Question for the electricians on here

[SlimSavage]

A buddy has a car lift with a rather old and annoying switch that controls it. I've never worked on a lift before. He's wanting some kind of toggle switch instead of the button that must be held. I've warned him that it could cause the lift to keep raising with that type of switch but he is OK with it.

So what are my options and what do I need? Double pole double throw? Standard 120v toggle? Not sure what to do. Thanks.

 

[user 4883]

Well, it's push button for a reason. So you'll need an obscene amount of liability insurance along with a toggle switch.
If you not sure what to do, then I'd do nothing. Your talking about raising several tons in the air to stand under.
However, you'll need to see what/how it is operating now and replace the button's function with a toggle of like functionality. Only you can tell us how it is wired up unless you have pics, schematics, make/model, etc.....

 

[bud16415]

I would not recommend any kind of latching open/close type of switching based around safety as mentioned above. I have seen guys defeat momentary contact switches a million different ways over the year where they were the function was safety and the reason being inpatients. In industry I used to spec dual buttons a lot on machinery with a time factor built in so each button had to be pushed within a very close time of the other. We called it an anti tie down circuit.

If the switch now is carrying a high voltage high current situation like directly controlling a pump I would suggest you do it with a low voltage relay setup even. Old stuff wasn’t built that way but new codes with OSHA like to see such things.

 

[slownsteady]

If you are going to go so far as replacing the safety switch, go a little further and hook up a motion sensor (or something) to stop the damn thing.