Reviewed by Lukasz Zelezny for the IGV range. IGV passenger and goods lifts operate throughout UK commercial property. Read this page as a facilities-manager briefing rather than a fault-finding sheet — commercial lifts are engineer-only equipment. It helps you describe the IGV symptom accurately, quote the correct warning message, and cut the time to first fix.
Quick Diagnosis
Answer up to three questions. We'll point you at the most likely IGV fault on this page — full detail stays visible below either way.
Common IGV Faults
The igv lift problems reported most often to UK service desks — expanded in the order owners typically encounter them. Several are resolved by routine IGV 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 IGV repair.
IGV lift shows Out of Service and won't accept calls
Engineer onlyThe IGV commercial lift has fault-locked itself and the car display reads Out of Service.
Of every IGV troubleshooting question sent to us. This symptom is among the most frequent. A IGV commercial lift showing Out of Service has fault-locked from the controller — an issue the drive.
Brake, door or safety circuit has flagged and refuses to clear without engineer authority. Facilities staff should note the exact wording on the IGV display.
The time of day, whether the car is stopped at a floor and level with the sill, and any noise or vibration that preceded the fault.
All of that goes to the IGV service desk on first call; nothing on a fault-locked lift is appropriate for building staff to touch. Do not reset the mains isolator to the IGV lift.
That clears the controller's own fault log and makes the underlying cause materially harder to trace on the first engineer visit.
A short entry in the IGV maintenance log now avoids any later doubt about whether the fault was reported before the next IGV servicing visit.
IGV lift doors keep reopening and won't leave the floor
Engineer onlyThe IGV car doors close, then reopen without any command and the lift does not depart.
Read this through before booking any IGV repair. The answer is often simpler than it looks. Repeating door-reopen cycles on a IGV lift are a safety-edge or light-curtain fault.
The full-height infra-red curtain across the IGV car opening detects anything from a shopping trolley left in the doorway to a strip of dust on the vertical lens.
Facilities staff can safely wipe the vertical rails of the IGV door opening with a soft cloth, remove any obvious obstruction from the sill, and see if the doors seat cleanly.
If they still reopen, log a call to the IGV service line. Do not force the doors closed and do not hold the door-close button.
The reopening behaviour is the safety-edge doing its job and defeating it is not appropriate. Whatever the outcome, note the date and the symptom in your IGV maintenance record.
A clear history makes the next IGV servicing visit quicker.
IGV lift stops slightly above or below the floor
Engineer onlyThe IGV car floor comes to rest 10–40 mm above or below the landing sill.
Most people arriving at IGV troubleshooting pages describe the problem in roughly these words.
Levelling errors on a IGV lift are a trip hazard and must be reported the same day, ideally with the car out of service until an engineer attends.
On modern IGV traction lifts the drive re-levels the car automatically once passengers step in or out; when the re-level begins to drift or fails, it points to encoder feedback loss, brake wear, or drive gain adjustment.
On older hydraulic IGV fittings, the car sinking below the floor after a load steps out is a valve or seal issue. Building staff should not try any IGV isolator reset.
The correct action is to sign the car out of service on the IGV lift log and log the fault with the manufacturer's callout time in mind. Write down what you saw and when.
Regular IGV servicing catches most of these early, and good IGV maintenance notes shorten the engineer's diagnosis.
IGV display shows a warning message
Engineer onlyA status message or warning indicator has appeared on the IGV car operating panel display.
Before you phone anyone about a IGV repair, work through the description below.
Any message on the IGV car display beyond the floor indicator and direction arrows is a controller status intended to be read and logged.
The useful discipline for building staff is the same regardless of brand: photograph the display, note the time, note whether the IGV lift kept running or stopped, and pass all three to the service desk on the first call.
Do not clear the message by cycling the IGV mains isolator. That erases the controller's own log and materially delays the engineer's diagnosis on the next visit.
Repeated instances of the same IGV warning within a short window show a component drifting toward failure and should be treated as urgent.
If it becomes a repeat event, treat it as a IGV servicing question rather than a one-off IGV repair; recurring symptoms usually trace back to a missed maintenance interval.
IGV lift alarm rings but the intercom is silent
Engineer onlyPassengers press the alarm on the IGV car and get no voice response.
This symptom accounts for a steady share of the IGV repair enquiries we see each month. Since 2018 every new commercial passenger lift in the UK, including IGV fittings.
Has been needed to have two-way voice communication from the car to a 24/7 monitored line.
When the alarm rings on a IGV lift and nobody answers, the emergency line is either not configured, the SIM in the IGV auto-dialler has expired, or the telecoms line into the machine room is down.
The auto-dialler unit on a IGV lift lives in the machine room and needs a monthly test call.
This is a building-owner compliance need and one of the most common items to fail a LOLER report.
Log the fault as urgent; a car with a non-working intercom must not be left in service. Keep the IGV maintenance paperwork with the lift.
Whoever attends the IGV repair will want to see when the last service was done.
IGV lift ride is rough or noisy
Engineer onlyThe IGV car judders, vibrates or is markedly noisier than usual in travel.
This is one of the most common reasons UK owners look up IGV troubleshooting in the first place.
A IGV passenger lift developing a rougher ride than normal is a mechanical wear indicator: brake pads glazing, guide-shoe roller wear, rope wear, or bearing noise on the IGV traction machine.
Building staff should not diagnose any of these.
The intent of noting the change is to raise it with the IGV service contractor at the next planned visit rather than waiting for the ride to degrade to a fault-lock.
