c/elevator-mechanics

Serious question, why does everyone still trust door lock monitoring contacts?

I spent 8 years on Otis and Thyssen units and always replaced bad door lock contacts without thinking. But last spring on a 20 story office tower in Nashville I had a car that kept dropping out of service at random floors. The contacts tested fine with a meter, voltage was clean, no visible wear. I swapped them anyway because that's the standard move, but it kept happening. After 3 weeks of chasing it, I found the real problem was a cracked solder joint on the controller board that only opened up when the car hit certain speeds and vibrated. That board was flagged for replacement in the PM schedule anyway, and nobody thought to look there first because the contacts are the easy answer. I'm not saying skip basic checks, but I think we lean on those contacts way too hard when the fault code actually points elsewhere. Has anyone else had a phantom shutdown that turned out to be a board issue, not the mechanical side?

Rope hit the door header on a downtown Reno job last Monday

We were doing a mod on a 12 stop hydraulic in a 40 year old building. The cab ran fine on inspection, but when I switched to auto, the hoist rope caught the door header on the way up. It was a 2 to 1 roping setup and the hitch was off by a few inches. I had to re-rig the whole thing on the fly, took about 4 hours extra. The super was standing there the whole time asking if we'd be done by 3 PM. We made it by 5:30, but now I double check the hitch length before we even power up. Has anyone else had a rope hit issue from a worn header or was it just my luck?

The brake test in 2017 I ignored finally caught up with me

Guy from the union local in Cleveland told me to always time the brake drop with a stopwatch, I thought he was being dramatic... then last month a car settled 4 feet on a packed lobby and I knew he was right. Now I time every single one, even on quick PMs, has anyone else had a close call that changed their routine?

Door lock contact timing drove me nuts on a 2012 Otis

I spent a whole Saturday in Cincinnati chasing a intermittent fault on a 2012 Otis. The door lock contacts kept reading fine on the voltmeter, but the car would still stop between floors. Turns out the gap was off by barely 3/16 of an inch, enough to bounce under load. Are you guys setting these with a feeler gauge every time, or just trusting the switch click?

That hydraulic valve job in Phoenix ate my whole weekend

Last month I pulled a 2-post lift apart in a parking garage downtown, replaced the main relief valve, and it still dropped like a rock. Turned out the check valve seat had a hairline crack I missed because I only looked at the O-rings. Took me two extra days and a second trip to the supply house to finally catch it. Has anyone else had a valve body failure that hid behind a simple symptom like that?

Always thought hydraulic elevator modernization was overhyped until I did one in a 1970s building downtown

Was dead set on keeping the old jack because 'if it ain't broke' but the cylinder had micro-cracks we missed until we pulled it. Three months later the new setup is way smoother and the building manager told me the tenants haven't complained once. Anyone else had a job where replacing everything was actually the smarter call?

Forgot to lock the hoistway doors on a 2-car install, almost lost a guy

We were doing a 6-story traction install in an older building downtown Seattle, and I was running the car up to the top floor to check the governor. I had left the hall door on the 3rd floor unlatched just for a second to grab my phone, my helper was coming up the ladder, and he kicked it open. He stepped right into the shaft opening before I yelled. He grabbed the door frame at the last second, my heart stopped for a full 5 seconds. Now I chain the doors open on any landing where I'm working, no exceptions. Anyone else had a close call with the hoistway doors?

Old timer told me to grease my guide rails lightly and I learned the hard way

Guy named Hank who's been doing this since the 80s told me not to slather grease on the guide rails but just a thin coat. I thought he was being lazy so I went heavy on a job at the Grand Plaza building in Chicago last month. Well the car started binding and jerking after three days and I had to strip it all down and redo it. Has anyone else gotten burned by ignoring simple advice from the veterans?

The day a door lock circuit on a 20 year old ThyssenKrupp took me 6 hours

I spent all morning chasing a ghost on a 1995 ThyssenKrupp unit in downtown Portland. Everyone said it was probably a stuck relay or a bad limit switch, but I tested every darn thing from the controller back to the car top and found nothing. Turns out a tiny resistor on the door lock logic board had drifted way out of spec, which I only caught after pulling the whole board and checking it with a magnifying glass. Has anyone else spent way too long on what should have been a 45 minute fix?

Rant: Got stuck fixing a governor on a 30-story Otis in Midtown

I was up on the machine room roof last Tuesday in NYC, trying to figure out why the overspeed governor kept tripping at the wrong speed. After 3 hours of messing with the tension sheave and chasing the manual, I realized the rope groove had a flat spot from wear (maybe from the last guy overtightening it). I swapped in a spare sheave I had in the truck and it ran smooth on the next test. Has anyone else run into governor rope groove issues on these old Otis models?

I'll take an old Otis over a modern MRL any day

Just had to pick between a full mod job on a 20 year old Otis or putting in a brand new MRL system for a 6 floor office building downtown. Everyone I talked to kept pushing the MRL because it's cheaper and quieter. But I went with the full control overhaul on the old Otis because the cab and rails were still solid. Two months in and the thing runs smoother than any new MRL I've worked on. Who else has had better luck keeping old iron running instead of swapping in the new stuff?

