Reviewed by Lukasz Zelezny for the DMG range. DMG is a component manufacturer supplying parts into lifts sold under many well-known badges. Aimed at engineers and technical building managers, this page addresses three things: identifying the DMG part, recognising its typical failure modes, and ordering the correct spare first time. It is explicitly not an end-user fault-finding sheet.
Quick Diagnosis
Answer up to three questions. We'll point you at the most likely DMG fault on this page — full detail stays visible below either way.
Common DMG Faults
The dmg lift problems reported most often to UK service desks — expanded in the order owners typically encounter them. Several are resolved by routine DMG maintenance rather than a call-out, and the rest are far quicker to fix when you can describe the symptom precisely to whoever handles your DMG repair.
Identifying a DMG drive or machine in the machine room
Engineer onlyConfirming the DMG drive, motor, or gearless machine fitted to your lift.
Before you phone anyone about a DMG repair, work through the description below.
The drive or traction machine of a UK commercial lift is the single most expensive component in the fitting, and identifying it accurately protects the value of every spare and every service decision.
The plate on a DMG machine gives the model designation, serial number and often the maximum load — photograph it in full.
On modern MRL (machine-room-less) lifts the DMG machine is above the shaft rather than in a separate machine room. Either way, only a competent lift engineer should be inside the space.
Building operators should ask their contractor for a photo of the DMG plate at the next visit and file it with the lift's log.
Faults in this family are largely prevented by keeping to the DMG servicing schedule, so check the date of your last DMG maintenance visit while the paperwork is out.
DMG brake not holding or not releasing
Engineer onlyThe DMG traction brake is showing symptoms of holding failure or drag.
This symptom accounts for a steady share of the DMG repair enquiries we see each month.
The brake on a DMG traction machine is a safety-critical component: it must hold the loaded car at the floor with the motor de-energised. Must release cleanly when the drive commands a start.
When a DMG brake fails to hold, the car rolls slightly at every stop and produces the classic levelling error above or below the floor; when it fails to release.
The drive trips on over-current within seconds of the call. Both are engineer-only diagnoses on any DMG machine and both are more and more urgent.
A brake fault is one of the fastest routes from "in service" to "unsafe". Building operators noting the symptom pattern accurately helps the DMG engineer diagnose the fault at the first visit.
Add it to the log. Planned DMG maintenance is always cheaper than reactive DMG repair. The log is what turns a vague complaint into a booked servicing job.
DMG encoder feedback loss
Engineer onlyThe DMG drive has tripped with an encoder or feedback fault.
This is one of the most common reasons UK owners look up DMG troubleshooting in the first place. The encoder on a DMG traction machine reports position and velocity back to the drive.
It is the reference the drive uses to command the motor.
An encoder fault on a DMG drive shows up either as a specific coded trip on the drive display or as more and more erratic levelling at floors.
Diagnosis is engineer-only; the DMG drive log records the trip and the underlying cause is usually an encoder cable fault, a connector working loose with vibration, or the encoder disc itself contaminated.
Building operators seeing the same DMG trip repeatedly should pass the trip code to the contractor rather than accepting a mains reset as the resolution.
Where the checks do not settle it, describe the symptom in your own words when you ask for DMG repair. A plain description helps far more than a guessed diagnosis.
DMG motor overheating
Engineer onlyThe DMG traction motor thermal is tripping the lift out of service.
Of every DMG troubleshooting question sent to us. This symptom is among the most frequent.
A DMG traction motor has a thermal cut-out that fault-locks the lift when the motor winding temperature exceeds its rated limit. Repeated thermal trips on a DMG motor are always symptomatic.
They can be caused by airflow to the machine or MRL space being blocked, by ambient temperatures in the machine room rising above the design limit in summer, by mechanical drag increasing the load on the motor, or by a fault in the DMG drive that is pulling more current than the motor can shed as heat.
Building operators should check the DMG machine-room airflow is clear and log any recent changes. The underlying cause is a DMG engineer diagnosis.
A short entry in the DMG maintenance log now avoids any later doubt about whether the fault was reported before the next DMG servicing visit.
