CAI – Community Association Institute – 43rd Annual Winter Expo - Elevator

February 21^st we got to be on the other side of the coin and exhibit at CAI’s 43rd annual winter exposition.  This is where property managers and condominium board people get to go visit with vendors to find new ones or talk to existing ones.

[Show floor]

1,700 industry professionals and homeowner volunteer leaders for the most comprehensive event for community associations in the state of Illinois!

[busy booth]

This year’s CAI-IL Condo – HOA Conference & Expo will help you discover how to “Under the Big Top” and offer education sessions on legal updates, security issues, innovative trends, hot topics, and industry best practices, as well as opportunities to share, learn, network, and discuss challenges and solutions.

Colley Elevator introduced our newly approved CAI continuing education program approved for required credits for property management to the properly managers on the floor.  Our new program will have information on the new elevator coming and HUGE implications it will have to your buildings.  April 8th 11am to 1pm @ Moretti's in Morton Grove, IL.  

[Thank you sponsors]

This was a great time to visit with some existing customers and strengthen relationships and meet some people who might be looking for a change.   We had some cool giveaways for the visitors and met people who we previously only communicated with over the phone or via email.  A great event!

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.

Elevator Picture Hall of Fame 2025 – Superbowl of Elevators

The Hall of Fame posts are typically some of the more popular blogs in the Colley blog history. We get to see a lot of elevators during the year on our initial visits for pricing or while engineering projects. Of the hundreds of elevators, and thousands of pictures, these are some of the gems we've seen this past year.

Try and fix I dare you - Not sure what this Wizard was thinking. The Wizard, a movie featuring Fred Savage, was one my childhood friend Robert and I watched a dozen times. It was a great promotional piece for Super Mario Brothers 3. In the 1980s when we got Mario Brothers 1, on the first level there was a place where you could jump past the finish line above the level and find the secret pass where you fell down into a cavern. You had the choice of three tubes to go down, but, you had to know how to get down the tubes[pushing the down button]. Well… My mom didn’t know how to go down the tubes and she was stuck in this area frequently. When she got stuck, my brother and I would wait for her game timer to go down to 10 and do the 10, 9, 8, 7… and start screaming each time she ran out of time. She probably really appreciated that. There are terminals in the box that could have been used.

 

Don’t turn on - It is hard to read the notes on the pieces of paper but they clearly say THIS IS A FRIDAY NIGHT FIX, PLEASE HELP ME WHEN YOU COME BACK.

 

Glass is half full -  It is an MCE greenboard controller.

Hit the showers - When I was in Junior High, the gym teachers used to make us all go in the showers after gym and they sat and watched us walk under the water, every day for 2 years. The towels they gave us were about what you see on the door restrictor. I wonder if my old Jr. High gym teachers live at this place.

 

Field innovation – I’ve never seen this one before. 

 

Tar pits – When I saw this picture and I was told the building owner rep wanted a new door operator all I could think of was “how did it get so bad?” Then I thought about Big Foot and while this foot print isn’t so big, if Big Foot ever did go in this pit we could totally find him because he would track this tar/oil substance all over the building and into the parking lot. I wonder if this person took his boot off before getting in his car to drive home or to the next place. That reminds me of when I was at the Cardinal's house and I got a big glob of grease on my boots and tracked it up the stairs. I had 3 Nuns watch me scrub the carpet with resolve. I think the guys who were actually doing the elevator work at the building where having a bit of fun having the boss scrub the 45 year old carpet and Nuns from a foreign land giving me constant feedback on my job progress. KEEP YOUR FEET CLEAN!

 

Pasta night – Maybe they didn’t have a smaller junction box to give them. Maybe they saved so much time reusing the junction box it was worth it. Maybe ¼ of the way into working with this junction box they thought this wasn’t a good idea.

 

Anyone going to say something? – The building owner found a good deal on smoke detectors. It so happens that Mike who lived in the building was a fire alarm installer and he did it himself during the nights and weekends. Last year Mike was an arborist and was cutting down trees. The year before that he worked as a spray foam insulation specialist. Hire a professional company, please.

Wizard of OZ –. My daughter is obsessed with Wicked the movie. The first of 2 movies came out in November 24’, she loves it, she had her birthday party at the movie. She has a Wicked shirt, Wicked sweatpants and a Wicked sweatshirt. The 2nd of the 2 movies will come out November 25’ and she is very excited to see the 2nd movie. Her and her friend go on YouTube and try and find the 2nd movie early, they haven’t found it yet. I’m not going to tell her but I have some screen shots from the new movie. What she doesn’t know is that before The Wizard went to OZ he was an elevator maintenance person and they spend about a ½ hour of the movie going through his day and we see some of his car tops and pits. DON’T LOOK BEHIND THE CURTAIN.

