c/elevator-mechanics

Vent: Talked to a guy who still uses relay logic

Ran into an older mechanic at a supply house in Dayton last week. He said he still prefers old school relay logic over these new microcontrollers because you can actually see what's happening. Got me thinking about how much trouble I've had tracing faults on a board vs. just watching a relay drop out. Anyone else feel like we traded reliability for convenience?

That door closer change I saw at a 15-year-old job site

I was doing PM on a building downtown in Austin last month, same bank of elevators I've serviced for 5 years. Noticed the door closing times were getting slower by about 3 seconds across all 4 cars. Pulled up the adjustment logs and saw the old closer springs had been swapped out 18 months ago with lighter-duty ones. The building manager told me they wanted quieter operation, but now the doors are dragging during peak hours. Has anyone else seen a shutdown risk from swapping hardware just to cut noise?

Rider in building 7 taught me something about leveling

I was fixing a door sensor in a midtown office tower last Tuesday when this older guy in a suit came up and asked if I knew why the car always stopped a half inch low on floor 12. He had been riding that elevator for 10 years and kept a little notebook of every time it did it. Turns out he was an electrical engineer and his notes helped me find a worn controller relay I would have missed. Has anyone else had a regular tenant give you useful data like that?

Blew $150 on a fancy vibration sensor that was useless in my old elevator bank

I was working on a 1970s Otis setup in a building downtown and wanted to get fancy with predictive maintenance. So I bought this wireless vibration sensor kit from some online startup for $150. Took me half a day to mount it on the motor, pair it with the app, and run the calibration. Right away it showed high vibration readings on every single trip. Turns out the old building has a loose floor plate above the machine room that shakes whenever the car passes the 3rd floor. The sensor was just picking up the floor vibrating, not the motor. I wasted 4 hours and $150 on something a $10 stethoscope could have told me in 2 minutes. Has anyone else had a high tech tool totally fail because of some random building condition?

Found out elevator rope inspection intervals vary by state more than I thought

I was looking at ASME codes last week and noticed some states require rope inspections every 6 months while others go up to 12. Anyone else run into this difference when working across state lines?

That old Schindler controller in the basement of the county office building finally made me stop ignoring door lock adjustment logs

Spent 4 hours last Tuesday chasing a phantom fault on a 2003 Traction unit in Des Moines because I skipped logging the door lock gaps for the last 3 service calls, and now I keep a dedicated clipboard in my truck just for that model, anyone else have a specific building that taught you a hard lesson like that?

Overheard a building super say elevator mechanics just push buttons and collect checks

That guy has clearly never spent a Friday night elbow deep in a 30-year-old hydraulic unit in a basement with no heat while trying to figure out why the relief valve is chattering.

Old building in Philly had a weird elevator setup that threw me off

Last Wednesday I was working on this 1920s building in Center City Philly, and the elevator car kept getting stuck between floors. Three hours of checking relays and wiring before I realized the counterweight was hitting a modified rail bracket some previous guy had installed wrong. Had to bring in a grinder to trim it down a half inch. Anyone else run into janky retrofits in really old buildings?

Had an old timer tell me my leveling was off by a 16th and it bugged me for months

I was working on a Mowrey elevator at an apartment complex near Lincoln, Nebraska last spring. This retired mechanic was just hanging around watching me work and he said "your car level is off by about the width of a dime." I brushed it off at first because everything looked fine to me. But after he left I put my good Starrett level on the sill and sure enough it was off by about 1/16th of an inch. I spent the next 6 months rechecking every door level I set and now I actually use a feeler gauge to double check my work. Has anyone else had a random comment from a stranger completely change how you do a basic part of the job?

Threw $400 at a hydraulic jack for my service truck and it already paid off in one call

I got tired of fighting those cheap harbor freight jacks on service calls so I bought a OTC 5 ton low profile a few months back. Cost me around $400 at the local supply house and I thought I was nuts for spending that much. Then last week I had to pull a stuck car at a mall in Tulsa and that jack lifted the whole load without even grunting. The cheap ones always leak down on me after a few months but this thing holds solid. Anybody else bite the bullet on a premium jack and feel like it was worth it?

Realized why that old Otis car kept drifting at Terminal B

Last month I was troubleshooting a leveling issue at LaGuardia Terminal B. Checked everything three times. Then I noticed the rubber isolating grommets on the selector were shot. 17 years of vibration turned them to dust. Ever had a picky old machine fool you for hours?

PSA: stop using WD-40 on elevator door rollers

I spent an hour at a job last week where the previous guy had soaked the rollers in WD-40 and they were just slipping and gumming up worse. Switched to a dry silicone lube and the doors ran smooth in about 30 seconds. Anybody else run into this mess from someone else's quick fix?

