Residential Dumbwaiters

The dumbwaiter has been very popular for hundreds of years. In fact, they can be traced back to around 230 BC, which was the times of the Romans. This was the first recorded notation of a dumbwaiter, but it is very likely that they were used by other cultures before this as well. After the Roman Empire, there are records of nearly every culture using a dumbwaiter in some shape or form.

Often animals were used to do the actual lifting, but this was only in larger settings. Smaller dumbwaiters were operated manually and these manual dumbwaiters sometimes consisted of only a rope and a wooden shelf or tray.

During the seventeen-hundreds, the Russians made several innovations to the dumbwaiter and by the end of the eighteen-hundreds, there were electric, steam powered, and hydraulic dumbwaiters in use. These were very popular in commercial settings, but most homes also had dumbwaiters.

The electric dumbwaiter, while found in some residences, would not become popular or affordable until the twentieth century, so the manual dumbwaiter was much more common. Almost all homes had a dumbwaiter of some shape or form. They were used to allow items to be quickly and easily be sent between floors in the home.

Virtually all homes had a dumbwaiter of some shape or form and most apartment buildings also used them. These allowed the tenants to easily transport their groceries to their apartment, which was often several floors up. In big cities, like New York, space is and always has been at a premium for space. As a result, some of the tallest biggest buildings are found in these types of cities. Without the dumbwaiter, individuals in these cities would have had a much rougher time during the early twentieth century.

Today, the electric dumbwaiter has largely replaced the manual dumbwaiter in both residential and commercial settings. Several kits are available for the consumer that are designed to be installed relatively easily. It still requires a good knowledge of construction, so most homeowners opt for a professional installation, but since they are designed to be quickly installed, the installation costs are usually reduced.

Some people do still opt for a manual dumbwaiter though. These have the disadvantage of not being able to support as much weight as electric dumbwaiters and, since they are human powered, they require much more effort to operate. These dumbwaiters are often custom built using pulleys and wenches, but there are also a few companies that sell manual dumbwaiter kits.

The dumbwaiter offers a powerful lifting tool that has stood the test of time. There are only a few items that remain as similar today as they did a thousand years ago. In many ways, the dumbwaiter has aged as well as the wheel. Both have been greatly improved since they were first introduced, but they still are in some regards very much like their early predecessors.