How Often Should a Hoist Be Inspected? The 6 and 12 Month Rules

Care homes and workshops both run hoists, and both ask this question, but the answer is not the same for each. It turns on one thing: whether the hoist lifts people or loads. Here is how often a hoist should be inspected, the rule that decides the interval, and why the examination is not the same as the service.

How Often Should a Hoist Be Inspected?

A hoist used to lift people, such as a patient or passenger hoist, must be thoroughly examined every 6 months under LOLER. A hoist that lifts only loads, such as a chain or goods hoist, needs examination every 12 months. All slings and other lifting accessories are examined every 6 months, whatever they lift.

So the interval follows the use, not the make or size of the hoist. We carry out LOLER examinations across Berkshire and the surrounding counties, and hoists are among the items where the 6-month rule is most often misapplied as 12.

It Depends on What the Hoist Lifts

The whole answer rests on a single distinction in LOLER: equipment that lifts people is examined more often than equipment that lifts loads, because the consequences of failure are so much higher.

That gives three intervals to keep straight. Anything lifting people is examined every 6 months. Anything lifting loads only is examined every 12 months. Every lifting accessory is examined every 6 months regardless. A hoist is a textbook piece of LOLER equipment, and our guide to what equipment LOLER applies to sets out the wider picture. For the general framework across all lifting equipment, see how often LOLER inspections should be carried out.

Patient and Passenger Hoists: Every 6 Months

This is the one most people are asking about, and the rule is firm. A patient hoist, mobile or ceiling-tracked, lifts a person, so it falls on the 6-month cycle. The same applies to stand aids and any other person-lifting equipment in a care setting.

Hoists must also be examined after assembly and before first use, then at 6-month intervals in service. For care providers this is a compliance point as well as a safety one, since inspectors expect to see the records and a gap can count against you at a CQC inspection. The HSE's guidance on moving and handling equipment sets out how LOLER applies to hoists and slings used in care.

Chain, Electric and Goods Hoists: Every 12 Months

Industrial hoists that lift loads rather than people run on the 12-month cycle. That covers chain blocks, electric and wire rope hoists, and goods hoists used to move materials around a workshop or warehouse.

There is one trap worth naming. If a hoist is ever used to lift a person, even occasionally, it moves onto the 6-month interval. The interval follows the highest-risk use the equipment is actually put to, not the use written on the box.

Slings and Lifting Accessories: Always 6 Months

Whatever the hoist, its accessories are examined every 6 months. That means slings, chains, hooks, shackles and spreader bars, without exception.

This is one of the most common failings the HSE finds: a business applies a single 12-month interval across everything and quietly leaves its accessories under-examined. A patient sling in daily use, laundered repeatedly, needs its 6-month examination as much as the hoist it attaches to, and its label needs to stay legible so it can be identified.

Examination Is Not the Same as a Service

This distinction causes more confusion in the hoist world than anywhere else, so it is worth being plain about. The LOLER thorough examination is the statutory safety check, every 6 or 12 months. A service is the maintenance that keeps the hoist running well, and is typically carried out annually.

They are different jobs, often at different intervals, and one does not cover the other. A stack of service records will not satisfy an inspector looking for LOLER examination reports. The examination must be done by a competent person with genuine independence, which our guide to who can carry out LOLER inspections explains in full.

Pre-Use Checks and Exceptional Events

The 6 and 12-month intervals are not the only checks. In a care setting, staff should carry out a quick pre-use check every time a hoist and sling are used, confirming the equipment is within its examination date, the sling is undamaged and the person is within the safe working load.

A thorough examination is also needed at other points: after installation or reassembly, and after any exceptional event such as a fault, an overload or a repair. A hoist involved in an incident should not go back into use on the strength of its last routine examination alone.

What a Hoist Examination Checks

A thorough examination goes well beyond a glance over the frame. A competent person typically checks:

• The hoist structure, mast and lifting arm for damage, cracks or distortion

• The actuator or lifting mechanism, and the emergency lowering function

• The brakes, and on a mobile hoist the castors and chassis

• The spreader bar, hooks and attachment points

• The sling for fraying, cuts, stitching damage and a legible label

• The safe working load marked clearly and legibly on the equipment

• The battery and controls on a powered hoist

Anything found is recorded and acted on, and a hoist with a safety-critical defect comes out of use until it is put right.

The Bottom Line

How often a hoist should be inspected comes down to what it lifts. People-lifting hoists are thoroughly examined every 6 months, load-only hoists every 12 months, and all slings and accessories every 6 months whatever they serve.

Keep the examination separate from the service, examine the accessories on their own 6-month cycle rather than folding them into a 12-month one, and treat any incident as a trigger for re-examination. Our thorough examination services cover hoists and their accessories and hand back a clear report per item.