Hey guys, I thought I would start a discussion on "elevator maintenance". I would like to hear what the average mech does to an elevator during maintenance, it can be a hydro, traction, DW, or homelift. examples are check brushes, gibbs, clean, etc...

Thanks for any responses.

Drew

-- Drew (drewgost@hotmail.com), February 22, 2005

Answers

Call me a cynic, but I would bet that what he does (or is told to do by his company ) is not what the salesman told the customer.

-- geoff judge (geoffjudge@bchtgroup.org), February 22, 2005.

Great answer geoff, would like to know what super salesman steve o tells his customers when he sells all this stuff on contract- profits , ive sold this etc-I know for a fact the big 4 service guys dont do any of that...stay safe guys and it is ffffffffff freezing in dundee n/east scotland.....

-- kvs (groucho0@aol.com), February 22, 2005.

Super Salesman Steve O. expects his fellow employess (factory, construction dept., service dept., AND salespeople) to adhere to the following:

1) We must offer quality products and services 2) We must exceed our customers' expectations 3) We must be profitable

Signed, Market Leader

"If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes"

-- Steve O. (gadini@verizon.net), February 22, 2005.

You can make goals, profit margins, lifts on service quotas, billed repair targets, and a myriad of other euphemisms in an attempt to convince corporate briefcases your doing a hell of a job. Until you can show the average elevator man that his route is his personal business, his to develope and improve, his to learn and understand better than anyone else, you still gonna be losing ground. These days many of us take pride in what we do in spite of our companies, rather than in partnership with them. Course it'll take a smarter man than me to tell you how to do that, and maybe we'll never see those days again.

-- Cliff (clifford.smith@verizon.net), February 22, 2005.

I thought large companies now provide drive pass service???? Not like small companies.

-- Phil (ledgard.services@bigpond.com.au), February 22, 2005.

Otis in the UK provide a "drive by service". Its not mens decision and they certainly dont like it. Infact they feel embarrassed not doing anything. As for the firm I work for - it all depends on the guy doing the service. Some are lazy and hardly do anything. Some care for the lifts like they are their own and feel insulted when they get call outs etc (luckily this is most of them in my region). If you get someone who wanders in and out when they should be spending 1hr plus there doing a service then they are doing something wrong!

-- me (foo@bar.com), February 23, 2005.

Steve - you may be the lead dog; but at the end of the day you do what a dog does best - sniff and lick ass. The one thing I despise is management who like to take the credit when it is the guys in the field who make them look good; yet have to put up with their crap. The key to being an excellent manager is to look at both sides - the customer AND your field staff. As for me - well when I did maintenance I took pride in my jobs and made sure everything was running the best I could get it - I hated getting calls; my jobs were a reflection of my tradesmanship and professionalism. Once you're on top of things the going is easy really. It's hard to say what we do in maintenance because it depends on the units themselves; nobody who works for the big companies ever really follows their maintenance plans anyhow simply because these assume all lifts are alike and get the same usage(and the fact none of us like to be treated like drones - as if we don't know what we are doing). Every lift is different and needs more attention in some areas compared with other lifts - even of the same type. At the end of the day the route mechanic should know his jobs - and lets face it; is the person the customers like to see the most.

-- Ray (fakeaddress@hotmail.com), February 23, 2005.

If an engineer just appears on site, hides in the machine room for 1 hour and then signs the worksheet to say he has checked everything, when things go belly up the service man will NOT find his employer saying ""It's OK, It's what we asked you to do". The guy will be held personally responsible, and the employer will duck away from the fan well before the shit hits it. Of course there is no way you can check every item, on every service visit, on every lift but some things dont need doing every time. Concentrate on the safety stuff ,door locks, etc. and then the controller, there are some things that never wear out( guides pit buffers) as long as you can say honestly you made sure it was safe. If it ain't safe turn it off. If it something worn pass the info on in writing and keep a copy, then you can say "I hate to say I told you so, but, I told you so". If the building owner, or custodian, is daft enough NOT to listen to the guy who he pays to tell him stuff, let him take the consequences of his action (or inaction)

-- geoff judge (geoffjudge@bchtgroup.org), February 23, 2005.

Being honest. Here's what I do....generally:

On every bit of kit I'm looking for faults. I'm using my senses, smell, sound, touch, sight and I'm using my experience.

If a piece of kit comes on Fully comp and it's been neglected I've been known to spend spent a whole day just getting that thing running smooth but it'll repay. My job is to get to know the kit and all its quirks. I don't want call-outs it costs me my reputation, it costs my company time and money, it pisses the client off.

Golden rule, Stay safe. 1 Check the logcard, check hazards. The previous Mech will have put glitches down. 2 Speak to the client. 3 Speak to the operator/s. 4 Check the safety ccts, i've come across shorted locks and knackered emer stops, (tw*ts). Then I'll cycle safety gear and I'll check the cams/rollers, If necessary I'll strip and get an H5/E5 done. I'll check the governor and V1/V2 etc, my firm require a Datasheet and a Risk assessment so that gets done. Then I'll take current readings and check/adjust/strip if necessary the brake. I'll clean the pit.

Then I check in this order: CTC function, Door gear, Locks, Valve gear/Lift Ride, Shaft signalling/limits and controller....I'm looking for smooth/incorrect/sluggish actions, correct mating of contacts, (with LM kit I clean capacitor timer ccts, dust down relays), check for arcing/burning on main drive contactors, chaffing of drives, limit switching.

Once those things are done I'll make recommends, ram seals, drive bearings, light curtains whatever i feel is necessary on top of the stuff that gets picked up in the risk assessment, so's the sales/supervisors can go back to the client and tell it straight.

Once that kit is running smooth and sometimes there are glitches, like loose rear fuseholder wiring and contactor terminals biting on insulation that have been there for 10 yrs, (you've all seen it) I don't have to spend much time. So, the day i spent is re-couped.

Every 12 months, stall check, E1/H1, Rope grip tightness checks.

All in a day's work my friend.....wouldn't want you to think I was loafing. Now then, sometimes I'll only spend 15 mins pure kit time...figured it out? The answer..it's down to experience and accumulated hours on certain kit. And that's why we get well rewarded.

-- Richard (elevator656@aol.com), February 25, 2005.

Service Times

and you expect us all to believe you can accomplish all this on one service visit where do find time for the obligatory bacon roll & cup of tea

if we all had time to service correctly, thats if the salesman sold a decent contract instead of taking his commision and riding off into the sunset life would be a damn site easier

on the other side of the coin imagine the perfect world all the time to service good cheap parts availibility etc no lifts would breakdown and we would all be up the creek without a paddle

p.s. is it true that OTIS now only get 1/2 hr for each service for any ammount of floors?

-- Lift Genie (iamthelift-genie@yahoo.co.uk), February 26, 2005.

What ever happened to reading the paper; looking at dirty magazines or catching up with collegues at the local bar? These were the first thing I learnt as an apprentice!

Those were the good old days of maintenance - It cant be all work no play.

Ok...seriously; you can only afford to do these things when everything is running sweet.

-- Ray (fakeaddress@hotmail.com), February 27, 2005.

Dear Mr Lift Genie

Yep, you can do alot of that just by Listening and watching. It's just common sense.

-- Richard (elevator656@aol.com), March 01, 2005.