Disclaimer – We see hundreds and thousands of pictures over the course of a year. While we don’t see as many great pictures of maintained elevators, we do see them, which is fantastic. We have a lot of very dedicated and talented elevator people in our area. The reason we don’t see a lot of buildings getting great elevator service is because they are happy with their mechanic and the mechanic is probably cleaning and taking care of the building. Those buildings are not calling us to get pricing for elevator work because they are being taken care of. Be the great mechanic or helper, don’t be these people. We should all take the time and care we would like to have people who work in our homes to have. Do great things! We have great jobs! We have a great industry! If you are doing great, Keep it up. If you need to improve, no other time than now to start! Lets do it!

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.

Cold Weather and Elevators - Deep Freeze 2025

We have had pretty warm weather in the Chicago area up until recently, now it is cooooolllldddd!

Symptoms

              Elevator runs sluggishly

              Elevator doesn’t level properly

              Doors move slowly and are bumpy

              Potential outcomes

              People get stuck or trapped in the elevator

              Trips and falls

              Elevator will not work to service the building

According to the NEII vertical transportation standard, the temperature of your elevator machine room should be 55 degrees to 80 degrees.  Computer manufacturers recommend an ambient temperature of 60 to 90 degrees.

The temperatures that hydraulic elevators fluid should be is:

            Operating temperature  - 80 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit

Source - Maxton Valve[www.maxtonvalve.com] - Maxton valve is one of the largest valve suppliers in North America.

Oil composition when it gets cold – When hydraulic elevator fluid gets cold it becomes thicker or has a higher viscosity.  Higher viscosity means sluggish leveling which means potential trip and falls or shut downs. 

Viscosity definition - The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its resistance to gradual deformation by shear stressor tensile stress. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal concept of "thickness". For example, honey has a much higher viscosity than water.

How does this translate to your elevator – In our Chicago area environment we use a certain hydraulic fluid that offers more flexibility between hot and cold environment because of our seasons in the Chicago area.  Due to significant swings in temperature in our environment when it is very cold the oil gets thicker and the valve and elevator system will not operate correctly causing a potential issue with leveling or entrapment.  The reverse occurs when it gets very hot and the oil gets very hot.  Both scenarios cause safety issues for the elevator riders.  If we always had cold or warm temperatures we could use a different hydraulic fluid that would be more appropriate for a hot or cold environment.  But! We live in Chicago.

What not to do – As a building owner it is very important to have your elevator running.  Some building owners take it upon themselves to improvise to get their elevators running on cold days with space heaters.  While the installation of space heaters is a short term solution, it isn't a safe long term solution as you will see space heaters in non-occupied machinery spaces that can malfunction causing smoke and fire hazards.  The space heaters also can overload your electrical circuits causing your breakers to trip.  The electricity costs to run multiple heaters in one year would probably be significantly more than the installation of an elevator tank heater.

 

[This building owner was resourceful putting a heater on the valve]

[Two heaters on one elevator power unit]

 

[One heater in the elevator pit]

Recommended solution – use a tank heater.  Pay an elevator company to install a tank heater on the elevator with an on/off switch.  This is a safe alternative to space heaters. But!  Turn the tank heater off in the summer or you will smoke your oil and burn it, if you burn your oil you will have different issues.

Take away – If you are having winter issues, talk to your elevator company.  If you are not getting the right answers, call Colley Elevator.  I went to a building for a nuisance issue[not a Colley maintenance account], they described what was occurring, without even walking in the elevator room I told them it was cold oil, they told me they had a space heater in the machine room, when we looked, they did have a space heater and it hadn’t worked all season.  The valve was ice cold.  I’m sure they will go get a new one and when it is in the machine room their inconsistencies will go away.

Salt – When we start getting cold and start having snow we use a lot of salt on the side walk.  That salt gets on our feet and comes in the building.  Have someone vacuum out the door sills because salt loves to live there and we will come out for a overtime call and charge you a lot of money for a few pieces of salt.  If you can do prevention, that is the best, but we are also always available.

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.

Also check us out on Instagram @Colleyelevator see what we have been up to.