Both have forks, both come in manual and electric versions, and the names get mixed up all the time. The difference is the mast. A pallet jack doesn't have one: it raises its forks to about 200 mm, enough to lift a loaded pallet off the floor and roll it. A pallet stacker (also called a walkie stacker or manual forklift) has a mast, and ours lift to between 1.6 m and 3.6 m.
When a pallet jack is enough
If your pallets come off a truck, sit in a bay on the floor and later go back out, you don't need lift height. You need something that rolls a heavy load with little effort, and a pallet jack does that for far less than a stacker costs. Our 2,500 kg pallet jack covers most warehouse and loading dock work.
The choices within pallet jacks come down to your pallets:
- Fork width. The 685 mm jack suits standard Australian pallets (1165 × 1165 mm). The 520 mm and 450 mm jacks are for euro pallets, half pallets and narrow fork openings.
- Low pallets. Standard forks sit 75 to 85 mm off the floor when lowered. If your pallets have less room than that, the Low Boy goes down to 51 mm.
- Tight spaces. The short pallet jack has 800 mm forks instead of 1,150 mm, so it turns inside truck bodies and lifts where a full-length jack can't.
If you want a pallet raised to waist height to work from, the high lift pallet jack goes to 800 mm. That's a working height, though, not a racking height.
When you need a stacker
Once a pallet has to go up onto racking, a bench or a truck tray, a jack can't get it there. Measure from the floor to the top of the highest beam you'll load, then allow a little extra so the pallet clears the beam on the way in.
- The 1,500 kg manual walkie stacker lifts to 1.6 m, for heavy pallets on the first level of racking.
- The 1,000 kg manual walkie stacker lifts to 2.5 m, and its forks adjust from 330 to 740 mm.
- The 1,200 kg electric stacker is lithium powered for both lift and travel and reaches 3.5 m. There's also a 3.6 m version that works in an aisle of about 2.2 m.
Check the bottom of your pallets
This is the one that catches people out. On a standard walkie stacker the legs go into the pallet underneath the forks, so there can't be bottom boards in the way. That's why our 1,500 kg and 2.5 m stackers are listed for open-base pallets only.
If your pallets have bottom boards, you need a straddle stacker. The legs on our 1,000 kg straddle walkie stacker sit outside the pallet instead, so it handles open and closed pallets, and it lifts to 1.6 m. Send us your pallet width and we'll confirm it fits between the legs.
Manual or electric stacker?
For a few pallets a day over short distances, manual is fine. Pumping a stacker to full height with a heavy load takes time and effort, though, and over a shift it adds up. Electric earns its keep when pallets move all day, the runs are long or there's a ramp. We go into the trade-offs in is an electric pallet jack worth it?, and the same thinking applies to stackers.
Lifting boxes rather than pallets?
For cartons, bins and parts going to shelf or bench height, a pallet stacker is more machine than you need. The fork and platform stacker lifts 400 kg to 1,500 mm on forks or a flat platform, and our scissor lift table guide covers bringing loads up to working height.
Not sure which way to go? Send us your pallet size, your heaviest load and the height of your top beam through our contact page and we'll recommend a model.
