Old Otis vs new MRLs on the same route

I've been running service on a 20-stop Otis traction in a downtown Chicago office tower for 5 years now. Last month they added a new MRL elevator in the annex and asked me to maintain both. The Otis is from '92 and needs relay tuning every few months but I can fix it with a meter and a screwdriver. The new MRL throws a fault code for a bad door lock and I gotta call the manufacturer to even get the diagnostic software. My buddy says the new stuff is more reliable but I've already got 3 callback reports on that MRL since install. The old Otis hums along with 2 breakdowns a year tops. Am I crazy for wanting to stick with the old iron over these new digital boxes? Anyone else feeling like tech is making our jobs harder not easier?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_uma4mo ago

Reminds me of when my buddy up in Portland was griping about the new fire alarm panels. His old Simplex from the 80s he could fix with a paperclip and a spare relay. They swapped it for a new addressable system and now it alarms for a "dirty device" when a spider sneezes on the sensor. He spends half his week clearing phantom faults while the old stuff just sat there. I keep telling him to leave a few spiders in the panel to balance things out.

emerycarr4mo ago

That '92 Otis has a thousand pounds of copper in the windings and a control system a high school kid can learn in a weekend. The new MRL is basically a giant vending machine with cables. @the_uma mentioned phantom faults on fire panels, and it's the same story here. My buddy runs a shop in Milwaukee and says the new MRLs will drop a car on safety if the encoder sees a 2% speed variance from a gust of wind. I'm telling you, these digital boxes are designed to make you buy a service contract, not to run a building for thirty years.