Does anyone own a home garage lift or has experience using one? Thinking about getting one and looking get some feedback.
Safety and reliability being #1 concern. Only looking to lift around three feet max.
Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

A good friend of mine bought one several years ago. It goes high enough to park a car under it when in its fully lifted position. He's generally a cheap bastard, but after carefully shopping and digesting reviews, he spent premium money to get one of high quality. It is not something to skimp on - safety first!

 

I have lots of friends that use the QuickJack, but not sure if that gets you the height you're looking for.

 

Will a quick lift give enough of a lift to work under an IS250 say if someone had to get under it to drop the exhaust or replace a cat or a downstream O2 sensor?

 

It gives you just under two feet (Maximum lift 21.5"). More than enough room to do all of that work, but you'll still be lying on your back. So definitely a huge improvement over jack stands, but nothing at all like a two-post or four-post lift.

 

plus the quickjack would be mobile, you can bring it to someones house, but would need a truck/SUV

 

What Geko said. good clearance under the car, but still on your back/roller board.

 

One PSA warning from this QuickJack user.

Be aware that if you advance the QuickJack upward beyond just the lock bar passing over a stop point, you can create a dangerous, falsely locked state.

Normally, one raises the QJ just beyond the point both lock bars pass over their respective lock points. So, when you reverse and go down, the lock bar jams solidly against the stop point to form a rigid lock. In that state, the QJ will go down only if you remove the car's weight. It simply won't go down because the car's weight locks the bar into place.

However, if instead you blithely go a bit further up and the pivoting cam foot also passes the stop point, then go down. The cam foot will jam agains the stop instead. That will hold weight, but is super unstable. The lock bar's end is not engaged solidly. It is jammed against the pivotable cam foot. The cam can (and will) sudden pivot upward and you suddenly have zero lock. If hydraulic pressure has been released as one normally does with a QJ, you can have the QJ completely collapse.

Always check that the actual END of locking bar is engaged, and you do not have a false lock with the cam foot acting as the locking engagement.

Once you are aware of this dangerous possibility, you can easily avoid it by always advance upward only until the locking bar passes the lock points, not far enough to let the cam drop in between.