Manual Worktop Lifts: Enhancing Accessibility in your Adapted Kitchen
A manual worktop lift is a rise and fall worktop that must be adjusted by hand. It is a cost-effective solution for a nursing home, hospital or single-occupancy home, where the height will only need to be adjusted occasionally.
There are two types of manual worktop lift:
- Granberg Manulift 6350HA
- Granberg Manulift 6380HA/LA
HA: The top compartment frame has a depth of 103mm - For 120mm depth shallow bowl kitchen sinks and cooking hobs.
LA: The top compartment frame has a depth of 40mm - For cooking hobs and worktops.
Let’s explore the differences between the them and which one would suit your needs and work best for you.
Granberg Manulift 6350HA
The height of the Manulift 6350 is adjusted using a winding handle that can be located on the left or right hand side of the worktop lift. It offers 300mm of stepless height adjustment, from 700-1000 cm above the floor (excl. top board). The handle can be folded under the worktop when not in use, to ensure it does not impede movement during food preparation.
The length of the worktop lift can be made to your specified width, from 590 to 2400mm.
If you wish to, you can conceal service installations behind and under the worktop, such as brackets, water or sewers with the optional telescopic hose covers or cover panels. This hides them, giving your kitchen a clean finish. The cover panels are especially relevant when installing a sink, not only to hide the waste and flexible water hoses, but also to help to prevent a wheeled user’s foot plates getting entangled and, at worst, flooding the kitchen. An extra advantage of cover panels is that they allow you to fully customise your kitchen, as a cover panel fitting kit can be supplied and the installer can supply colour matching panels, so that you can choose what will suit your kitchen best.
To adjust the height of the worktop you will need someone with good upper-body strength to crank the handle. This is a disadvantage of this model – however, if you only plan to move it occasionally, then it may not be an issue.
The Manulift 6350 must be wall-mounted. Therefore, you must ensure that the wall you wish to fix your rise and fall worktop to is strong enough. A brick wall is ideal – however, if you only have a stud wall, a support can be added between the studs to improve the integrity of the wall.
Purchase Granberg Manulift 6350HA
Granberg Manulift 6380HA/LA
The Manulift 6380HA/LA differs from the Manulift 6350HA because rather than having a winding handle, the 6380HA/LA utilises a peg system within the legs and the height is still adjustable by 300mm but at 25mm intervals. This means that if you choose to purchase cover panels they will have to be removed before height adjustment, as they block access to the peg system in the legs.
The Manulift 6380 requires two non-disabled people to raise and lower the worktop; however, there is a built-in gas spring to aid the height adjustment.
Similarly to the 6350 above, the 6380 can only be wall-mounted, so this must be taken into consideration when designing your kitchen.
