Manual Chain Hoist vs Lever Hoist: Which Manual Lifting Tool Should You Use?

Introduction: Choosing the Right Manual Hoist

– Manual hoists and pullers are important lifting and rigging tools that are versatile and can help you accomplish many different tasks. So, how do you know which is the correct purchase for your needs, or how do you know when to use one or the other?

– My name’s Henry Brozyna. I am the Industrial Product Trainer for Columbus McKinnon. We’re here today to talk about some of the differences between a manual chain fall, in this case, the LHH-NC, and, of course, the lever tool that I have hanging here, which is an LSB-NC.

What Is a Hand Chain Hoist (Chain Fall)?

A chain hoist, or some people call them chain falls, are covered under B30.16. It’s a device that has gears in it that gives the operator a mechanical advantage to be able to lift very, very large loads, 10 tons and even upwards of 20 tons and higher with one individual all by hand.

What Is a Lever Hoist (Come Along)?

A lever hoist, also in the industry known as a come along or a puller, they’re covered under ASME B30.21. It does the same thing. It gives you a mechanical advantage. The mechanical advantage is in the lever itself. The longer the lever, the more leverage you get, you can move larger loads.

Smaller lever tools like the one I have here, this one incorporates a lever as well as gears. So it has two mechanical advantages that we’re working with, a lever and gears.

Chain Hoist vs Lever Hoist: Key Differences

The differences between the chain fall and the lever tool is how they operate. All right? This one has hand chain that comes off of it where the operator needs to pull the hand chain, and either the hook will either go up or it’ll come down.

On the lever tool, we actually need to operate the lever itself, and in this case, there’s a smaller lever up here near the knob where we can go from, in this case, it’s in the up direction. We can go into neutral, which basically means the chain is in neutral, and I can literally pull on it like so. All right? And then of course we can put it in the other direction, which means now it’ll go in the down direction, but I need to operate the handle in order to do that.

Best Use Cases for Chain Hoists

Chain hoists are used in a multitude of areas. Anywhere you can use an electric hoist, you can use a chain fall. The difference here is one, I don’t need any power for this. If you are looking to pick up a load and then position it just in such a particular spot, in other words, you want some precise positioning, a chain fall comes in handy simply because how fast this chain fall goes is how fast can I pull on this hand chain. A powered unit, once you hit the button, it’s operating at a certain speed. This guy here, I can control the speed.

Best Use Cases for Lever Hoists

Lever tools are known as come-alongs or even pullers. They are built to a hoist standard. So they are technically a hoist. They are a lifting device. This lever tool here can be used horizontally, could be used vertically.

This guy here, the chain fall itself, primarily it’s being used vertically, but you could use it horizontally. Dealing with a hand chain in the horizontal position is a challenge, I’ll put it that way, all right? Whereas on the lever tool, we don’t have a hand chain hanging free. We just have that lever. So primarily in the horizontal position, I would gravitate towards a lever tool. If you’re just trying to pull the load, well then obviously a lever tool would be the way to go.

How To Choose: Chain Fall vs. Come Along

If you’re going to lift something, you can go with either one. If you’ve got plenty of room, nothing’s obstructing you, a chain fall would probably be a good way to go.

If you are in an area where it’s tight quarters, maybe you don’t have a whole lot of room, a lever tool might be the way you want to go. These are good for tight quarters. If you’re working at different types of angles, lever tools are good for that as well.

You know, are you going to mount it to a trolley or some other anchor point in the ceiling or on a beam? If you have, say, a 10-foot ceiling, that means my lever’s up there too; you’re going to go with a chain fall like this because the lever will be out of your reach. Obviously, unless I’m a giant, that’s going to be a little bit difficult.

As far as application goes, if you have plenty of headroom space and you plan on maybe leaving the hoist there for a while because maybe it’s some kind of a job site and you’re going to be there for a week, two weeks, three weeks, whatever it may be, but the important part is you got headroom, a chain fall like this would work out perfectly.

If you plan on moving the unit around from point to point, doing various loads from different locations, and you do have very limited headroom space, then I would suggest going more with a lever tool.

One of the, I’ll say, disadvantages of a lever tool is that they are traditionally not very fast. Chain falls, manual chain hoists, as fast as you can move your hands, that’s how fast the load’s going to go up with the hand chain. With the lever tool, you’ll see that this one, I’m going in the down direction. You can see it’s not going down very, very quickly, all right? It’s going to take its sweet old time.

Where to Buy Manual Hoists + Get Expert Help

So either of these hoists are available through our distributors like Mazzella. Mazzella’s got access to all of these, so if you have any questions, talk to their sales personnel.

Whenever you’re trying to decide whether to go with a chain fall or a lever tool, manual products in general, talk to someone, talk to a sales individual. They’re there, they have the knowledge, they can help you decide which product to go with because they’re going to know the questions to ask. We want to get the customer what they actually need, and that’ll go a long way to having a much happier and safer work environment and a much happier customer.

– Choosing the correct tool for the job is important not only to your safety but the safety of those around you. We understand that it’s not always easy to determine which is the best piece of equipment for your needs. That’s why our experts at Mazzella are standing by to help talk you through all of your rigging needs.

We have a huge supply of hoists, whether you’re looking for chain falls, come alongs, or electric hoists, not to mention, we can help you with rigging, wire rope, overhead cranes, lifting devices, inspections, service, and training.

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