Overheard a building manager say something about 'the lift just needs a reboot' and I had to bite my tongue

I was working on an old Otis unit in a 12 story office building over in Oakland last Tuesday, and this building manager comes up while I'm checking the controller. He says real casual like, 'you know, I think the lift just needs a reboot, my IT guy does that with our server all the time.' I just kind of nodded and smiled, but inside I was cracking up. Like yeah sure, let me just hit ctrl-alt-delete on a 1979 MCS 220 and see if the car comes back to life. I ended up finding a busted door lock contact on the 8th floor that was causing the intermittent shutdowns, which is way more common than people think. Has anyone else had a customer or building staff try to give you dumb IT-style advice for elevator troubleshooting?

Had a door zone lock fail on a hospital install last Tuesday

I was at County General setting up a new MRL and someone hit the fire recall while I was still testing the door logic. Three floors of doors just gave up and went full manual on me. Has anyone else had an emergency circuit override mess up their sequence like this?

Had a controller board fry on a third-floor landing last Tuesday during rush hour

I was stuck in a 1980s Otis in a downtown office building when the main drive board started smoking, and I had to manually lower the cab using the brake release while two suits banged on the doors, has anyone else had to do an emergency manual descent with people inside?

Just realized modern elevator cabs weigh almost 40% less than the ones from the 1970s after looking up old building specs

I was digging through some original blueprints for a retrofit in a 1968 office tower here in Columbus and the old cab weight listed was like 3,400 pounds versus the new MRL cabs we install now that come in around 2,100, has anyone else seen that kind of difference on their jobs?

Hot take: I chose the old Otis hydro over the new MCE controller on a mod job in Cleveland last month and it paid off big time.

Everyone said I was crazy for keeping the ancient valve instead of swapping to the MCE, but after 3 weeks of solid running, the customer's downtime cost was $0 compared to the $1,200 I saved them on parts, so who's the real genius now?

A building manager in Chicago told me I was wasting time by greasing guide rails every 3 months

This week at the Hyatt downtown was a disaster with the hydraulic line

I got called in on Monday for a routine check on the freight elevator at the Hyatt downtown, and by Tuesday I was elbow deep in hydraulic oil. The main line had a pinhole leak that sprayed all over the machine room floor... took me three hours just to clean up the mess. Then the parts guy told me the replacement hose would take two days to ship from their Dallas warehouse. So I had to rig a temporary patch just to keep the kitchen running for the lunch rush, and the hotel manager kept asking why it wasn't fixed in an hour. Anyone else deal with hotel staff breathing down your neck while you're trying to do a proper repair?

That $600 OTIS controller board I swapped in last week was a complete dud out of the box

Bought a rebuilt OTIS CH400 controller board from a supplier in Newark for $600 and it was dead on arrival. No power to the motor drive, no error codes, just nothing. Wasted a whole Saturday troubleshooting before I gave up and sent it back. Anyone else had bad luck with rebuilt boards from certain places?

I finally realized why that old Otis mechanic kept squinting at my work

Had a retired union guy from the 70s watch me swap a door lock controller last Tuesday and he said I was moving too fast with my meter, and it hit me that I've been skipping the basic step of reading voltage under load instead of just checking continuity, the way he showed me saved me 30 minutes on the next call - has anyone else had an old timer change how they troubleshoot?

Three hours on a door switch that took five minutes to find

I spent half a day Tuesday chasing an intermittent fault on a MCE controller in an old office building downtown. Turned out to be a loose connection on the door limit switch that I had checked twice already. Has anyone else had a gremlin like that where you overthink it and miss something dead simple?

Old-timer told me to always grease the rails on a new install, I skipped it.

My partner said it was a waste of time on a 6-stop job in Phoenix last summer, so I just let it ride. A month later the car was jerky and we had to pull the whole guide shoe assembly. So who's right here, is rail grease actually necessary or does it depend on the building?

Had an MRL controller lock up on a 10th floor landing in Seattle last Tuesday

I was doing a routine maintenance call on an Otis Gen2 at the Pacific Tower building. The controller just froze mid cycle with the car stuck between floors and no error codes showing on the LCD. Had to pull the main disconnect and cycle the whole board before it came back to life. Anyone else run into ghost lockups on these Gen2 controllers?

Dropped $400 on a digital level that beeps at me like a smoke detector

Bought a fancy Hilti digital level thinking it would save time on rail installs, but the thing keeps beeping every time I breathe near it. Anyone else ditch the high-tech stuff and just go back to a basic torpedo level?

That old timer on the 35th Street elevator mod back in 2012 showed me to put a dab of soap on the rail clips before bolting them down

I was fighting with squeaky guide rails for two days on a passenger elevator at a 12-story office building and after trying grease, shims, and even swapping out the shoes he just walked over and said try this trick and the noise disappeared instantly, has anyone else run into rail chatter on older Otis setups where nothing seems to seat right?