For those who are mobility challenged, using the stairs can be a difficult task. When the chore of climbing the stairs is coupled with carrying the laundry or groceries, it often becomes impossible. This is one of the reasons that people turn to paid house cleaners, but if you install a dumbwaiter, you can safely move items throughout your home, without having to hire someone.



A dumbwaiter is a type of elevator, but, at least in the home, it is a good deal smaller than the passenger elevator found in an office building. Instead, a residential dumbwaiter is built so that it can be installed into a home without too much effort or home construction.

Of course there are many larger lifts available and commercially, a dumbwaiter can support over a thousand pounds, but typically for the home they support around a hundred pounds and take up around 4 square feet of space. This space is called a shaft and must run vertically throughout the home or building. The car is the part of the dumbwaiter that carries the items through the shaft

The dumbwaiter is something that has been used for many years in homes and businesses. Beginning towards the end of the nineteenth century, electric dumbwaiters began to become popular, with many being installed into New York Businesses and steam ships. For the home though, they were often too expensive, so the manual dumbwaiter remained the most popular home lifting aid well into the twentieth century.

In many cases a manual dumbwaiter would simply consist of a rope and pulley operation. The rope would be attached to some sort of wooden box or tray and the pulley would be attached at the top of the shaft. When the homeowner wanted to use the dumbwaiter, they could simply raise or lower it by pulling on the rope. A more efficient manual dumbwaiter was created during the eighteen hundreds that allowed the user to let go of the rope, without fear of dropping the dumbwaiter, but without some sort of safety stop, the dumbwaiter rope would have to be tied in place when not in use.

As the electric dumbwaiter became more affordable, its popularity grew, until today, most homeowners opt to go with an electric lift. Of course it is still possible to make your own manual dumbwaiter and there is a kit available, but usually the convenience and functionality of an electric lifting dumbwaiter makes it the preferred choice.

The electric dumbwaiter is able to lift more than a manual lift could and also allows items to be effortlessly sent up several stories, without the owner even breaking a sweat. Call buttons are installed on each floor where the dumbwaiter stops and these call buttons can be used to send the dumbwaiter car throughout the home or call it when it is not present.

For added convenience, most electric dumbwaiters can be configured to open on different sides. This means on the ground floor, the dumbwaiter might open on one side, while upstairs it opens on the opposite side.

The dumbwaiter is a tried and true lifting aid that has a rich history in our culture.