How do you stop an elevator from opening six inches above floor?

You should have it checked and repaired.

"Depending on the weather" - are there leaks into the shaft on rainy days?

The elevator in our building (when last I was working in an office) also did that - that was due to contact bounce by the limit / sensor switch.

I love your reply

Directly to the point

try to locate the super or management for the building

hopefully he is not a relative, spouse

you might get some results

who is the manager of the building

go to city appraisal and find out who owns the building

threaten them with the release of the gargoyles on the roof of the building

to eat there siblings if they do not fix it

or just make a complaint to the building dept

when was it last inspected and by who

local building codes have rules

check into it

if you get no results

let me know

I will tell my uncle Vinnie

you would be amazed how many things he fixes

with his baseball bat

made I larf.
(BTW You can avoid the double spacing of your text by holding down shift when you hit C/R. It seems to be a 'feature' of the text editor)
Del

I too was astonished when the Toronto, Ontario, elevator inspector told us that the city permitted a "bouncing" elevator that went through spasms of stopping either 6 inches below or above the floor BECAUSE it was the OLD kind which was affected by the weather.

I mean we have running water in this city, paved roads,broadband....

Any of you who live in other countries ever encountered such a grandfather clause? And thanks very much for all your contributions-- i favour Uncle Vinnie myself..

The UK is full of grandfather stuff.
The whole Telecoms industry was built on it...
Del

I bet the first time someone walks off the elevator and trips or falls the local codes and the elevator will be fixed!

It's happened and the city of Toronto doesn't care! open season on tenants in this city.

You could try moving to a real country...=D

reconfigure the locations of the positions switches. i bet that is happening only on your floor but not in the entire building.

i bet that is happening only on your floor but not in the entire building.
Hah, that's the answer, raise the building 6"
Del

Not quite. The car stops both above and below the floor. Depending if it's going up or down would be my guess. Stops above the floor going down, and below coming up?

Cheers!

Hah, that's the answer, raise the building 6"

Oh, unfortunately it stops some times 6" above and some times below.
If it was stopping only six inch above the floor, solution was simple: increase your own weight by another 30 kg, it would stop at correct level.

Have you considered using the stairs? Great exercise, and you don't have to rely on a piece of machinery of questionable safety...

constantly keep praying and keep your eyes shut when you are in the elevator that you should come out at your floor with out any harm.

crm

If it's a hydraulic elevator, the temperature of the oil will make the elevator stop at different place, Install a heater in the oil tank to set a fix temperature around 20degreeF higher then local.

Besides, if atmospheric temperature is higher, air will be thinner and elevator will stop at lower position due to less buoyancy and in winter at higher level due to higher density of air.

Even if it was hydraulic, the thermal expansion wouldn't affect, because the floors are not pre-programmed based on volume of oil pumped into the cyl. but on position switches makin' and breakin'.

What he should do is increase the clearance of the thresshold by 6 In. both above and below current height.

Yahlasit

More than likely the mechanisms are limit switches and they are dirty. Humidity probably causes the muck to act like grease. Check to see if you can clean them. Shut the elevator off when you're inside and try to go throught the top hatch. They should be visible near the side rails.

I also live in apartment which is 70 years old. It has wonderfull "Stigler" lift which is still functioning well. We had changed the gear box (Worm Type), control panel, door locks and limit switches.

Regarding your poblem, I hope you have service contractor, he has to adjust the brake if it is going 6" below or up. Better ask him to attend the lift.

Get a wheelchair user to moan at the building landlord and insist that the lift is fixed.

gmallet,

Isolate the controls from the effects of the weather.

Or you could move to Vancouver, BC.

Jon

Notify the owner of the building via certiified mail, or equivilent.State that the notice will be used as evidence of awareness if someone is injured due to this problem.This will put them on notice of the defect,and if they fail to correct it, will remove any claim of ignorance on their part.The insurance company of the building should also be sent a copy .This will probably result in action to repair this simple problem.(defective level switch)

IMHO

Not to be a smart-alec, but the first thing your building super needs to do is have a certified elevator company look at it. You should certainly not be messing with it yourself. People's lives - even your own - could be jeopardized. Don't be cheap when it comes to safety.

You have not provided any details other than the age of the building, but I can tell you that there are a number of things that can cause that. For one thing, the floor position sensor system might need adjusting or replaced. For another, the elevator might be "drifting" past its stop (depending on load and where it is in the floor sequence - you did not provide any details on number of floors, etc., so this is kind of a stab in the dark), but this might be happening because the brake holding mechanism may need adjustment or lubrication. Elevators don't actually use a mechanical brake to slow down and stop, but all use a holding brake (fail safe design) to hold the conveyance in place as the motor system turns off. If the mechanism is responding slowly, then it can let the conveyance move a little bit before it "sets." A knowledgable and qualified technicial can ride the elevator, and with just a little "feel" get a good idea of what the problem might be.

