brooke475•27d agoProlific Poster

I finally realized how old most elevator doors actually are

Was swapping out a door operator on a 90s Otis model last week and got curious about the door panels themselves. Looked up the serial number and found out they were original from 1978. That's 46 years of people slamming them open and closed every day. The track was worn down almost a quarter inch on one side. Just kind of hit me how long we expect these things to last compared to like a garage door or something. Any of you guys ever find parts way older than you expected in a routine repair?

2 comments

2 Comments

mary_kelly27d ago

And the paint alone probably kept those buttons from ever working right again, real shame.

holly_price27d ago

And you know what's wild about those old Otis doors? I was helping a buddy swap out a fire alarm panel in a building from the 60s and we found a whole bunch of original elevator call buttons still in the hallway wall, just painted over like twenty times. They were those old mechanical push buttons with the little bulbs inside, not even the modern ones. Made me wonder how many people pressed those things thinking they'd actually summon the elevator when the system was probably replaced in the 80s.