End of Life/Obsolete elevator equipment – Vertitron VH 40 & VH 80

From time to time we have elevator control systems that we used for a period of time in our geographic area that reach their end of life.  Colley Elevator in the 1980’s/90’s used Vertitron VH series controllers for some of our new installations and modernizations.  We have always kept a pretty solid stock of replacement parts and kept the main components when we modernize other elevators. We had an OT call on a VH 80 controller and ended up replacing the blue box and we started talking about “how long will these be able to be repaired”.  We contacted Vertitron and they sent over an end of life letter indicating 2005 was the finish line for these particular controllers.  We probably have 5 or 6 of these left in our portfolio but it is good to know that the end of the road was 15 years ago so we can let our customers know.

What does end of life mean? – This letter means if you have one of these controllers you need to start planing on replacing the elevator equipment.  If you cannot afford to replace or do not want to replace, make sure your elevator contractor has spare parts and can service your elevator so you don't have an elevator out of service for weeks or months waiting on a new controller.

Technology for the time – The technology for the time was pretty cool.  It was a controller that had earlier solid state technology and a 3 board system that was fairly versatile.   To my knowledge it was one of the first nonproprietary controllers that used a hand held device called “PET”.

Chicago FEO implications – If you have a Chicago FEO phase II violation and have a Vertitron VH series controller you should replace it as anyone saying they can make it work either are elevator wizards or do not know what they are doing.

Ongoing technical support – Minnesota Elevator has owned Vertitron for a number of years and they still sell new controllers.  The folks at Vertitron have always been wonderful about repairs and technical support.

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If you have any questions or would like additional information feel free to contact me at CraigZ@colleyelevator.com or 630-766-7230 ext. 107.

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