Scratching a Lift

[Tanh]

Now I'm sure this is pretty rudimentary to many out there but I'll just go ahead and ask anyway. I've been told or read somewhere that scratch starting a lift start machine can damage it. Is this true and if so how?

I have to admit that it's so much easier for me to scratch start as that's what I'm used to (Taught). I barely stick when I scratch vs lift. So that's what I've been doing with my machine. Any chance something funky's going to happen to it?

There's also tapping, like I've seen Jody do in some of his videos. Any thoughts.

[jameslo]

There's a lot out there on this, and some of it reads like urban legend. But since all the manufacturers, including Everlast, say do not do it, I will have to say that scratch starting a lift sure won't make it better. Apparently, some machines have a switch on them to go between the two methods, and reading about the inner workings of the methods makes it clear that it is not simply a technique difference.

All that said... if I was a betting man, I'd say yeah, you will probably upset the machine doing that.

This is hardly an authoritative answer. It's more of a "I'll heed the warning of the manufacturers" type answer.