Best Hoist to Lift Heavy Fire Pits - Coffing Hoist vs Dayton Hoist

Fire Pit Plaza, a supplier of fire pits operating an online indoor fire pit and outdoor fire pit catalog, does a
lot of heavy lifting. Natural gas tables at Fire Pit Plaza can weigh up to 230 pounds and our largest propane
fire pits can weigh up to 300 pounds. We recently needed to purchase a new hoist and we decided to
compare two brands of hoists Coffing Hoist and Dayton Hoist to determine how the two electric chain
hoists compare with features, quality and price and determine which hoist to purchase for our shop.
Coffing Hoist is manufactured by Columbus McKinnon. Columbus McKinnon is one of the largest
manufacturers of hoists in the United States and produces the hoists under a variety of brand names.
Columbus McKinnon has been in business for 140 years and we have been using their products for years.
Grainger manufacturers the Dayton product line. Grainger is one of the largest industrial distributors in
the USA and we have historically purchased our hoists from Grainger. We were surprised to learn that
Grainger no longer sells Coffing Hoists so we wanted to compare the Coffing Hoist we wanted to replace
with the Grainger equivalent product. Below is a comparison of the features of each hoist that were
important to us:
Product:
Capacity:
Lift:
Suspension:
Classification:
Number of Speeds:
Lift Speed:
Motor HP:
Voltage:
Phase:
Price
Manufactured:
Manufacturer:

Coffing Hoist
Electric Chain Hoist
1 Ton
10 Feet
Hook Mounted
H3
1
16 fpm
1
115 / 230V
1
$2,314
USA
Columbus McKinnon

Dayton Hoist
Electric Chain Hoist
1 Ton
10 Feet
Hook Mounted
H4
1
16 fpm
1
115 / 230V
1
$2,555
China (originally USA)
Grainger

Although the products have similar features, we were surprised to learn that the Dayton Hoist that our
Grainger salesman wanted to sell us was made in a foreign country. Were a company that buys Americanmade products. We have been purchasing from Grainger for years and we were disappointed to learn
that Grainger no longer sold Coffing Hoists. Although the features appear largely the same, buying an
American-made product is important to us: we have found over the years that the majority of the safety
accidents have been from foreign products. We think safety, which is why we always lean towards made
in the USA products.
We were also disappointed that Grainger no longer sold Coffing hoist parts to service our legacy
equipment. The salesman at Grainger was knowledgeable, but we wanted to buy an American-made hoist
so we asked around and received a referral to Hoists Direct, a company that specializes in hoists and still
supplies Coffing Hoists. We ended up locating the Coffing Hoist we wanted to purchase. Although the
features were similar, the Coffing Hoist is made in the USA and we were able to purchase the product

from a knowledgeable supplier at a comparable price and continue to use the same parts to service our
existing equipment.

Note:
Coffing Hoist Source: http://www.hoistsdirect.com/brand/CoffingHoists
Dayton Hoist Source: https://www.grainger.com/category/electric-hoists/hoists-and-trolleys/materialhandling/ecatalog/N-mts#nav=%2Fcategory%2Felectric-hoists%2Fhoists-and-trolleys%2Fmaterialhandling%2Fecatalog%2FN-mtsZ1z0gccl