Elevator efficiency hack: Why pressing the right button saves time

Long waits for a lift in a building or hotel can be tiring. However, there is a trick that can shorten this time and make the lift arrive faster.

Lifts play a key role in daily functioning, especially in multi-storey buildings. Thanks to them, we don't have to struggle with climbing stairs, which is particularly important for the elderly or disabled. Lifts are also indispensable during travel—in hotels, they allow for quick and convenient movement between floors, saving time and energy. Thanks to lifts, transporting luggage becomes much simpler and less strenuous, increasing travel comfort.

A lift is a device that operates on the principle of vertical transport. Its operation involves moving the cabin in the shaft using a system of ropes, counterweights, and motors. When a passenger presses the floor selection button, the control system sends a signal to the motor, which drives the cabin to the correct level. Sensors and safety brakes control the speed and position of the cabin, ensuring smooth and safe stopping on each floor.

Unfortunately, as T-Online reported, not everyone knows the correct way to operate a lift. Jan Steeger from Schindler Deutschland, a company specialising in lift production, points out one important detail that can significantly affect the lift's comfort.

We often stand on the ground floor and want to go up to the fifth floor, but the lift is currently on the tenth floor. In such a situation, we might intuitively think we should press the down arrow, suggesting that the lift come down from the tenth floor to the ground floor.

However, as Steeger emphasises, we should always press the arrow that indicates our direction of travel.

This means that regardless of which way we want to travel, we should press the arrow indicating the direction of travel, no matter where the lift is currently. If we want to go up, we should press the up arrow. If we want to go down, we should press the down arrow.

This will make the lift journey much faster and avoid the situation where the lift goes in the wrong direction.

However, it's worth remembering that not all lift tricks work. Various tips and suggestions circulate online, allegedly making the lift arrive faster and not stop on other floors. One such trick is pressing both arrows simultaneously, supposedly speeding up the lift's arrival.

However, as Jasmin Fischer, spokeswoman for Thyssenkrupp, explains, this alleged trick is nonsense. According to her, such shortcuts would have to be pre-programmed, which is not the case in most instances.