Electric or manual shutters – which should you go for?

Shutters are used in all sorts of settings. From warehouses to factories, boatyards to farmyards, and ports to airports, shutters are one of the most common types of industrial door found in Britain.

Shutters owe their popularity to their many advantages. For one thing, they take up very little space since they open upwards rather than outwards. For another thing, they offer excellent protection against break-ins due to their strength.

If you’re thinking about getting shutters for your premises, then there’s a decision you’ll need to make: electrical or manual? In this post, we’ll compare the relative advantages of electrical and manual roller shutters to help you make the decision.

Electrical and manual shutters – what’s the difference?

The first thing to know is what exactly are electrical and manual shutters. They’re similar to each other except for how they operate.

Unsurprisingly, electrical shutters operate electrically. When you push a button, a small motor turns to open the doors. Most electrical shutters are mains powered, but they can also be powered by batteries or even the sun in the case of solar-powered shutters.

Manual shutters, in contrast, have to be opened manually. This is done by turning a crank or a winder. There’s no electricity involved at all with these shutters – the entire process is manual instead.

Advantages of electrical shutters

Convenience

The big advantage of electrical shutters is convenience. There’s no need to turn a crank to open the shutters – all you have to do is press a button. This makes electrical shutters easier to open than their manual counterparts.

Saying that, manual shutters aren’t difficult to open. In fact, most people are surprised at how easy to open they are. If you don’t believe us, come on down to our premises and have a go yourself!

Faster

Electrical shutters tend to open faster than manual doors. This is because a motor does the work instead of a person turning a crank. Some electrical shutters can even open as fast as a metre per second.

Advantages of manual shutters

Cheaper

The main advantage of manual shutters is that they’re typically cheaper than their electrical counterparts. Manual shutters have fewer components which means their price is usually lower.

No electricity needed

Another advantage of manual shutters is that they don’t require electricity to run them. This means they have lower running costs and they will still work in the event of a blackout.

So which type of shutter should you go for?

In the end, the type of shutter you choose – manual or electrical – will depend on what you want to use it for. If you need shutters for a shop front or other small business, then simply manual shutters should suffice. However, if your needs expand to a large business, such as a warehouse or a factory, then manual shutters typically won’t cut it. The effort involved in opening and closing large shutters by hand all day will be tiring for your personnel; not to mention manual shutters take longer to open and close. In this scenario, electrical shutters would be the better option, despite the higher cost.