That’s according to an online survey carried out on LinkedIn by Hoist Magazine in partnership with LGH, a UK-based lifting equipment rental company, to gauge readers’ opinions on the future of the manual chain hoist.

The survey set out to find if there is a place for this relatively unchanged product in a constantly evolving market, or whether the time is near for it to ‘hang up’ its hat.

When asked whether they still expected to be still using manual chain hoists across a range of time periods, 16% said that they expected they would be within the next five years, around one in five (19%) extended to that to a decade, 7% said they would be operating a manual chain hoist within the next 20 years, while the majority, 55%, believed they would still be operating them in over 20 years’ time. A small percentage used an alternative to a manual chain hoist.

Respondents to the survey made a number of comments, including the following:

  • "There will always be a need for hand chain blocks [manual chain hoists]… blocks have become a throw-away item because they are cheap compared to labour and spares."
  • "There is always going to be the need for manual chain hoists, especially for lifting and pulling in confined spaces."
  • "Manual chain hoists give you a direct feel of how much strain is on the hoist. Experienced users can feel how the lift is going, if the lift is still fixed down or trapped. Hydraulic/electric/pneumatic hoists just pull and pull and overloads just make everything complicated and heavy to rig."
  • "Sites may not have power. Also, manual hoists can be used everywhere when required and are practical and don’t break down. "
  • "Areas without power will need them."
  • "There will always be a need for manual hoisting as a relatively cheap alternative to more expensive means of lifting."
  • "Some jobs will just always need them."

The views back up the opinions expressed by industry experts in a Hoist article that looks at the future of manual chain hoists.

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