifts can vary from 20 percent to 40 percent more than IC units which are rated the same.
Electric lift trucks however, provide numerous benefits such as quiet operations, that could be a huge plus for indoor settings. Additionally, no requirement for fuel storage mean no room has to be allotted for tanks of flammable and dangerous fuels. Since electric lift trucks have less components that move compared to internal combustion units, and they are normally used within cleaner settings and indoors, they tend to have a longer lifespan overall.
The electric forklifts biggest downside is the batteries downtime. The big and very heavy, lead acid batteries are quite similar to the ones now found in automobiles. These batteries are really strong and very big. Usually, batteries provide sufficient power for one regular 8-hour shift, and this means 5 or 6 hours of continuous utilization.
Charging a forklift battery would take approximately 8 hours. An additional 8 hours of cooling time is required before it could be utilized after the charging process is done. Due to this long method of slow charging speed and additional cooling time, if you need lift trucks for 2 or 3 shift operations, you must buy additional batteries so you could be charging the nest battery always. These additional batteries would add around $1000 to $2000 to the purchase price.
On the market today, there are some new fast charge electric forklifts. These fast charge batteries have changed the business of electric lift trucks. Their charging can be done during the course of coffee and lunch breaks, allowing them to return to work much sooner.