Old elevator controllers – ready for replacement

Last Thursday I went out to one of our jobsites in the City and stuck around to look at 3 different buildings we are going to be doing control replacement at.  Each building is unique in why they are doing their modernization and what they are.  From 3:00pm to 7:00pm I visited 4 buildings in Chicago and Loyola won.  As a Vincentian I begrudgingly acknowledge the Jesuits success.  

The first building I visited is in the Lakeview neighborhood, nothing terribly remarkable other than replacing a 1966 Otis Elevator hydraulic equipment with all new.

The 2^nd building I visited was in the Lincoln Park neighborhood where the Montgomery elevator has been shut down for a significant period of time.  I first was at the building over a year ago to take a look.  They  had their landing system ripped off the wall somehow.  It also so happens they are about 5 years late in replacing their hydraulic cylinder to comply with the City of Chicago double bulk head mandate.  In the 2nd picture I can hear Urkel say "Did I do that".

The 3^rd building I visited was in the Gold Coast neighborhood where the elevator got clipped for the new FEO phase II mandate.  It has a Vertitron controller that does not have the capabilities of putting the correct protocol for FEO compliance as mandated by the City of Chicago.  This building is just getting a new controller and fixtures.

The final building, I went to is in River North which has a Elevator systems controller put in by an independent in the 1980’s that fails the FEO mandate.  They will be getting all new equipment less their cylinder.  This one only has around 100 relays.

Nothing significant on this week’s post other than documenting running the gauntlet and seeing the variety of elevator control systems.  In a few months all 4 buildings will have brand new equipment that is a bit more user friendly.

As always feel free to contact us at www.colleyelevator.com, email Craigz@colleyelevator.com or call 630-766-7230.

Chicago elevator maintenance – Good looking work

Last week I went to many building’s but two building’s stuck out in my mind.  You usually remember the really bad ones but in this case there was two good ones.

Building #1 – This is a building we maintain and I was meeting the new owner of the building.  The new owner was late so I poked around to look at what we had under the hood.  Everything looked great.  I always love seeing this on our jobs.  Colley put this elevator in 1986.

[Clean car top]

[Pit is pretty good] 

[32 year old power unit still looks good for its age]

[Controller is clean and well maintained]

Building #2 – I met a building owner in the wee hours of the morning to kick the tires on his elevator.  He had been told by Otis that his door scan is obsolete and it would cost $4,500.00 to replace so he got concerned about his other equipment when the sales person started pushing other modernization.  I took a look around and everything was clean, well maintained and running well.  This is a case of the elevator maintenance person doing a great job but the office personnel trying to sell sell sell.  Otis put this elevator in 1993.

[Clean car top]

[Pit is pretty good] 

[Power unit looks good] 

[Controller is well maintained] 

Take away - Both of these job are testimonials to good maintenance technicians that are doing right by the building.  Cleaning is one of the first parts to getting and keeping a elevator running well. 

As always feel free to contact us at www.colleyelevator.com, email Craigz@colleyelevator.com or call 630-766-7230.

Hydraulic elevator cylinder replacement – What we found underground

We began working with a building for maintenance about a year ago and last week they called to say the fire department was out at the building due to smoke.  This was a sleepy hydraulic elevator installed by Otis in 1992.  The service person arrived at the building to find the hydraulic tank was empty.  The next day I went out to the building with the service tech and we isolated the leakage to be underground.

This is a picture of the cylinder when we began working at the building - Nice and dry.

This is a picture of the cylinder when we went through cylinder leakage discovery - Part of the 40 gallons of hydraulic fluid that didn't make it into the sump

This is a picture of what we found underground when pulling the cylinder out

[Field alteration to PVC upon installation - Not recommended]

[No bottom to PVC - was it cut off or is it still in the hole?]

[A bit bigger than a pin hole leak, notice the material around the hole. This was inline with the cut made in the PVC]

Observation – In the 21 years of working in the elevator industry I have heard of companies filling up PVC with water to get it down a cylinder hole or that did not put bottoms on PVC.  The company who installed this cylinder put a cut in the side of the PVC to get it to go down.  The company who installed this cylinder also may have cut the bottom off or the bottom is at the bottom of the hole, we do not know.  The deterioration of the cylinder from the exposure to the water is significant.  This could have been far worse if a larger piece of the cylinder had broken free instead of the pinhole.  I also have never seen a cylinder installed 3 times in less than 30 years, 1992 to 2018.

