Don’t let this happen to you!

Washington Elevator arrived to a hotel discovering one of the worst-case scenarios for a hydraulic elevator.

This elevator was installed with a mechanical “cross the line” starter. In the early days of elevators, this was the only option, and it served its purpose. In this example, the starter contacts welded together which held the contactor in. With the contacts welded in, the motor continued to run, overheating the oil and damaging the components of the power unit. As a result, the starter, power unit and hydraulic fluid needed to be changed to return the elevator to service. This is a large expense that was not expected by the building owner. Additionally, they are now faced with the inconvenience of having the elevator out of service for weeks, potentially months. This is a real-life example of how you may be putting your elevator at risk if you have an older starter.

Why? The unfortunate part of the situation is that it could have been prevented with one simple upgrade, which is called a solid-state starter. Unlike mechanical starters, solid-state starters have built-in phase monitoring. This removes power from the motor if it detects any potential issues. In this situation, a solid-state starter would have saved this customer tens of thousands of dollars and weeks of downtime.

While not every upgrade is immediately necessary, an upgrade that protects consequential damage to your hydraulic elevator is one worth spending your money on.

To learn more about starters and the benefits of upgrading to a solid-state starter, read more here. If you still have questions, please reach out to me, Sean, Washington Elevator’s Chief Problem Solver.

It may not be too late to protect your elevator!