Home Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Recommendations for LULAs

Does anyone have any experiance with a good LULA product avalible in the US other than Concord/Savaria they can reccomend?

You can try Canton Elevator, we used their products a lot. A very reliable source for anything hydraulic.

I have installed and serviced Concord (pre Savaria) LULAs, they're a good unit. But, I agree if looking elsewhere Canton is tried and true.

You also have Schumacher elevator to use. Federal elevator and garavento is an option also, they are both in canada.

On a very specialized lu/la application we put together our own package using EECO for the base, columbia for the cab and doors, gal door operator, ptl for call stations, and smartrise for the controller.

That was a little bit of a pain.

If you plan on ever needing technical support or parts, Savaria/Concord would be the way to go over Garaventa.

ABE,
I've bought units and worked with Federal for several years. I always start with them.

Rac66, I've never had your luck with Saveria. But I will say Jeremy at Concord is great! As far as Garaventa, they bought up a small company who has a great guy I always call when in need.

Solidstate, I'm with you! I like to put it together from time to time. I've reach out to MEI on an old frieght we are changing over to a passenger and raising up a floor for roof top dinning. I recommend adding them to your short list.

I recommend first Savaria and Federal, Savaria tech support is better and easy.

Just my two sense but I have worked on and installed just about every LU/LA elevator available in the US and by far the easiest to install and best running is the one manufactured by Custom Elevator out of Pennsylvania. They use Columbia doors and a GAL operator. Now if you have really good mechanics and some patience and want to save about 8 or 9 grand then look into Elevator Concepts out of Detroit they have been recently acquired by Wurtec and may be operating under Wurtec now. They also use the same doors and operator both use a Blain ev100 valve as well. Personally I would spend the extra money for Customs package it really is top notch.

We ended up with one of custom elevators LULA. It's a two stop. Every couple months it trips the governor. Right as it reaches high speed (35fpm). It to has a blain valve. I've logged countless hours trying to re-create this condition. I can't find any reasonable explanation for this. The only common factor each time this has happened is "only one person in the car". Now it has been several months since it has happened.

But while I was in the thick of trying to resolve this issue! I reached out to Custom Elevator several times. They offered no support. This lift is out of warranty. And it appears they would rather wash the hands of this unit.

Here is my two cents.
I expect a manufacturer to support their product before during and after the warrenty period. However after the warrenty period, I don't expect it to be free! It is my opinion that they have failed this customer. And I know this customer was willing to pay them for their support. I was there in the room while the customer was on the phone...

Evilshedd,
What issues did you have with the elevator concepts package? And what advantages would you say come with the Custom elevator packages in comparison?

Issues with the Elevator Concepts package were as follows, there is no adjustment on their safeties and if your rails are not perfect u get nuisance trips, their cab seems to be let's say a bit flimsy and they have adopted a residential controller to work for this equiptment. Not to say it doesn't work but here in Georgia when they started requiring fire service phase 1 it really was a pain to add these modules to get the elevator to do what it is supposed to. Now I think they have that worked out. I don't care for the selector they have designed because of magnet placement. Some of the magnets are the same polarity facing out and are set close to one another and are a bit of a pain to set once you got Em and glue them down your ok.Overall it takes a little more time and a bit of finesse let's say to get this package in. Customs package all just seems a bit better engineered and beefier for a lack of a better term and everything they send just seems to go well together and with each other. There were a few times with EC package I found myself saying what the hell is this? But once I did the first one and kinda found some easier ways of doing things and was familiar with them I'd still use them on a job that was real tight money wise but we all have our preferences right?

I'm really surprised Custom Elevator acted that way they are mostly made up of the sons and family members that had originally founded Cemco and I have been using there product for over 10 years and they have always stuck by their product.