Have you ever needed to move dishes, laundry, books or other heavy items up one or more flights of stairs? It can be a major inconvenience, and it can even be dangerous. That’s why so many people around the country are installing dumbwaiters.

Dumbwaiters are becoming much more common, and they’re making a lot of normal, everyday tasks easier.

But you might be asking, “What’s a dumbwaiter?” And, “Is a dumbwaiter right for my home?”

Here’s everything you need to know about dumbwaiters.

What’s a dumbwaiter?

First of all, what is a dumbwaiter? It’s a funny word but an incredibly practical tool for virtually any multistory home or business.

Put simply, a dumbwaiter is a small framed platform that carries items up and down, between the floors of buildings. Essentially, it’s a small freight elevator.

With a dumbwaiter installed, you can easily put things inside it — like a cupboard, essentially — and with just a push of a button, the things you’ve loaded into the dumbwaiter are smoothly transported up or down a shaft. When it stops on the next level, the door opens and its contents are removed before sending the dumbwaiter back to the previous floor.

What can you do with a dumbwaiter?

If you’ve ever seen a dumbwaiter before, it was probably in a restaurant or a library.

Restaurants use dumbwaiters to transfer heavy plates and other items from one level to another, usually to and from the dishwasher. In major libraries, dumbwaiters are extremely helpful for moving books from circulation desks to the stacks for reshelving.

In both situations — restaurants and libraries — dumbwaiters make difficult, laborious work simple, and they help employees avoid injuries.

Dumbwaiters also have uses in residential settings, too! Much like they work in businesses, residential dumbwaiters help people complete regular tasks that would normally require them to move heavy items up and down the stairs. In residences, dumbwaiters are often used as an upscale laundry chute, a grocery delivery service from the garage or a kitchen aide for delivering prepared food.

How do I install a dumbwaiter?

Dumbwaiters are a lot like residential elevators, but they’re much less complicated and take much less time to install. Obviously, the square footage needed for a dumbwaiter is significantly smaller than what’s needed for a standard residential elevator, so they can fit into your home relatively inconspicuously.

Modern dumbwaiters comply with American Society of Mechanical Engineers codes, so it’s important to work with a reputable company that has experience with installing freight lifts.

Many residential elevator companies also install dumbwaiters. A good elevator company can install a dumbwaiter to make it look like it has been in your home all along! Again, like residential elevators, modern dumbwaiters should be properly maintained on a regular basis. For more information about dumbwaiters and regular maintenance, contact your local elevator company.

For those in the central Arizona area, Celtic Elevator is an excellent resource for your home lift needs, including dumbwaiters, residential elevators as well as maintenance contracts. Contact Celtic Elevator for a free dumbwaiter estimate today!