I remember working on some elevators in a coal preparation plant built in the late 1960's. All relay controls, and located in the very worst possible environment, at the top of a steamy, humid, dusty coal plant. Needless to say, we had a ton of problems with the elevators, most of which stemmed from the dust and humidity getting in the relays. I don't know if yours is a relay system, but it would not be a surprise if it were. Control behavior can become erratic if they don't make reliable contact when they are called on to switch states. I don't think that is your problem, seeing as that your situation seems repeatable.

Trying to diagnose an elevator problem "remote-control" as it were, is not a good idea. But, you asked.

Elevator rooms sometimes are out of sight and out of mind, and although the equipment is highly reliable - it, like us, needs a bit of TLC once in a while. There are other things that can cause a conveyance to miss a landing, but without a bit more info, I don't think I should venture any more comments.

Thanks to everyone who has answered my question about an old elevator in a Toronto bldg which goes into spasms, stopping either 6 ins above or below the floor.

It is a single speed elevator, the cheapest kind, which has been banned in Toronto for 30 years. But this elevator is grandfathered in by the city and certified.

I have taken the problem to several Toronto elevator repair companies and learned that the elevator will need a $100.000 overhaul before it is brought up to speed.It is a single speed elevator.

I am also taking the problem to Toronto's city council. Whichever of you said you could send your cousin vinnie with a baseball bat --- Yes!

You say $ 100000?

I can do it in $50000 including all my expenses of coming and staying on my own i your place! Not kidding

Manpower there is so costly?

How much will it cost you to install new elevator?. How many floor it covers? and how many people travel in it?. You may new elevator from India of reputed make such as Otis/Kone @ approx $50,000.

When the elevators on our plant start doing something like this it is usually one of the auxillary contacts not making on the leveling contactor. In our case it has to do with too many auxillary contact blocks mounted together off the side of the contactor. After a while the block doing the work on the bottom fatigues and snaps the striker off. ie contactor works but the auxillary blocks don't. As the auxillary slowly fatigues and the auxillary slowly takes longer to make. The levelling gets further and further out until it is so far off the floor level that the doors don't open at all. Hope this helps.

This is asimple problem of elevator limit switch adjustment.I do not understand why your service engineer is unable to rectify the problem .Please employ a better service engineer and ask him to adjust the limit switches.If necessary, purchase and give him some new spares also.There is not much engineering in this problem.All you need a good service from your lift engineer

Guest,

What is so simple about the change of weather causing the problem and adding to the problem by tinkering with the limit switch adjustments?

Jon

The lift stops due to a signal from a sensor (switch, photo-cell, etc) at each floor.

Adjust this sensor up or down (or time delay)(or brakes or clutch) to get the lift to stop exactly where you want it.

Horace,

Then after re-adjusting it, the weather changes again and it will stop at a different level than 6 inches above or below the floors.

Jon

The weather is an important clue, of course. The limit switch location probably has nothing to do with solving the problem. A brake, exposed to the weather, or in an elevator shack on the roof that is subject to large temperature variations, could be the culprit. Electro-mechanical brakes can have linkeage problems due to rust, or brake wear, or solenoid friction - any number of things that can inhibit the performance. Even condensation could play a role as temperatures change quickly, affecting the friction factor of the brake.

Has anyone inspected it while the elevator is operating? just watching it when it attempts to set will provide the answer. If it lets the wheel rotate after the elevator engine has stopped and the brake has set, then that is the problem.

thanks JOhn FS and everyone...

Our elevator is sixty years old and was banned in toronto thirty years ago. I have now discovered that it would require $100,000 upgrade to make it safe.

We now have to rely on people being injured in the elevator and deciding to sue to force the landlord to do the work. The city of Toronto has okayed this unsafe elevator.

Not that I'm suggesting anything mind you, vandalism and destruction of private property is wrong and would most likely result in prison if the perpetrator were ever caught.

But if something catastrophic were to happen to the drawworks say from sand ingress into the gearbox, or loss of lubrication if the drain plug were to come loose and leak, you know, accidents like that, wouldn't the landlord be forced to replace the elevator with a modern one?

How do you stop an elevator from opening six inches above floor??

Weld the doors shut!

It is difficult to understand the cabin stopping setpoint is differing according the weather conditions. It sounds peculiar.

Of course it depends a logical reason, of which the facts are unknown yet.

You can find very useful ideas in this forum. But designing and fixing (repairing) elevators are belonging to certified personnel because the matter is strictly relative wiith the human safety.

Attempting to fix it yourself is undertaking responsibility , even you are an experienced personnel, since you are not certified for elevators.