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Old timer at the shop taught me a trick with a penny
We were working on a 1990 Otis in a 12 story building downtown, and this guy had been doing this since the 70s. He jammed a penny in the relay to test it and said sometimes the cheap fix works better than the fancy meter. You guys ever have a mentor show you something that seemed like a hack but actually made sense?
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west.claire2d ago
Oh sure, "sometimes the cheap fix works better than the fancy meter." That's the kind of thinking that leads to a service call three months later when that penny corrodes and leaves you with a stuck relay and a pissed off building manager. I've seen it too many times where a "hack" just masks a bigger problem. A meter tells you the actual voltage and current, not just that a relay is clacking. Yeah, the penny might work for a minute, but it's like using a paperclip for a fuse. Old school tricks are fine if they're temporary, but passing them off as real solutions is how you end up with a bad reputation.
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harris.aaron2d ago
The part nobody talks about is how those old guys learned those tricks during a completely different era of elevator technology. That 1990 Otis you mentioned probably still had heavy duty mechanical relays with big contact surfaces, not the tiny little board mounted relays we see now. On those older systems a penny might hold up for years before causing issues because the components were built like tanks. But if you tried that same trick on a newer microprocessor controlled car, you'd probably fry a board or cause intermittent faults that drive everyone crazy. The real skill is knowing when the old hack applies and when it's going to bite you.
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