Why does nobody talk about shielded cable degradation in warm hoistways?
For years, I've been battling sporadic communication dropouts between the car controller and the machine room in routine checks. It wasn't just annoying, it added hours to jobs because we'd be chasing ghosts, re-terminating connections that seemed fine. The real kicker was how it only happened under specific load conditions, which made replicating the fault a nightmare. After countless service calls, I started logging every variable: temperature, humidity, even the time of day. Turns out, a particular batch of shielded cable from a few years back has insulation that degrades faster near heat sources, like the motor. By mapping out where those cables were installed and proactively replacing them in slow periods, I've cut those troubleshooting marathons in half. It's not glamorous, but finally having a repeatable fix for something that felt random is a huge weight off. Sharing this here in case anyone else is pulling their hair out over similar gremlins.