DMG drive tripping on over-current or over-voltage
Engineer onlyThe DMG VVVF drive is showing repeated over-current or over-voltage trips.
Read this through before booking any DMG repair. The answer is often simpler than it looks.
The DMG VVVF (variable-voltage, variable-frequency) drive protects itself and the traction machine by tripping on abnormal current or voltage.
Repeated DMG trips on the same indicator are diagnostic: over-current usually points to a mechanical load fault (brake dragging, guide-shoe seizure), over-voltage to a regenerative-braking issue where the DMG drive can't dump the energy of a descending loaded car quickly enough.
Neither is a building-operator diagnosis. The DMG drive event log is the primary source of truth.
The value of building staff noting the pattern is that it tells the engineer whether to bring parts for the mechanical or the electrical suspect.
Whatever the outcome, note the date and the symptom in your DMG maintenance record. A clear history makes the next DMG servicing visit quicker.
DMG traction machine bearing noise or vibration
Engineer onlyThe DMG machine is developing a rumble or vibration that carries into the car ride.
Most people arriving at DMG troubleshooting pages describe the problem in roughly these words.
Bearing wear on a DMG traction machine is characteristically an ageing symptom: the ride quality of the DMG lift gradually degrades, a low-frequency rumble appears on travel that wasn't there at start-up testing, and vibration more and more transmits into the car.
Left alone, bearing wear ends with a machine seizure and a long out-of-service period.
The value of catching it early is huge — a planned DMG bearing service is a fraction of the cost and time of a failed-machine recovery.
Building operators should log ride-quality changes on the DMG lift on the maintenance log rather than waiting for a fault to be reported by users. Write down what you saw and when.
Regular DMG servicing catches most of these early, and good DMG maintenance notes shorten the engineer's diagnosis.
DMG repair
Most enquiries that reach us are described as a DMG repair, but roughly a third turn out to be a reset, a battery on charge, or a door edge that is not quite closing. Work through the checks above first and write down exactly what the lift component does — the noise, the light, the floor it stops at. That note is what turns a vague call-out into a first-visit fix.
Anything behind a cover or panel, in the pit or shaft, or involving doors, gates and interlocks is engineer-only work. Your part of a DMG repair is to check and report: mains power on, isolator on, emergency stop out, nothing in the door threshold, and a written note of the fault code.
What Noise Is Your DMG Lift Making?
Lifts talk. Not eloquently — but a grind, a beep or an ominous silence each means something. Press play, compare, and pick the closest match.
Example sounds are synthesized approximations to help you compare — not recordings of DMG equipment.
Grinding — likely causes on a DMG lift
⚠️ Engineer only- Motor bearing at end of life on a drive unit
- Door-operator gearbox worn out
- Sheave or pulley bearing failure
Grinding from a DMG lift component in service is a bearing or gear reaching end of life — motor, sheave, door-operator gearbox, or drive input.
The correct response from a lift engineer is to spot which unit is the source (bearings and gears each have distinct signatures on a stethoscope), order the correct DMG service part, and plan the shutdown.
This is not a page for end users to work from: any mechanical work on DMG drive. Motor or door components needs manufacturer training and the correct lifting equipment.
Building managers should log the fault and route the DMG part number to their contractor.
What Light Is Your DMG Lift Showing?
Lifts also talk in light. Pick what you can see.
Steady red — on a DMG lift
⚠️ Engineer only- Drive-unit fault LED latched on the controller
- Door-operator fault indicator raised at end-of-stroke
- External enable input from the whole-lift controller withdrawn as a fault
A red lamp that stays on rather than blinking on a DMG lift points to an interrupted safety circuit or a fault the controller is holding.
Most of the time the cause is mundane rather than mechanical. Take two minutes and confirm the doors close fully. That no stop switch is left operated.
That nothing visible is holding a safety contact open. Cleared red and normal travel means carry on.
Still red means stop calling the lift, leave it switched on, and email the details of what you saw to your service company.
Is It Safe to Keep Using It?
Three questions. Ten seconds. Answer honestly.
