Lift & Escalator Maintenance Checklist
Free maintenance checklists for vertical transport — passenger lifts, goods lifts, platform lifts and escalators. Each includes preventive tasks, service frequencies, common faults and the safety and statutory notes that apply to lifting equipment.
A lift maintenance checklist covers car and landing door operation and the door protective devices, levelling and ride quality, machine room condition and lubrication, ropes or belts and their terminations, controller and drive status, the emergency alarm and communication link, and the condition of the pit and headroom. Choose the checklist for your specific installation below.
Other maintenance checklist categories
Maintenance and thorough examination are not the same thing
This is the distinction that causes the most trouble on lifts. Routine maintenance is the servicing your lift contractor carries out to keep the installation working — lubrication, adjustment, door tuning, replacing worn components. A thorough examination under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER) is a separate, independent inspection whose purpose is to detect defects that could cause danger, carried out by a competent person acting impartially. A maintenance visit is not a thorough examination, and a maintenance contract does not automatically include one.
Under LOLER, lifting equipment used to lift people must be thoroughly examined at least every 6 months, and equipment used only for goods at least every 12 months — or at intervals set out in an examination scheme drawn up by a competent person, which can differ from those defaults. In practice this means a passenger lift needs a thorough examination twice a year and a goods-only lift once a year unless a written scheme says otherwise. Reports of thorough examination must be kept, and defects identified as an existing or imminent danger have to be acted on and reported. PUWER 1998 also applies to lifts as work equipment.
Doors, levelling and entrapment
Most lift callouts and most passenger injuries involve the doors. Landing and car door operation, the interlocks that prevent the car moving with a door open, and the protective devices that stop the doors closing on someone are the highest-priority items on any lift checklist. Door detection edges and photocell curtains get knocked out of alignment by trolleys and deliveries, and a device that has failed safe-but-insensitive will still appear to work while no longer protecting anyone — so it needs testing, not just observing.
The emergency alarm and communication link deserves the same scrutiny. A trapped passenger needs to reach someone who can respond at any hour, which means the alarm must be audible where it will actually be heard and the autodialler or intercom must connect to a monitored destination — something worth testing on every visit, particularly after any telephone line or network change. Releasing a trapped passenger is a task for trained personnel following the manufacturer's procedure; an untrained release attempt is genuinely dangerous, and the procedure and any release keys should be documented and controlled rather than kept loose in a cupboard.
Escalators and platform lifts
Escalators and moving walks bring their own hazards — combs and comb plates, skirt clearances and brushes, handrail speed and entry guards, step and pallet condition, and the accessible emergency stop devices. Maintenance intervals come from the manufacturer's schedule and the equipment's duty; heavily used retail and transport escalators need considerably more frequent attention than a lightly loaded unit. BS EN 115 is the relevant safety standard family for escalators and moving walks, and work on them should follow the recognised code of practice for safe working on escalators, including securing the unit against inadvertent starting.
Platform lifts and stairlifts are frequently forgotten because they are used rarely and often serve accessibility rather than general circulation. That combination is precisely why they fail when needed: infrequent use hides faults, and the people who depend on them have the least ability to use an alternative. They are lifting equipment for lifting people, so the LOLER thorough examination duty applies to them as it does to a passenger lift. Always refer to the manufacturer's O&M manual, your written examination scheme and the site-specific risk assessment for the exact requirements on your building — the checklists below reflect the BS EN 81 series and LOLER practice as a practical starting point, not a substitute for either.
Frequently asked questions
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