I was doing a routine inspection last Tuesday when the whole system went dark and the backup battery kicked in, and after digging into the logs I found a voltage spike from a bad capacitor that took out the main processor, so I had to swap the whole board on the fly while the building manager stood there tapping his foot. Has anyone else run into sudden board failures on those newer Schindler models?
When I started out 12 years ago in Chicago, we used a plumb bob and a 4-foot hand level for every single rail install. Now the young guys come in with these digital laser levels and Bluetooth apps and swear they're within a hundredth of an inch. Looked at a job last month where a crew used nothing but digital gear and the car was bouncing 3/8 inch side to side on the 14th floor landing. Has anyone else gone back to analog for critical stuff like guide rail alignment?
Had an Otis elevator go down hard last month in a 12 story office building. Found a burnt resistor on the main controller board and no backup in stock. Anyone know a reliable supplier that stocks those boards locally?
Found out the main CPU board had a hairline crack that only showed up when the cabinet got warm. Never would've found it without swapping out the whole board just to test. Anyone else run into intermittent faults that only happen under specific temp conditions?
I was at County General last month fixing a passenger car on the south wing when I got stuck riding with this old Otis that had a door contact issue. The thing would close halfway then bounce back open, and the nurses were about to lose it because they needed to get supplies up to the third floor fast. I spent 20 minutes just watching how the rollers and the lock mechanism interacted, and it hit me that I had been rushing my door adjustments for years. Instead of just swapping parts, I started paying attention to the exact wear pattern on the strike plate and how the car was sitting in the hoistway. Now I check the guide rail alignment first before touching any door components, and it has saved me from making three callbacks just this month. Anyone else find that door issues are rarely about the door itself?
I was swapping out a set of governor ropes on a 1960s Otis last Tuesday and man, those old ones were still in decent shape after 30 years. The new replacement set I bought felt thinner and the coating started flaking off before I even got them tight. Is anyone else having trouble finding good quality governor rope that actually holds up?
I had to decide between swapping to disc brakes or keeping the drum setup on a 1960s freight elevator in a downtown St. Louis warehouse. The disc kit was $2,800 and promised less maintenance, but I stuck with a rebuilt drum system for $1,100. After three months, the drum brakes have been dead reliable with no adjustments needed. The discs would have required new mounting brackets and a controller mod for that old Westinghouse machine. Any of you guys prefer one over the other for older traction jobs?
I was working an HVAC emergency call at a 12-story office building in Dallas back in July and noticed the elevator room was hitting 110 degrees. The OTIS relay panels in there were dropping out every afternoon like clockwork. Turns out the thermal overloads were just barely rated for the ambient temp plus the heat from the coils themselves. Now I always check the room temp before I start troubleshooting those old setups. Any of you guys run into heat related failures on those older controllers?
Last week I needed a new door operator board for a job in Akron. The usual place quoted $680. I had to wait a day for stock so I called around and found the exact same part at a place in Canton for $470. Same manufacturer, same warranty, just a smaller shop with better pricing. I checked my past receipts and I've overpaid by at least $2,000 this year alone on parts from the first place. Has anyone else found big price differences between local suppliers like this?
I was working on a new install at a 12-story building in downtown Denver last spring. Always used a level to set each bracket on the rail, just like I learned from my old foreman. Then a younger guy on the crew pulled out a laser and showed me how off my brackets were from the top to bottom floor. Over half an inch of drift that I could never catch with a standard level. Felt like a total idiot for thinking a 4-foot level was good enough on a 60-foot run. Now I borrow our laser on every single job. Am I the only one who skipped this basic step for way too long?
Spent half an hour fighting a stuck bolt with a hand ratchet on the 14th floor, swapped to my Milwaukee M18 and had it done in 3 minutes flat, has anyone else found drills beat hand tools for almost anything on the car?
The rope was wrapped around the governor and I couldn't see squat without it, took me 15 minutes instead of a whole tear-down - has anyone else found a good use for those little endoscopes on the job?
I was swapping out a door operator on the third floor and overheard the building manager telling a tenant that people hate waiting longer than 40 seconds for an elevator. He said they lose renters if the cars take too long. Do you guys ever factor in wait time when you're setting up the dispatch programming or is that more of a building owner worry?
I was working on a Miconic 10 in a 12-story office building downtown last Thursday. The controller board had a short that I didn't catch during my initial inspection, and it sent a spike through my meter. Now I always run a full voltage trace on every board before I even touch a terminal. Anyone else had a controller surprise them like that?
It's because they don't check the hoistway rail bracket level before bolting the hangers in, and then the doors bind after three weeks of use, has anyone else had to go back and fix that on an Otis job?
I was working a modernization at St. Mary's Hospital in Cleveland back in February, and we chased a door reopening issue for two days straight. Turned out the old rails had shifted maybe 3/16 of an inch over 40 years, throwing everything off just enough to mess with the sensors. Anyone else run into hidden rail issues on older elevator retrofits and have a go-to method for catching it early?
Last month I ordered a new controller board for an Otis elevator in a downtown Austin building. Spent $400 on it based on the serial number on the old board. Got it in, pulled the old one, and the connector pinout was totally different. Wasted a whole afternoon swapping it out before I realized the cab had a retrofit years back that changed the board generation. Anyone else run into mismatched parts from older retrofits?
I bought one of those fancy digital levels from the supply house last month to help with rail alignments in a 40-story building downtown. The bubble on my old one was off by a hair and I kept having to redo the leveling brackets on floor 22. Has anyone else had better luck with the old analog style or am I just using the digital one wrong?
Started working on Otis elevators back in 93 in Chicago. Passed 30 years last month. Funny thing is I remember complaining about field wiring back then and it's still the same headaches today. Any other old timers hit a milestone that surprised them?
I got called to look at this old Otis in a downtown building, thing was from the late 70s and shook like a washing machine on spin cycle. The owner said it had been that way for years and they just lived with it. I checked the guide rails and found the brackets had loosened up from the concrete over time which caused the gap to grow by almost a quarter inch. Tightened everything back down and leveled the rails, now it rides smoother than some newer units I've seen. Anyone else run into an old car that just needed the basics instead of a full overhaul?
So I had this guy I work with sometimes, been in the trade since the 80s. He saw me using a digital gauge on a hydraulic job last month and told me to throw it away and go back to analog. Said digital readers will lie to you when the fluid is hot or cold. I kinda laughed it off. But then I checked a system with both yesterday on a hot day in Phoenix, and the digital was off by 15 psi compared to the analog. Now I don't know who to believe. Anyone else run into this?
I was troubleshooting a intermittent door lock fault on an Otis in a 12 story building downtown. Kept chasing wiring issues, swapping boards, even redid a solder joint on the controller. After 4 hours across two days I finally realized the limit switch plunger had a hairline crack that would stick in the cold mornings. A $8 part swap fixed it in 10 minutes. Has anyone else had a tiny part like that waste a whole day?
Been doing this for 8 years and always hit the rails every 3 months like clockwork. Then last month an old Schindler in a downtown Dallas building kept throwing overspeed faults and turns out all that extra grease was building up on the governor rope. Switched to a 6 month schedule on that unit and it's been smooth for 3 weeks now. Any of you guys run into problems from over-lubing?
Last month in a 12-stop Otis in downtown Austin, a frayed governor cable caught and snapped the sheave housing right at the 8th floor mark. Has anyone else seen these start to corrode way faster than the manuals say?
I picked the roller job (figured grease would just hide the real issue) but 45 minutes later the bottom rail snapped and I ended up doing both anyway, has anyone else had a quick fix turn into a full afternoon?