Took me 3 blown controllers to learn this trick about door lock circuits

I kept chasing intermittent faults on Otis 411 door lock circuits. Replaced two LCI controllers and a DSS board before I figured out the real issue. Turns out the old door lock contact screws were loose and vibrated just enough at high floor travel to break the circuit momentarily. A tiny drop of blue Loctite on each screw fixed the problem for good. No more phantom faults and the customer stopped calling me at 2 AM. Anyone else ever go crazy on a simple loose connection like this?

I tracked 100 door leveling jobs and the numbers surprised me

Over the past year I kept a record of every door leveling adjustment I made in the field. I do a lot of work in older buildings downtown, and I figured most of my callbacks would be from settling or worn guides. Turns out out of those 100 jobs, 87 of them had the original door frame out of square by at least 3/16 of an inch. That number shocked me because I always blamed the elevator parts first. Now I check the frame before I even touch anything else, and my callback rate dropped by half. Has anyone else kept track of something similar on their jobs?

Had a guy in a 1960s Otis tell me I was greasing it wrong for years

I was pumping way too much oil into the guide rails on a service call last Tuesday and this old timer just stood there and watched me for a minute. He said I was gunking up the vane with all that extra oil and I'd been doing it the same way for 5 years. Anyone else get a tip from an older mechanic that just flipped everything upside down?

Vent: A call for a stuck car turned into a full door operator swap at 2 AM

The motor shorted out and fried the board, so I had to replace the whole assembly. What's your go-to move when a simple fix blows up like that?

The day a service call turned into a pigeon rescue mission

Got called out for a door fault at a 1970s apartment block, only to find the entire hoistway packed with nesting material and a very angry bird. The super just shrugged and said, 'It's been making that grinding noise for a month.' Anyone ever had to deal with a full-on animal eviction before a repair?

I think the new safety sensor rule is slowing us down more than it helps

Last Thursday in Cincinnati, a simple door adjustment on a Kone unit took me four hours because the new laser sensors kept faulting. I had to recalibrate them six times after each minor tweak, which felt like overkill for a standard gap issue. My foreman kept saying it's for liability, but it turned a one-hour job into a half-day ordeal. Has anyone found a faster way to get these sensors to hold their setting?

Went from hating to loving the new KONE EcoDisc motor after a year on a retrofit job in Phoenix.

The power draw was 30% lower on our meters after the first full summer, which completely sold me. Anyone else have a piece of gear you were wrong about?

Showerthought: I thought the 'elevator whisperer' thing was total nonsense until last month

We had this finicky old hydraulic unit in a 1980s building downtown that kept tripping on overheat. I checked everything, fluid levels, pump, the valve. My buddy joked we should call this retired guy, Frank, who 'just talks to them.' I was super skeptical but desperate. Frank shows up, puts his hand on the rail for like 30 seconds, and says 'The guide shoes on the south side are binding, it's working too hard.' We checked, and he was right, they were totally out of spec. Has anyone else had a weird hunch or trick that actually works?

Stuck for two days on a door zone fault that was just a bad limit switch

Got a call for a hotel downtown where the elevator kept stopping about six inches high. The controller kept throwing a door zone fault. I checked the sills, the hanger rollers, the whole door operator assembly. Spent maybe 16 hours over two days on it, tracing wires and checking voltages. Finally, on a hunch, I swapped the up limit switch on the car top. The old one was just worn out and sending a weak signal. Has anyone else had a simple part failure mimic a bigger system problem like that?

Just passed my mechanic's license test in Chicago after failing it twice last year.

That weird trick with a zip tie on a stuck door operator actually worked

I was dealing with this finicky old Otis door operator in a downtown building, kept getting a door open fault even after adjusting the clutch. I mean, I was about to order a new board, but then I remembered this old timer at a training session in Chicago years ago saying you could sometimes reset the cam switch by jamming a zip tie in the track. Figured it was worth a shot, so I cut a tie, wedged it in to hold the switch closed, cycled power, and the fault cleared. The thing's been running fine for three days now. Anyone else ever pull off a weird fix like that to avoid a big parts order?

Heard a kid call an elevator a 'magic room' and it got me thinking

I was working on a 1990s Otis unit in a Chicago library last week and overheard a little girl tell her mom that. It made me remember when I started in the 80s and everything was relays and contactors you could actually see and hear. Now I'm tracing faults through a circuit board the size of a playing card. The old gear was loud and took up a whole machine room, but you could fix it with a meter and a screwdriver. I miss the physical feel of the job sometimes, even if the new stuff is more reliable. What's the oldest piece of equipment you guys still work on regularly?

Got asked to fix a 'stuck' elevator at a new condo building in Phoenix

The owner was convinced the doors wouldn't open because the floor was off by a quarter inch. I get there, check the level, and it's perfect. Turns out he was just leaning on the 'Door Open' button for a full 30 seconds before pressing his floor number. He looked at me and said, 'Well, the manual didn't say not to.' Ever had a call where the fix was just telling someone how to use the buttons?