Newer technology – This hole has a significant amount of water in it that will fill the hole back up after the debris removal company comes to remove the debris from the hole.  A solution to work around the water is to install a cylinder bag.  This is a newer solution from Laird Plastics.  The cylinder bag is not buoyant like rigid PVC, it will displace the water when going down without the buoyancy.

Take a look - http://www.lairdplastics.com/product/materials/finished-products/56-jack-itatrade-hydraulic-jack-liner

Take away – In a niche industry such as elevators it is difficult to know who will be competent and do work in accordance to good work practices and the elevator safety code.  Make sure the elevator contractor you hire will do their job safely and correctly. This situation could have manifested itself much worse than a large bill to replace the elevator’s cylinder.

As always feel free to contact us at www.colleyelevator.com, email Craigz@colleyelevator.com or call 630-766-7230.

Elevator Modernization – Downers Grove Park District – Downers Grove, IL

Elevator Modernization – Downers Grove Park District – Downers Grove, IL

We recently had the opportunity to partner with the Downers Grove Park District to work on replacing their 45 + year old elevator.  The existing elevator was a 1970’s vintage ESCO elevator that was having reliability issues servicing this busy building.  The building hosts a plethora of activities for babies, toddlers and seniors.  In the mornings this is busy with strollers and walkers to wagons and canes.  Time line was tight.  Here is how it came out.

Existing equipment

Controller – ESCO relay logic

Door operator – GAL MOD

Power unit – ESCO with EECO UV5A valve 

Fixtures – Dover

New equipment

Controller – MCE Motion 2000

Door operator – GAL MOVFR w/GAL hatch and car equipment

Power unit – MEI w/Maxton UC4 valve

Fixtures – Innovation

Car and hatch doors – MEI car doors

Car interior – Cabworks

Roller guides - Elsco

Fire recall - Chicago Metro Fire

Cab interior

[Old elevator interior]

[Old ceiling & lighting]

[New elevator interior]

[New elevator interior]

[New elevator ceiling & lighting]

Elevator interior - We partnered with Cabworks to give the building a new interior.  A lot of times this is the only item a building notices, cab interiors.  The interior came out great.  Colley installed new MEI stainless steel #3 car doors and Cabworks did the rest. 

Machine room 

[Old machine room]

[New machine room]

Machine room - We where able to utilize the back of the elevator machine room that used to be a coal shoot.  It since has been bricked in.  Now there are no electrical clearance issues and you have a ton of space in the new machine room.  

Elevator controller

[Old ESCO Elevator Controller]

[New MCE 2000 Hydraulic elevator controller]

Elevator control system - You can see the difference 45 years of elevator controller technology.  The ESCO relay logic versus the Motion Control Engineering[MCE] solid state control system.

Elevator car fixtures

 [Old ESCO car station]

[New Innovation car station]

Elevator car station - We removed the old car station and installed a new Innovation car station.  The look is complemented by the new cladding by Cabworks. This is a unique cab where the car station is on the side wall as this is front and rear openings.  Typically the car station would be on the door return but the returns where both too shallow to fit the car station box.

Elevator hall stations

[Old 1st floor hall station & P/I]

[New 1st floor hall station & P/I]

Hall stations - This was a unique set up.  The hall stations where lower than ADA initially so we had to compensate for the buttons being lower with the hall station plate.  Each floor had a hall position indicator.  So instead of plating them we put a new P/I and hall lanterns to fit in the old boxes.

Elevator door operators

[Old GAL MOD door operators]

[New GAL MOVFR door operators]

Door operators - The specification called for all new door operators, new door tracks, car and hatch equipment.  All new GAL equipment was installed. 

Hydraulic power unit

[Old ESCO power unit with a newer EECO UV5 valve]

[New MEI power unit with a Maxton UC4 valve]

Power unit - This was a typical power unit replacement except the specification called for this 50 foot per minute car to go 100 feet per minute.  The request was not possible as the power supplying the power unit was only able to support a 75FPM car.  So they got a little larger motor, little faster elevator.  If a 100FPM power would have been installed the breaker would have continually tripped due to amp draw issues.  This is something everyone should know but we don't always pay attention, always check your ampacity and power feed prior to sizing your power unit.  

Project overview - This was a fun project to work on from the design side with the fixture challenges and car speed change.  It was also a challenging one for the team that was doing the installation due to the remote machine room, wire count and all the devices outside and inside the hoistway[front and rear, hall lanterns, P/I's, etc.] 

The project was a public bid and the Park District saved a considerable amount of money from the other two bidders bids.

As always feel free to contact us at www.colleyelevator.com, email Craigz@colleyelevator.com or call 630-766-7230.