Describing the change ("noise now audible from floor 4 upward". "vibration on down travel only") is more useful than a generic complaint.
All mechanical work on the IGV lift is engineer-only and off-limits to building staff.
Faults in this family are largely prevented by keeping to the IGV servicing schedule, so check the date of your last IGV maintenance visit while the paperwork is out.
IGV repair
Most enquiries that reach us are described as a IGV 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 commercial elevator 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 IGV 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.
On a commercial installation, repair also has a paper trail. Log the fault with building management the same day, keep the reference, and make sure the report reaches the company holding the maintenance contract rather than a general facilities inbox.
What Noise Is Your IGV 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 IGV equipment.
Grinding — likely causes on a IGV lift
⚠️ Engineer only- Traction sheave or brake pad wear on a geared or gearless machine
- Guide-shoe wear against the rail
- Roller-guide bearing failure
Grinding from a IGV passenger lift is never a building-manager job.
Put the lift on Fireman's or Independent service if you can, or place a barrier at the landing, and open a priority ticket with your service company today.
Note the floor at which the noise is worst. Whether it is loudest on the up-run or the down-run. How long the sound has been present.
Do not enter the shaft, the pit or the machine room. Do not try to move the lift by hand. Building maintenance duty here is limited to reporting, barriering and logging.
What Light Is Your IGV Lift Showing?
Lifts also talk in light. Pick what you can see.
Steady red — on a IGV lift
⚠️ Engineer only- Fault-latched shutdown on the controller
- Fireman's or Independent service engaged and locking the car out
- Door-fault indicator held until service reset
A steady red indicator on a IGV lift means a safety input is open or the controller has latched a fault.
Nine times in ten it is something in plain sight rather than a hidden electrical failure. The right first step is simple: watch the car and landing doors close cleanly.
Check nothing is holding a door edge. Confirm no car-stop or emergency switch has been left operated. If the red clears, the lift is safe to use once it responds normally again.
If it does not, stop pressing the call button, leave the power on, and email your service company with the exact indicator state.
Is It Safe to Keep Using It?
Three questions. Ten seconds. Answer honestly.
When to Call an Engineer
Safety-critical faults need trained hands. Report the following on your IGV lift to your service provider, or use the form below:
- A fault that returns within minutes of a reset.
- Burning smell, smoke, or visible damage to cables or controls.
- Water in the pit, machine space or car.
- The car running outside its normal range or stopping off-level.
- Doors, gates or interlocks working intermittently.
- Any mechanical fault on a commercial elevator — DIY scope is limited to checking mains power, noting what the display shows, and reporting to building management.
If this lift is in a workplace or managed building, see our LOLER thorough examination guide for the statutory inspection duties that sit alongside repair.
IGV servicing
IGV servicing intervals are set by the installer and by how hard the commercial elevator works: a domestic unit used a few times a day is not on the same schedule as one in constant use. If you have inherited the equipment with a property, ask the incoming provider for the last service sheet before agreeing a plan.
Keep every service sheet. A dated history of IGV 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.
Servicing is not the same as a statutory thorough examination. In a workplace or managed building the two run alongside each other — see our LOLER thorough examination guide for how the duties differ.
About IGV
Reviewed by Lukasz Zelezny for the IGV range. IGV passenger and goods lifts operate throughout UK commercial property. Read this page as a facilities-manager briefing rather than a fault-finding sheet — commercial lifts are engineer-only equipment. It helps you describe the IGV symptom accurately, quote the correct warning message, and cut the time to first fix.
Lift Troubleshooting is an independent resource and is not affiliated with or endorsed by IGV. See our full disclaimer.
IGV maintenance
Treat IGV maintenance as a short weekly routine: confirm the commercial elevator responds normally from every landing, confirm the alarm is audible where somebody would hear it, and confirm the charge indicator behaves as it always has. Anything outside that pattern goes to your provider rather than into a toolbox.
Nothing in owner-level IGV 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.
In a managed building, maintenance records and fault reports should sit in the same log. When you report a defect, record who you told, when, and what they said — that log is what proves the equipment was kept in a safe condition.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my own IGV lift covered by this page?
IGV equipment appears in UK buildings across the commercial lifts segment. Confirm your exact IGV model from the rating plate before quoting anything to an engineer.
The fault behaviour below is written around what these machines share, not around a single model number.
Where does an IGV lift show its fault code?
IGV indications vary by model and control board. No single code list covers the range. Photograph whatever the IGV unit is displaying along with the rating plate, then report both.
Read the sign only — never open a panel or controller to investigate it.
Which IGV problem comes up most often?
The fault this page opens with is "IGV lift shows Out of Service and won't accept calls". The IGV commercial lift has fault-locked itself and the car display reads Out of Service.
The next most reported IGV symptom is "IGV lift doors keep reopening and won't leave the floor".
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 building manager to force a door, move a stalled car, remove a panel or enter a pit or shaft.
Is there an official IGV source for fault information?
Ask your maintenance contractor to supply the IGV document that covers your fitting. Makers publish service paperwork to registered trade accounts rather than openly.
Treat this page as orientation and the IGV manual as the authority.
Who is the dutyholder for an IGV lift under LOLER?
For a IGV passenger or goods lift in a workplace, the dutyholder is normally the building owner or their appointed managing agent: they arrange thorough examination by a competent person, keep the reports, and act on defects.
Your IGV maintenance contractor usually coordinates the inspection. However, the duty does not transfer to them.