Man-up Key review

Roger Bisby takes a look at the Man-Up Key, a new tool that is designed to allow manholes to be safely lifted by one person without the need for chiseling or hammering.

Man-Up Key, what a great name for a manhole lifter, unless of course you subscribe to the gender neutral version which is a person hole but person-up is never going to work.

The name aside this is a clever little device that uses kinetic force to hammer up the manhole cover. It is a slide action on the shaft that produces a succession of small shocks. It’s basically the same as you would achieve by hammering around the edges but the fact that it lifts the manhole cover a few millimetre every time means that any debris falls downwards to act as a wedge and the cover moves up bit by bit to the point where it is free.

This is so much better than attacking the edges of the manhole with a hammer and chisel or screwdriver. The problem still remains that you have to lift it. A domestic cover is fine but some of those deep section heavy duty road covers are a two man job if you want to avoid back injury.

In my days as drain unblocker supreme I have struggled with many a manhole and I usually found that I needed some sort of lever to help.

Not only are they heavy but the deep section means that you need to do a straight lift up and that is just about the worst move you can make in terms of lower back injury.  In my days as drain unblocker supreme I have struggled with many a manhole and I usually found that I needed some sort of lever to help. As Archimedes pointed out  there is no weight that can’t be lifted with a long enough lever. That said the tags or straps on the manhole are often just not up to the job so the little shock effects of this Man-Up Key are perfect even if you do end up using something else to make the final lift.

There are no Knighthoods to be had for inventing such a device but hopefully the Welsh  inventors of the Man-Up Key will win some kind of award from the Welsh Development Agency for services to man and his holes

All this  makes me realise that even with a simple things such as a manhole you need a bit of  joined up thinking. There are no Knighthoods to be had for inventing such a device, it will never be sexy but hopefully the Welsh  inventors of the Man-Up Key will win some kind of award from the Welsh Development Agency for services to man and his holes , because it is a clever and uplifting device.

manupkey.eu