Generally, electric forklifts are the best option for indoor use in warehouses and manufacturing applications for 2 main reasons: First off they produce zero emissions. This is an extremely essential factor to consider for indoor work places. Among the Internal Combustion or IC units, only the propane-fueled models could be used inside and these models still need extremely good ventilation. Models that run on gas and diesel are not able to be used indoors under any circumstances.
The primary benefit of electric forklifts is fuel costs. As opposed to internal combustion or IC models, these have lower expenses per hour. Among the main drawbacks to the electric forklifts is their higher initial cost. Brand new electric forklifts can range from 20% to 40% more compared to IC units that are rated the same.
Electric lift trucks on the other hand, provide numerous benefits like quiet operations, which could be a huge plus for indoor settings. Moreover, no need for fuel storage mean no room has to be allotted for tanks of dangerous and flammable fuels. As electric lift trucks have less moving components than IC units, and they are usually utilized inside and within cleaner environments, they tend to have a longer overall lifespan.
The battery downtime is the biggest disadvantage of an electric lift truck. These units function with heavy, large, lead-acid batteries, like the ones found in your car. These batteries are really big and really strong. Typically, batteries offer enough power for one regular 8-hour shift, and this means 5 or 6 hours of continuous utilization.
Charging a lift truck battery would take roughly 8 hours. An extra 8 hours of cooling time is required before it can be utilized after the charging process is done. 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 always be charging the next battery. These additional batteries would add about $1000 to $2000 to buy.
On the market these days, there are some new fast charge electric forklifts. These fast charge batteries have revolutionized the business of electric lift trucks. Their charging could be done during the course of lunch and coffee breaks, enabling them to return to work a lot sooner.