Sesame Access hidden wheelchair lifts are installed in some of the most important buildings in the world. From One Great George Street, where a bride trusted her entire wedding entrance to a Sesame lift, to national museums, embassies and global heritage sites, these lifts are expected to work flawlessly every single time. Reliability isn’t a marketing claim for Sesame Access – it is a culture, a process, and a continuous engineering discipline built up over 30 years of making bespoke lifts designed for real-world environments.

This article explains why Sesame lifts achieve industry-leading uptime figures, including the most recent 99.7% uptime performance, and why architects, estate managers and contractors consistently describe Sesame Access as one of the most reliable lift engineering companies in the world.

So why are Sesame lifts so reliable?

1. Engineering decisions that eliminate the common causes of failure

Sean McAllen is Sesame’s Servicing Manager. He joined Sesame in 2016, with a background in Industrial Engineering in Canada’s Aviation and Engineering Industries. When Sean joined Sesame Access in 2016, he immediately began analysing historic call-outs. A decade later, he is responsible for the statistical data that shows how Sesame has cut faults and boosted uptime year after year.

For example, one of the biggest reliability improvements involved removing a certain type of switches from barriers and gates. The old type of switches are sensitive to weather and environmental conditions. Changes in heat, moisture, or atmospheric pressure can cause them to behave unpredictably. By replacing these with a modern new type of sensors and better-controlled mechanical components, Sesame eliminated an entire class of faults that other manufacturers still struggle with.

The same approach applied to the old cable-and-spring stair position system. These had variable life spans depending on usage. Upgrading to alternative-based detection created predictable, consistent behaviour across all sites.

Each engineering improvement, no matter how small, is permanently integrated into future lifts, meaning the 2025 generation is significantly more robust than the 2015 generation.

2. Over-specification and rock-solid mechanical design

A key reason Sesame lifts don’t wobble, don’t flex under load and are quiet, is because their scissor mechanisms, support structures and drive systems are deliberately over-engineered. These lifts are built far above minimum requirements for load capacity, torsional stability and fatigue life.

This over-specification eliminates the mechanical stresses that typically cause long-term issues in standard platform lifts. It prevents premature wear, reduces service interventions, and ensures smooth operation even in harsh external environments.

Every component that isn’t manufactured in-house is carefully selected, tested and then customised by suppliers specifically for Sesame’s applications. If a component fails to meet expectations, the supplier changes the manufacturing for Sesame. This level of supplier cooperation is valued by Sesame and gives Sesame effective control over every element of the lift’s reliability.

3. Continuous improvement built into every stage of the product lifecycle

Sesame Access operates like a modern engineering firm, even though the product is bespoke and non-repetitive. Several systems protect reliability from design to installation:

• Full design quality control by the Head Engineer

• Independent manufacturing quality audit for every lift

• Independent commissioning by a different engineer

• Delay Destroyer process to feed workshop learnings back into design

• Call-out analysis data fed upstream to design and manufacturing

• 6 Sigma-style continuous improvement led by Sean, using skills and insight he has learnt from his industrial engineering background.

Because Sesame designs, builds, tests and services its own lifts in it’s manufacturing workshop in Surrey, every discovery is fed straight back into the process. If an issue is identified on Monday, the checklists and procedures are updated on Tuesday, to ensure the issue never happens again.

The result is constantly evolving, increasingly reliable lifts.

4. Highly trained engineers empowered to act fast

Sesame’s engineers are trained using Sesame’s in house training programme, plus continued technical development, built up over 30 years of Sesame knowledge and experience. We also have a programme of Mentoring, where our more recently employed Sesame Engineers are Mentored by our older Sesame Engineers, for knowledge transfer and continual learning.

If there is a call out on a Sesame lift, our trained engineers attend site the same or next day, with deep familiarity of the product because it is all built in-house. They follow a consistent diagnostic process that starts with safety and moves through a structured, logical sequence that eliminates guesswork.

Sesame has two Engineers on the Nottingham University Level 6 Degree Apprenticeship Programme, where they are studying for a B(Eng) Electro-Mechanical Engineering Degree, over 5 years, supported by hands on training and work with Sesame. Danny is in Year 4 and Krystian is in Year 1.

The workforce is young, skilled and growing through hands-on experience with direct supervision from expert engineers. Degree apprentices like Danny and Christian learn fault-finding by working on real lifts built downstairs in the workshop. This hybrid training model builds practical knowledge far faster than classroom-only learning.

Sesame also promotes a transparent culture: engineers are supported to openly admit any mistakes, share learning, and improve the overall reliability of the fleet.

5. Responsiveness across the UK and beyond

For lifts installed far from London, Sesame uses a combination of:

• Rapid travel (often next-day arrival even in Scotland)

• Remote monitoring to pre-diagnose faults

• In-person training of trusted regional partners

• Clear, documented handover processes

This ensures reliability is consistent whether the lift is in Westminster or Australia. Remote monitoring is being expanded into a full framework, improving diagnostic speed even further.

6. Cold-weather reliability and outdoor performance

Sesame lifts are regularly installed outdoors, where rain, freezing temperatures and wind can cause failures in other lift systems. Sesame combats this with:

• High-IP-rated controls and buttons

• Hydraulic systems designed to operate in extreme cold

• Weather-resistant materials

• Non-pressure-based sensing technology

• Custom regional adaptations when needed (e.g., Arctic climates)

The company has confirmed reliable performance down to around -5°C when required, and is working on making Sesame lifts suitable for -40°C based on engineering research for Canadian installations.

7. A nimble, fast-acting company culture

One of Sesame’s most valuable advantages is that it is a small, agile British Engineering company, with manufacturer based in the UK. Decision-making is instant, not slowed by committees or corporate hierarchy. Engineers escalate issues directly to the Head Engineer or Sesame Designer Team, using an agile but robust process. Purchasing, engineering, service and design communicate in real time.

This internal structure keeps Sesame lifts reliable long after installation because fixes, improvements and innovations happen quickly and collaboratively.

8. Industry-leading uptime: 99.7% and rising

Sesame’s reliability is not theoretical. It is tracked, audited and reported.

Recent figures show:

• 99.7% uptime in 2025
• 99.5% uptime in 2024

• With some quarters achieving a full 100% uptime forecast

Independent consultants reviewing Sesame’s data have confirmed that this performance is not normal for the industry—it is significantly above standard expectations.

Conclusion: Why Sesame lifts work when moments matter

Sesame Access is reliable because the entire company is built around reliability—from over-engineered mechanical structures to modern sensing technology, from fast call-out response to rigorous quality control, and from continuous improvement to transparent internal culture.

These lifts are designed for heritage buildings, international projects and once-in-a-lifetime events like weddings. Every Sesame lift is bespoke, but every Sesame lift benefits from decades of engineering iteration and real-world lessons.

When accessibility absolutely must work, Sesame Access is the company trusted to deliver.

One of the strongest images attached to Sesame’s reliability story is the wheelchair lift at One Great George Street. On the wedding day of Nina, the two Sesame lifts at the Institution of Civil Engineers were used to transport Nina, plus her guests who used wheelchair, into and out of the venue. Reliability of the Sesame lift was paramount as Nina was taking her wedding vows in the ICE. The Sesame lift performed perfectly.