Store-One Guide to Wireless / Cordless Headsets

What's a Remote Lifter, and What Does it Do?

What's a Lifter?

A lifter is a relatively small electric-motor-driven device which is mounted on your telephone under the telephone handset and which mechanically lifts the telephone handset from its cradle, thereby answering the call, and mechanically lowers the telephone handset back into its cradle to end a call.

This device is often referred to as a Remote Lifter or a Remote Handset Lifter (RHL), but it's mostly just called a lifter. A lifter is generally an optional accessory used by wireless headsets to allow you to answer and end a call when you are not near your telephone.

Pictured here is a black lifter, mounted on a white phone, in the 'down' position with the telephone handset resting in the cradle. Well, it could be resting. It could also be sleeping. I'm never sure.

Why a Lifter?

The lifter makes it easier to work with your wireless headset and your telephone, and allows you to be really free to roam since, with a lifter in the system, you can remotely answer and end a call by just pressing a button on the headset.

Without the lifter, when your phone rings, you need to pick up the handset on your phone to answer the call. You can then pick up the wireless headset from its base, or just press a button and begin talking if you are wearing it. Likewise, without the lifter, you must physically hang up the telephone handset to end the call.

With the lifter, when your phone rings, you can just pick up the wireless headset from its base (this activates the lifter which picks up the handset, answering the call), or if you are wearing it, just press a button on the headset (this also activates the lifter which picks up the handset) and begin talking . With the lifter, you can end a call (hang up) by just pressing a button on the wireless headset (which activates the lifter to physically hang up the telephone handset to end the call).

Lifters, Multi-Line Telephones, and Auto Answer

For the lifter to work on multi-line phones, you must have your phone set up to automatically connect you with the line that is ringing when you pick up the handset. If you must push a button after picking up the handset, your phone will need to be reconfigured.

Most modern phones have a programmable set-up feature called "on-hook dialing". When this feature is set 'on', you have to push a button on a multi-line phone to answer the call by connecting to the line that is ringing. When it is set 'off', you are automatically connected to the line that is ringing when you pick up the telephone handset (I've also heard this referred to as "auto-answer"). You will need to have Auto Answer turned on for the lifter to work properly.

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