Loading…
31
Tried that cheap $15 door interlock switch from Amazon...
Ngl I was sure it would crap out in a month. But I put it in a Otis elevator in an old building in Cincinnati back in March. Been 6 months now and still works fine. Has anyone else had luck with the cheaper parts or did I just get lucky?
5 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In5 Comments
the_robin4mo ago
Six months on a $15 interlock in an Otis car, and in Cincinnati of all places? That's wild because the humidity and temp swings in this city can kill a part like that in two weeks flat, I swear. I put a similar cheap one in a Dover unit down in Newport last year and it started acting up at three months, started giving false door zone signals. You might have hit the jackpot on that specific batch or something, because most of the time you get what you pay for with those no-name switches.
4
hannah_wells4mo ago
Yeah I've seen the same thing with those cheap interlocks in the humidity down here. The contacts just corrode way too fast and start messing with the door zone signals. But honestly if you clean the contacts with some electrical contact cleaner once a month it buys you a lot more time. That's what I do on the ones I can't swap out right away. Just gotta be careful not to blast it too hard because that cleaner can strip the grease off the moving parts and then you're stuck with a sticky switch.
10
jessem594mo ago
Yeah, "hit the jackpot on that specific batch" might be the nicest thing anyone's ever said about my luck. Usually I'm the guy who buys the cheap part and it dies before I even get the inspection tag put on. But hey, six months is six months, I'll take the win even if it was probably just a fluke. Knowing my track record, the next one I grab will short out before I even get the cover back on.
6
bailey.jennifer4mo ago
I hear you on the humidity thing but I gotta disagree. I think a lot of it comes down to the specific building conditions too. Some of these cheap switches hold up just fine if the machine room isn't a swamp, you know? I've seen name brand parts fail faster in the wrong setup.
3