c/elevator-mechanics

Had a building manager tell me my door leveling was "off by a quarter inch" - turns out he was using a tape measure with a bent hook

Restoration vs. replacement on old Mowrey cabs - which side are you on?

I was on a job in downtown Baltimore last month and the building manager wanted to save a 1987 Mowrey controller with a fried logic board. Took me 8 hours to trace the damage and I still had to order three relays from a supplier in Chicago. My foreman said we should have just swapped in a new Otis iControl and been done in half the time, but the manager insisted on keeping the original look. Has anyone else dealt with this tug-of-war between preserving old iron and just modernizing?

Had a retired mechanic show me his trick for aligning guide rails on an old Otis install last winter

I was out in Buffalo helping replace a 1984 Otis elevator in a 12-story office building and this old-timer walks up, says he worked on that same car when it was new. He pulled out a worn-down machinist's level and showed me how he'd shim the rails with beer can tabs instead of buying expensive kits. Anybody else got an old-school trick from a random encounter that saved you time on a job?

Heads up about those new MRL controller batteries

Been seeing a bunch of guys swapping out the old flooded batteries in MRLs with sealed AGM ones without changing the charger settings. I caught one smoking last week on a 3-car install downtown. The voltage setpoint is different and the controller will cook them in about 6 months. Anyone else run into this or is it just my area?

Had a stretch of 4 perfect service calls in a row last Thursday

I don't know what was in the air but last Thursday I hit 4 straight calls with zero headaches. First one was a simple limit switch adjustment at a 12 story office building downtown. Second was a door operator belt that only needed a small tension tweak. Third was a weird noise that turned out to be a loose guide shoe bolt. Last one was a routine PM on an old Otis that took 20 minutes. It never happens like that for me, usually I get at least one angry tenant or a broken tool. Any of you guys ever have a day where everything just clicks?

Debate: do you call the customer or fix it first when a door sensor keeps acting up?

I was working a service call in a condo building last month in Phoenix and the owner was standing right there watching me... kept asking if I could just bypass the sensor to get the elevator running faster. I told him I couldn't do that, safety first. But part of me wondered if sometimes on a slow day you just tweak it to get them off your back and fix it later. Which side do you guys fall on when the customer is breathing down your neck?

I finally had a perfect week on the job after 12 years in this trade

Last Tuesday I was working on a MRL elevator in a 6 story building downtown. Everything went smooth from the start. The rails lined up perfectly on the first try and the machine room had cold AC which never happens. By Wednesday I had the controller programming done without a single error code popping up. Thursday we did the load test and it passed on the first run. The building manager even brought us coffee and said we were the fastest crew he has seen in 20 years. Friday I finished my paperwork by 2pm and headed home early. Has anyone else ever had a week where every single thing went right and you almost felt suspicious about it? I kept waiting for something to go wrong but it just never did.

Hit my 1,000th door level adjustment yesterday and it got me thinking

I do door leveling and re-leveling almost every week on these old Otis units. Yesterday I hit my 1,000th adjustment on the same model series. That number surprised me. Not because I kept count, but because it made me realize how many times a fraction of an inch matters. If I miss it by 1/16th, the door drags and the hall call gets no love. After 1,000 of these, I can tell by feel and sound when it is right. My ear catches that little chirp from the hanger bearing when it is off. Has anyone else ever hit a milestone like that and seen how much small details stack up over time?

Spent six hours on a door sensor that just needed a magnet swap

Newer elevator at a 12-story office building in Austin kept phantom opening on the third floor. Turns out the original installer glued the hall door magnet in crooked and it drifted over time. Anybody else waste a whole day on something dumb like a loose wire or bad splice?

Just realized our building is still using cable-hoist traction elevators from the 80s

I work in a 12-story office building downtown that still runs three Dover lifts from 1986. The new guy keeps calling them 'hydraulic' and I correct him, but now I'm wondering does it even matter for daily maintenance? The old cable systems run smoother than some modern MRLs I've seen, but parts are getting impossible to find. Anyone else stuck maintaining older traction machines and have a line on sourcing brake shoes for these?

Had an old Otis controller catch fire last week in a Chicago high rise

We were doing a routine PM on a 30 year old Otis system in the Loop and smoke started pouring out of the controller cabinet. Turned out a capacitor had been leaking for months and finally shorted. Anyone else here been dealing with aging controllers that are getting dangerous?

Hot take: stop using grease injectors on old Otis worm gears

I kept having rail grabs on a 1965 Otis machine in a Chicago high rise. The old timers said use the injector for the worm gear but it just made a mess and the car kept hunting. After 4 service calls in 2 weeks I tried a different approach. I drained the oil and put in a non-EP 140 gear oil from the local supply house. No more grabbing and the ride is smooth now. Has anyone else found that modern EP gear oils mess with older worm gear drives?

Old timer swore by greasing rails by hand, I switched to a needle injector after last summer

I used to just slop grease on every guide rail with a brush like my first mentor showed me back in 2015. Then last July on a job in Denver, a building manager complained about drips on the lobby floor. Switched to a needle injector after that. Keeps things clean and I use less grease overall. Anyone else make the switch and notice a difference in rail wear?