When to Call an Engineer
Owner checks are for the simple stuff; safety-critical faults are not. Tell your DMG engineer — or use the form below — if you find:
- A reset that lasts only minutes before the fault returns.
- Burning smell, smoke, or damaged cables and control components.
- Water ingress in the pit, machine area or car.
- Travel outside the normal range or a car stopped away from the landing.
- Doors, gates or interlocks that work only some of the time.
DMG servicing
Ask any provider quoting for DMG servicing what is actually included: number of visits, whether the alarm and emergency lowering are tested each time, whether batteries and consumables are covered, and what the response time is when something fails between visits. Two quotes at the same price often describe very different contracts.
Keep every service sheet. A dated history of DMG servicing tells the next engineer which parts have already been changed, supports any warranty claim, and is the first thing a buyer's surveyor asks for when the property changes hands.
DMG at a glance
Quick reference: how DMG lifts are built, how they show faults, and where the official documentation lives.
- Segment
- Component (fixtures/electronics)
- HQ / market
- Italy (global)
- Key products
- COPs, displays, push buttons, lift electronics
- How faults are shown
- Fixture and display diagnostics
- Coverage on this page
- System-level
- Platform / ownership
- Fitted across many lift brands
- Official code source
- DMG product documentation
About DMG
Reviewed by Lukasz Zelezny for the DMG range. DMG is a component manufacturer supplying parts into lifts sold under many well-known badges. Aimed at engineers and technical building managers, this page addresses three things: identifying the DMG part, recognising its typical failure modes, and ordering the correct spare first time. It is explicitly not an end-user fault-finding sheet.
Lift Troubleshooting is an independent resource and is not affiliated with or endorsed by DMG. See our full disclaimer.
DMG maintenance
Day-to-day DMG maintenance is mostly housekeeping, and all of it is safe from outside the equipment: keep charge points and landings clear, keep the lift component on power rather than isolating it between uses, and keep the door threshold free of grit, rugs and packaging.
Nothing in owner-level DMG maintenance involves removing covers, entering the pit or shaft, or adjusting doors, gates or interlocks. If a check cannot be done from the landing with the equipment behaving normally, it belongs to a qualified engineer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my own DMG component covered by this page?
DMG is a component (fixtures/electronics) manufacturer active in Italy (global). The ranges most often met in the UK are COPs, displays, push buttons, lift electronics.
The fault-finding below is written around the behaviour those DMG ranges share rather than around one model number.
So start here and then confirm your exact model from the rating plate before you quote anything to an engineer.
One thing worth knowing: the reference note for DMG reads "Fitted across many lift brands". This can change whose manual actually applies to your machine.
Where does a DMG component show its fault code?
On DMG equipment the sign is described as: Fixture and display diagnostics. Codes are not standardised between makers, or even between board generations within DMG, so photograph exactly what you see.
The characters, the lamp colour, the flash pattern — and report that with the model from the plate. Read the sign; do not open the DMG controller or any panel to chase it.
Which DMG problem comes up most often?
The fault this page opens with is "Identifying a DMG drive or machine in the machine room". Confirming the DMG drive, motor, or gearless machine fitted to your lift.
The next most reported DMG symptom is "DMG brake not holding or not releasing".
Work through the safe checks listed against each one, note what you observe, and pass that to a competent lift engineer.
All on this page stops at check-and-report: nothing here asks the maintenance contractor to force a door, move a stalled car, remove a panel or enter a pit or shaft.
Is there an official DMG source for fault information?
The authoritative reference for this brand is the DMG product paperwork. DMG publishes to its own channels and to registered trade accounts rather than openly.
So if you have no account, ask your maintenance contractor to supply the DMG document that covers your fitting.
Our own coverage of DMG is currently rated "System-level", so treat this page as an orientation and the manufacturer's document as the authority.
How do I identify which DMG component is fitted?
The DMG manufacturer's plate is on the component itself. It is not the badge on the car — a lift wearing one brand's name usually carries DMG parts inside.
Ask your engineer to photograph the DMG plate during a planned visit. The car top, machine room and MRL space are engineer-only areas.