The two models, and the sizes they come in
There are two Swift models sold as home lifts here. The Swift Pro is the fuller specification: a touch display, a choice of ArtWall panels and the widest finish range. The Swift Lite is the same drive and the same shallow pit in a plainer package, with push button controls and a shorter finish list.
Both come in six platform sizes, from a two person car at 830 x 600 mm up to a wheelchair sized car at 1400 x 1100 mm. The size you can fit usually decides the model rather than the other way round, so it is worth measuring before you fall in love with a finish.
The standard that actually applies in Australia
This is the one most worth understanding. A European conformity mark shows a lift meets EN 81-41, the European standard for lifting platforms. That is not the standard an Australian certifier will ask you about.
In Australia the relevant standard is AS1735.15, alongside the National Construction Code, and for a residential lift that is what your building surveyor, certifier or private certifier will want to see. We supply every lift certified to AS1735.15. If you are comparing quotes, ask each supplier which standard the lift is certified to here, not which standard it was built to overseas.
Power supply: 230 volts, single phase
Swift lifts run on ordinary single phase household power. In Australia that is 230 volts, and you will sometimes see 220 volts quoted in European documentation for the same machine.
The practical point is that no three phase upgrade is needed, which is the expensive surprise on some other lift types. An electrician still has to run a dedicated circuit, and that work has to be done by someone licensed in your state.
What it needs on site
This is where the Swift range earns its keep in a retrofit. It takes a 50 mm pit, or no pit at all, sitting directly on the slab behind a small ramp. That avoids excavating a pit, which is usually the single biggest cost in putting a lift into a house that was not designed for one.
- Pit: 50 mm, or none with a small ramp
- Top height, or headroom: 2,275 mm to 3,500 mm depending on the configuration
- Hole through the floor: from 940 x 1025 mm for the smallest car, up to 1510 x 1525 mm for the largest
- Travel: up to 12 m in Australia, serving 2 to 6 levels
- Rated load: 250 kg for 2 to 3 people, 400 kg for 5
How long it takes
We supply and install the Swift range from 8 weeks. That figure covers the lift arriving and being installed, not just the order being placed.
For comparison, the ranges we manufacture ourselves in Brisbane run from 10 weeks. Lead time is worth asking about specifically, and worth getting in writing, because it is the number most likely to move once a project is underway.
What it costs
The Swift Lite starts from $41,000 and the Swift Pro from $51,000, installed, plus GST if it applies. A lift supplied for a qualifying medical need can be GST free, which is worth asking about before you budget.
Installed means the lift and its installation. It does not include additional building works or site preparation, such as forming the opening, patching floors or making good. We can suggest builders we have worked with, or work alongside the builder you have already chosen.
Configuration moves the price more than anything else: the size, the number of levels, the finishes and whether the shaft is internal or external.
Who installs it, and who certifies it
Aussie Lifts is the exclusive Australian partner for Swift Home Lifts of Sweden in Queensland and New South Wales, so in those states the lift comes through us, and our own crews install and commission it. In Victoria the Swift range is available through Southern Lifts, our Victorian partner.
Electrical licences are issued state by state. Ours are Queensland Electrical Licence 54227 and NSW Electrical Licence 477792C. Ask any supplier for the licence number that applies in your state, not just a company name.
Service, parts and warranty
The Swift range carries 5 years on the lift and 10 years on the drive, with a service every 12 months to keep it running as it should.
The question that matters more over a lift's life is where the parts come from. Spare parts are stocked in Australia, across Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and South Australia, so a repair is not waiting on a shipment from the other side of the world. When any supplier moves on from a product, sourcing a replacement component gets hard and a lift can sit out of service for a long time, so it is a fair question to ask about any lift you are considering.
NDIS and home modifications
Aussie Lifts is an NDIS registered provider, number 4050019140. Where a lift forms part of a home modification plan we can work alongside your plan manager and occupational therapist, and provide the documentation they need.
Where you can see one
We have showrooms in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, and the Brisbane one sits in the same building as our factory. Riding a lift tells you more in two minutes than a brochure does in an hour, particularly about how quiet it is and how the doors feel. Aussie Lifts has been building and installing lifts in Australia since 1995, 31 years, and has installed more than 7,000.