Generally, electric forklifts are the most ideal alternative for indoor use within manufacturing and warehousing applications for 2 main reasons: First off they create zero emissions. This is a very important factor to take into account for indoor work places. Amongst the IC or internal combustion units, just the propane-fueled units are able to be utilized indoors and these units still need extremely good ventilation. Models that run on diesel and gas are not able to be used indoors under any circumstances.
The primary advantage of electric lift trucks is fuel costs. As opposed to IC or internal combustion models, these have lower expenses per hour. Among the main disadvantages to the electric forklifts is their higher initial cost. New electric forklifts can range from 20 percent to 40 percent more compared to IC units that are rated the same.
On the other hand, electric lift trucks offer numerous benefits like quiet operation. This is a big plus for indoor operations. Furthermore, no requirement for fuel storage mean no room needs to be allotted for tanks of fuels that are flammable and dangerous. Since electric lift trucks have less moving parts than IC units, and they are usually utilized within cleaner environments and indoors, they tend to have a longer lifespan overall.
The battery downtime is the biggest downside of an electric lift truck. These units function with heavy, big, lead-acid batteries, similar to the ones found inside your car. These batteries are really large and really strong. Typically, batteries provide sufficient power for one regular 8-hour shift, and this translates into 5 or 6 hours of nonstop utilization.
Originally, charging a forklift battery takes approximately 8 hours. After the charging process is done, an extra 8 hours of cooling time is required before it can be utilized. Because of this long process of slow charging speed and extra cooling time, if you require forklifts for 2 or 3 shift operations, you would need to buy extra batteries so you could be charging the nest battery always. These extra batteries would add roughly $1000 to $2000 to buy.
On the market nowadays, there are some new fast charge electric forklifts. These fast charge batteries have changed the business of electric lift trucks. Their charging could be completed during the course of coffee and lunch breaks, allowing them to get back to work a lot sooner.