Last Tuesday I was swapping a controller in a 20 story building downtown and the main brake relay shorted out on me. Sparks flew, fire alarm went off, and I spent 4 hours cleaning up soot with the building manager yelling at me. Anyone else have a day that went completely sideways like that?
Honestly, I spent $600 on a Fluke 87V back in 2014 when I was working on a big job in a hospital in Nashville. Some of the guys laughed at me for spending that much on a meter, but it's been dropped down shafts, soaked in rain, and read thousands of circuits without skipping a beat. I had to replace a $40 clamp meter twice in three years because the leads fell apart and the screen went fuzzy. Has anyone else found a tool that seemed pricey upfront but ended up being the best money they ever spent?
I replaced a set of elevator doors last month and thought I'd save a few bucks by using regular packing tape instead of the edge protection stuff. The packing tape left a sticky residue on the stainless steel that took me like 4 hours with goo gone to clean off. Anyone got a brand of edge tape that actually stays put without leaving a mess?
We had a job at a 12-story building downtown and the owner gave me the choice between keeping the old traction setup or swapping to a machine-room-less. I went with the traction because I know those old Dover units inside and out, plus the building had plenty of machine room space anyway. The MRL would have saved some floor area but the retrofit cost was about $8,000 more for the rails and guides. Took us 4 days to pull the old motor and controller, install the new microprocessor drive, and get the car running smooth again. The leveling is actually within an eighth of an inch now which is better than the old relay logic ever did. My helper asked why I didn't push for the MRL and I told him sometimes simpler is just smarter in the long run. Anyone else run into this choice and regret going one way or the other?
I was doing a mod job on an Otis escalator in a mall near Portland last fall. Older mechanic pulls out this cheap green laser level and starts lining up the step chain guides. I thought it was a joke, I always just use a tape and my eyeballs. He let me check his work after. The rail spacing was within 1/16 over 40 feet. I bought my own laser that weekend. Anyone else ditched the old school way for something you thought was a gimmick?
I kept dropping audio on our service calls until a guy from Schindler pointed out my phone's bottom mic was covered by my pinky, and now I actually hear what the controller is saying during tests, has anyone else accidentally muffled their own ear piece without noticing?
I spent 6 hours last Tuesday replacing a K10 relay in an Otis elevator that should have taken maybe 45 minutes tops. The wiring diagram was wrong and I kept chasing a ghost short that turned out to be a corroded terminal block on the back of the panel. Has anyone else run into hidden issues that made a routine job drag out way longer than expected?
I finally reached a thousand documented emergency stops this morning on a stuck car at a 12-story building downtown, and it made me realize how many close calls I have caught over the years, has anyone else tracked a specific number like this or am I just a weird nerd?
Switched to a graphite-based dry lube on a Schindler 3300 in a 12-story office building last month and now I'm getting weird vibration complaints from the 8th through 10th floors - has anyone else run into issues with dry lube not holding up on heavily used mid-rise rails?
I was at a job site in Columbus Ohio last month where an old Otis lift was getting a full guide replacement. Customer wanted rollers. I argued for slide guides because that's what I grew up with on these older cars. The senior lead there finally had me ride the car with him after the swap. Could not believe how quiet it was on the ride up. Floor leveling was spot on too. Has anyone else switched over and noticed a difference in ride comfort on older cars?
Everyone I work with swears you have to set the door dwell exactly per the manual for every MRL. I tried that on a 2021 Otis install in Denver and it gave me nothing but nuisance reopening calls. Started setting it just under what the book says and knocking 0.3 seconds off the close time. That was 18 months ago and I haven't had a single callback on that bank. I do still set it tight for hospital or nursing home elevators where people move slow. Am I the only one who tweaks this without the factory specs?
Last month I had a hydro in a tight 6-foot pit and the jacks wouldn't fit, so I just shimmed the rail brackets by eye and ran the car. It leveled within 1/8 inch on every floor after three test runs, no adjustments needed. Anyone else ever skip a standard step and have it just work out weirdly perfect like that?
Been setting them with the bubble pack for 12 years. Thought I had it dialed. Then the customer complained about binding on the 3rd floor. Foreman came up, put his $40 digital level on it, and it was off by almost a 32nd. He showed me how the bubble level gets loose after a few drops off the truck. Now I check all my setups with a digital every time before I button up the cab. Anybody else run into this with the old bubble style?
I was swapping out a hydraulic controller in a 1970s freight elevator and got zapped by a frayed door edge wire that had been rubbing for years. Nobody had flagged it on the last inspection and it nearly knocked me off the ladder. How do you guys handle aging safety edges on old Otis units before they become a shock hazard?
Had a call last Tuesday at a 12 story office building in Cincinnati where the car was stuck between floors. Spent 2 hours tracing the door lock circuit in the machine room before I remembered an old trick from a guy who retired back in 2018. Jumped the relay with a paper clip just to test my theory and the doors cycled right open. Anyone else have a hack like that which feels sketchy but never fails?
He told me he trusts the motor and the rails but not the door safety edges because he's seen too many fail on paper, and that stuck with me all week - has anyone else heard old-timers say something similar about a specific part?
Last Tuesday started with a no-heat call on a 20-year-old Otis in the Grand building. Got there, found the controller board fried. Then Wednesday I got two back-to-back entrapments in the same block. First one was a simple door lock issue, second was a brake jam on a hydraulic unit. Took me 6 hours just to get everything moving again. Has anyone else had a week where nothing goes right and you're just fighting fires?
I was digging through old manuals at a building in St. Louis last week and found out about 15% of elevators in older high rises still run on relay logic controllers. That blew my mind since I figured most had been swapped to microprocessors by now. The guy who trained me said some of those systems have been running 50+ years with just basic maintenance. I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it right? Has anyone else run into one of these old relay panels recently and had to troubleshoot them?
I picked up a fancy aftermarket controller for an Otis lift in a 12-story building in Denver. Thought I was saving money over the OEM part, but it started throwing errors on startup by the second day. By day three, it completely smoked out and I had to pay a guy $200 in overtime to help me swap it back to the original. Has anyone else gotten burned by these third-party boards or am I just unlucky?
I had a buddy swear by this magnetic brake release tool for leveling machines, and I told him it was a waste of $45. Last week I had to swap a controller on a MCE iBox in a tight machine room in St. Louis, and my lower back was killing me after 20 minutes of reaching. I borrowed his tool on a whim, and it freed up my hands so I could work standing straight. That thing legit took 2 hours off my install time. Has anyone else tried one of those and actually seen a difference on hydraulic jobs?
Last month I tried to save money on a MCE controller board for an Otis lift in an old building downtown. Figured it would be a straight swap, but after three hours of troubleshooting it just wouldn't sync with the door locks. Ended up buying the OEM part for $850 anyway and had to eat the cost of the first one. Has anyone else dealt with knockoff boards that just don't work right?
I always used rope governors on modernizations because that's what I learned on, but last week I did a 15-stop hydraulic in an old office building in Des Moines and swapped to a drum type. The drum was way easier to adjust and I didn't have to fight with fraying rope near the sheave. Has anyone else made the jump and noticed a big difference in setup time?
I'm still buzzing honestly. Building was a 12 floor office tower in downtown Minneapolis, the rails had like 1/8 inch wear in spots. Took me three tries to get the alignments perfect on the first car, but once I got the hang of it the second car went smooth. Anyone else find older hydraulic systems easier to work on than modern ones?