Item elevators are wonderful machines for transporting items. They can be useful for a storage system of a fully automatic farm. It is good to know which item elevators are best for you, and how to build them.
Usage
Item elevators are used to transport items upwards. The item could be as a dropped item, or it could be in a container (droppers, mostly). There are quite a few designs, but not all work in all versions.
Designs
Dropper
The following design is a simple dropper elevator, and will work in all versions back to 1.5, when it was introduced.
Fence
This design uses some fence posts and a glitch in the game. However, this glitch wasn't fixed until Minecraft 1.9.
Door
This showcase is of a design that uses only a door and a (wooden) pressure plate. But Xisumavoid, the one who is showcasing it, shows how to improve the design.
Piston
This is a design that can take any amount of items, and send them upwards very quickly. I have tested the design in 1.8 (accidentally, might I say), and it didn't work in that version. It is to be used in 1.9.