I am considering having a dumbwaitor installed in my mother's 3 story townhome, and need input about their cost, maintenance, feasibility, installation, etc. Are they something you would recommend or not? She suffers a lot when carrying too many things upstairs. Thank you Mary

-- Mary DeBella (mary_debella@comcast.net), July 06, 2004

Answers

why cant she do it in 2 loads......sorry will be serious....be cheaper to employ a person to do the fetching and carrying for her...or better still why can you help her out?

-- dayle (daylebrenda@iprimus.com.au), July 06, 2004.

Hi Mary, sounds like a good idea, DA MATOT in Chicago is a good start for a dumwaiter mfg but if you have room for a dw why dont you try and put a residence elevator in instead.There are many good models to install with features A-Z, Inclinator is a start, find a local distributor of residential elevators for a free estimate. Jim

-- Jim (elevator555@hotmail.com), July 07, 2004.

Hi Mary, I happen to have a Matot commercial dumbwaiter which I removed from a doctors office after 3 years of use. It has bi- parting entrance doors, bi-parting car doors, a removable shelf, drum machine, access panel, controller, complete wiring harness with duct, call/send stations and rail assemblies. It has a 200# capacity and uses 208V single phase. It was designed with an 11' 11-1/2" rise, but additional track and a larger drum with appropriate cable could be obtained from Matot. It only has two entrances, but I'm sure a third could be ordered, may be pricey. The nice thing about dumbwaiters over a home elevator is much less cost (especially used) and at some states do not require the cost of a state inspection, whereas an elevator requires inspection. The also take much less room because the drive unit is located below the lift, not in a room next to it. If this sounds like something you are interested in, send me an e- mail if you want more info.

-- roger cornn (rcornn@aol.com), August 12, 2004.