When it comes to car emergencies, being the jack of all trades comes in handy, especially when doing repairs. But by using the correct jack, you can even become the master.
You will definitely want to be readily equipped with the right tools during emergencies. So, who wins the bottle jack vs floor jack battle?
To find out the winner, you have to go through the features and their differences detailed in our floor jack vs bottle jack guide. So let’s go right ahead and look at each of their properties and differences.
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Differences Between Bottle Jack and Floor Jack
A car jack’s main purpose is to lift up the car so that it allows tire changing or any other work to be done underneath the car. There are different types of jacks, but the bottle and floor jacks are the more popular ones.
They each have different features, so let’s see how the contrasting attributes can be categorized into.
1. Size and Shape
As the name itself suggests, bottle jacks are shaped exactly like bottles. Bottle jacks use hydraulics and are mounted vertically between the ground and the underside of the car.
Floor jacks are rectangular and are mounted lying flat on the grounds. They are bigger in size compared to bottle jacks.
2. Capacity
Although bottle jacks are small and compact, they are able to lift the pressure of up to 50 tons easily.
However, floor jack capacities are not as high. Common ones are 1.5 to 3 ton ones, but some brands have floor jacks that hold up to 6 tons of pressure fluid.
3. Difference in Usage
Because bottle jacks can lift heavier weights, they are commonly used in heavy-duty vehicle lifting. Bottle jacks are the top choice of truck drivers.
Both the design and capacity of floor jacks don’t make them suitable for lifting heavy vehicles. But it is a popular and common jack in household garages and a sought-after choice for casual drivers.
4. Clearance
Bottle jacks are designed to provide better usability for vehicles that have high ground clearance. So these are good for using on trucks and sedans.
As floor jacks lay flat and have lower pressure capacity, they are used for cars with lower clearance. It is suitable for normal cars.
Benefits of Using Bottle Jack
Here are a few things you might love while using a bottle jack.
1. Easy to Carry and Store
Bottle jacks are small, compact, and light in weight, making them very easy to carry around and travel with.
2. Efficient Ratio
With the size being small, it can hold a surprisingly high amount of load – even up to 50 tons.
Regardless of its small size, the design is very efficient when considering its size to load ratio.
3. Cheaper in Price
Compared to floor or trolley jacks, bottle jacks have a lower cost and provide a lot of power.
4. Can Lift Cars Higher
The design of bottle jacks allows them to lift up very heavy vehicles to greater heights.
Drawbacks of Using Bottle jack
1. Not Stable
Due to its thin base, the center of gravity is higher up on the cylinder, thus making the jack less stable. The versatility is limited here, as it can only lift the car up but cannot provide enough stability to hold it up that way. Risks are associated with working with bottle jacks for people who are not accustomed with these. If not positioned correctly, the jack can slip and cause severe accidents.
2. Not Easy to Set up
For the average car owner, it will take a relatively long time to just set up a bottle jack and get it working. Positioning them can be tricky due to the lack of rods or handles. Since the process of setting up the jack is lengthier, it is not an efficient tool to use when you are under a time crunch.
3. Short Lift Height
As it has a small lift height, bottle jacks are not suitable to use in vehicles that have low ground clearance.
Benefits of Using Floor jack
1. Very Stable
The base of floor jacks is very wide, making the center of gravity lower towards the ground. This means there is very little chance of the car toppling over when placed on the jack.
2. User Friendly
Floor jacks come with long control rods. Getting into the physics of it, handling longer rods means you have to exert lesser energy to cause it to turn.
Also, simple steps are involved in setting up floor jacks.
3. Lasts Long
Most floor jacks are made of heavy duty steel, which is extremely durable. So if you purchase one floor jack, chances are it will last you a lifetime!
4. Easy Mobility
Also known as trolley jacks, floor jacks have small wheels at the bottom so they can be easily moved around.
Drawbacks of Using Floor jack
1. Bulky
Generally floor jacks are wide and take up a lot of space. And since they are bigger in size, floor jacks are heavier, so storing them can become an issue.
2. Expensive
Due to the metallic components and outer structure, trolley jacks are comparatively costlier than other types of car jacks.
3. Low Capacity
Floor jacks aren’t suitable for heavy duty vehicle lifting. Also, the design only allows lifting cars with low clearance.
What is Better, a Bottle Jack or a Floor Jack?
You’ve come reading this far, and you still might be wondering, which is the better one in the hydraulic bottle jack vs floor jack battle? Well the answer is – it depends.
Now before you get annoyed, it’s hard to make a single decision for the winner. As you have just read about the comparisons above, it is clear that they each have their separate sets of good and bad qualities.
So if you’re still bothered about deciding which is better, floor jack or bottle jack – you can easily decide this for yourself by just narrowing down your requirements.
Number one; consider the type of vehicle you drive. If it’s a regular four-wheeler for everyday use, then you know the better option would be a trolley jack. If it’s a heavier vehicle, you also know what the answer is!
As you can see, it all depends on what you drive, and then you can weigh all the pros and cons to find out what will be best suited. But if you are extremely hesitant and still don’t know what to do, it is best to leave your car issues for the mechanic to handle.
Wrapping Up!
What would you choose between something that is small and easy to carry compared to something that’s big and heavy? You will most likely choose the first one.
Considering the structures of the two tools, are bottle jacks better than floor jacks?
Not necessarily, because when it comes to comparing bottle jack vs floor jack properties, their utilities are handy in different situations, separately.
So there is no definitive answer as to which one tops the other.
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