Pro tip: check every emergency phone in your building at least once a month

I was doing a routine maintenance check at a 12 story office building in Portland last Tuesday and found 3 emergency phones with dead batteries. One of them had been dead so long the battery terminals were corroded. Has anyone else ran into this or am I the only one checking these things regularly?

TIL a 20 year old elevator can still pass code if you swap just the controller board

I was working on a Otis from 2004 in Denver last week and the building owner wanted to modernize the whole cab. Turns out the state inspector said the old mechanicals were fine and we only needed to swap the controller board to meet current code. Has anyone else found that older elevators can skate by with just a brain transplant instead of a full gut?

That $500 'heavy duty' brake they sold me at the supply house was a total dud

Last month I grabbed this beefy replacement brake from a local supplier in Houston for a Miconic 10 controller. I paid $500 upfront because they swore it was a direct fit and would handle the load no problem. Got it installed after 4 hours of wrestling the old one off, fired it up, and it started chattering like crazy on the first test run. Turns out the mounting plate was a quarter inch off spec and now I'm waiting 2 weeks for a refund while the elevator sits. Has anyone else had supply houses push parts that don't actually match the specs?

Got stuck in a hospital elevator last month in Phoenix

I was doing a routine PM on a Otis Gen2 at Banner Health around 2pm when the doors just refused to reopen after I cycled the power. Spent 45 minutes in a stuffy cab with no AC before the service tech could get there with the right key. Boss told me I should have just used the emergency release from inside, but that would have tripped the safeties and flagged the whole system. Now I carry a portable fan and a bottle of water in my tool bag on every hospital call. Anyone else ever get locked in and have to wait it out?

Hit my 1000th elevator door adjustment last month and still can't believe how often those damn sensors drift.

Number 1000 was at a 14-story building in downtown Phoenix where the door was stopping three inches short every single time, and I fixed it in 11 minutes flat with a laser alignment tool, but what really got me was realizing I've spent over 200 hours of my life just tweaking door closers and thresholds since I started - anyone else kept a tally on specific repairs and had a number really hit home?

That old hospital elevator in downtown buffalo threw me for a loop

I was up at Buffalo General last Tuesday to fix a call on a big freight elevator. The thing's a 1980s Dover model, all beat up but still running. While I was waiting for the car, I noticed the door interlocks were all original and had this weird patina on the contacts. I ran a quick test, and they were actually cleaner than most 5-year-old units I see. Has anyone else ever seen old gear hold up better than new stuff because of the heavier metals they used back then?

Switched from greasing guide rails by hand to using a pump canister last month

For years I'd just use a brush and a bucket of oil for the guide rails. Messy, took forever, and I always missed spots. A buddy on a job downtown showed me this pump canister setup he uses. Basically a pressurized tank with a hose and nozzle. Cuts application time in half and gets a more even coat. Cost me about 60 bucks for the kit at a supply house in Chicago. First time I used it I felt stupid for not switching sooner. Anyone else use one of these or still doing it the old way?

Wasted $200 on a fancy hydraulic leveling tool for my Ottawa install

I bought this high end hydraulic leveling tool six months ago thinking it would speed up my elevator rail alignments. It was supposed to save time and cut down on errors. Instead, it jammed on the third job and I lost a full day fighting with it. The old string and bubble method worked fine the whole time and cost me nothing. Did anyone else get burned by a tool that was supposed to be a game changer but just made things worse?

Hot take: using a baby monitor to hear the hoistway saved my bacon last Thursday

I was working on a 6-floor install in an old building downtown and kept hearing a weird scraping noise from the top of the shaft but could never catch it on the rope. After 3 trips up and down the ladder I grabbed my kid's old VTech monitor from the car, aimed the parent unit at the hoistway, and set the baby unit on the machine room floor. Dead quiet in there but I walked down to the lobby and heard that scraping clear as day through the receiver. Turns out a loose guide rail bracket was rubbing on the cab roof every time it passed the 4th floor. The building super thought I lost it when he saw me holding a baby monitor, but it saved me about 2 hours of climbing and guessing. Has anyone else used some weird gadget for troubleshooting that actually worked?

Old timer told me to always check the governor tension first before touching the controller

Back in 2003 my first lead mechanic, Hank from the St. Louis local, swore the governor cable was the cause of 8 out of 10 overspeed test failures and after 20 years I can count on one hand the times he was wrong, has anyone else found that rule holds up or is it just our old Otis units?

Had the worst week of my career last month in a 40-year-old Miconic 10

I was stuck troubleshooting a Miconic 10 system in a downtown Chicago office building for five straight days. The thing kept throwing random door zone faults and stopping between floors. Finally on Thursday I realized the serial data cable had a tiny nick in it from where a rodent chewed through the insulation. Replaced that 15 foot section with a shielded Cat5 and it ran perfect for the rest of the week. Has anyone else dealt with weird intermittent faults from chewed wiring in older elevator controls?

Unpopular opinion: older elevators are actually safer than the new digital ones

I was working on a 1977 Otis in a building downtown Denver last Tuesday and that thing had zero computer glitches, just pure mechanical reliability. A month ago I got called to troubleshoot a brand new MRL unit that kept randomly dropping floors because of a software bug. Why are we swapping out bulletproof relays for touchscreens that freeze up every time the temperature hits 95?