I am a board president who is going through an elevator replacement now. If you have an old elevator then it's just going to get older and older and break down more frequently and for longer periods of time. That's what you will be faced with as parts become obsolete and hard to find. Ne elevators are safer, faster and much more reliable. You need an elevator consultant who will spec out and bid several elevator contractors. The consultant's fee is based on hours worked and should be fairly reasonable.

You are falling for the sales pitch without doing independent research.
The older elevators have amazing quality mechanics (example: Otis.). The new replacement ones must meet code and , sadly, have all sorts of electronics and door motors and etc. that make them much more expensive, in the near future and through their lifetime, to maintain on an annual basis than the old ones. TALK TO THE ELEVATOR MECHANICS - NOT THE CONSULTANTS.

The old elevators are made with a quality that is

If an elevator is a good old OTIS - and has lasterd over 57 years - it will last more.

Th bottom line is - if it is not urgent - don't spend the money - take time to do careful research and don't jump into this expensive trap. The older elevators, if they are made by a good company like Otis - will last for a long time and are very safe.

Afred E.,

I'm in a building with 1960's Otis elevators, and there's a movement afoot to replace them. Naturally, everyone in the industry supports the idea, since they stand to profit. And we're currently in the midst of a month+-long outage because of a scarce part (an armature) that is needed for a generator rebuild. The outage may last another 2 weeks while the part is on order. This is the second extended outage this year for this elevator; the first time the problem was the same--the generator, but at that time it was merely cleaned and not rebuilt.

I'm a member of the board and I love old mechanical things. It has been my experience that they simply made things better back then. I'd love to be able to make the argument that we'd be better off staying with the old system. But because of the recent problems we've had, it's hard to make that case. Frankly, an opinion from the Mad Magazine guy on some discussion forum isn't going to be very persuasive. So: Help me be persuasive. Point me towards some evidence.

Thanks,
Bored Member

Hi - Call some elevator machanics and talk directly to the people who do the mechanical work. Pls let us know what you find out.

The basic structure of the OTIS elevator is sound and can be maintained for a long time. The motors can be rebuilt. The electro mechanical controllers and all associated electrical equipment is another story. It's hard to keep these maintained since these parts are no longer manufactured. This is where the bulk of the problems are with older elevators. It's like comparing a TV from the 60's with all those tubes and transformers with the TV's of today with a few computer chips. The new controllers are just as big but they do a lot more and they add many new safety features.

my neighbor was told they do not make them like this anymore and not to throw it out.

A manned elevator can last a lot longer than an automatic elevator because the automatic controls are where most of the problems will occur. As long as thje operator stays sober you should be OK.

The basic structure of the OTIS elevator is sound and can be maintained for a long time. The motors can be rebuilt. The electro mechanical controllers and all associated electrical equipment is another story. It's hard to keep these maintained since these parts are no longer manufactured. This is where the bulk of the problems are with older elevators. It's like comparing a TV from the 60's with all those tubes and transformers with the TV's of today with a few computer chips. The new controllers are just as big but they do a lot more and they add many new safety features.

I am a board president who is going through an elevator replacement now. If you have an old elevator then it's just going to get older and older and break down more frequently and for longer periods of time. That's what you will be faced with as parts become obsolete and hard to find. Ne elevators are safer, faster and much more reliable. You need an elevator consultant who will spec out and bid several elevator contractors. The consultant's fee is based on hours worked and should be fairly reasonable.

We went through an elevator replacement about 7 years ago. Our building is 8 stories with just the one elevator, so accessibility for shareholders on the upper floors was a factor. Here are some of the lessons we learned from the replacement experience:
* I think all elevator replacements today incorporate sophisticated computer circuitry to enable convenience and safety features. These controllers are not as rugged as the old relay banks. The room that houses the computerized controllers will need to be environmentally controlled (temperature and humidity) and the power to the circuitry should be filtered and regulated. A failure in the computer will almost always cause the elevator to stop. This is something you don't want to happen when there are people on board.
* The parts being replaced, especially if they are very old, can have high value on the resale market. Don't just let your renovation company cart them away. See if you can get an appraisal and then try to negotiate a price decrease with your renovation company. A Google search on the internet would be a good place to start.
* To help our shareholders who lived on the upper floors move packages up and down, we hired a full time porter during the months the elevator was out of commission. Our renovation took place over the summer, so we hired students who wanted to earn the extra $$$. The summer had its drawbacks because stairwells are not usually air conditioned. We ultimately had to install a large through-the-wall unit to prevent heat-related problems.
* Pre-planning as much as possible before the elevator was taken offline, and keeping the shareholders as informed and up-to-date as possible was key to keeping aggravation to a minimum. No one enjoyed having to trek up and down flights of stairs, but as long as people knew how things were going and when they could expect elevator service to return, they accepted the aggravation gracefully. One happy benefit from the elevator being offline was that we had a much more fit community at the end of the renovation.

Good luck with your project if you decide to renovate.