I have an otis hydraulic in my two story building that was installed in 1998. I own the engineering firm on the second floor and the lift has not seen any real use. Occasional file transfers from one floor to the next. We use it to store blueprints mostly. Anyhow so last week a squirl fried itself on a power line outside and the whole building lost power. After the fried squirl was removed by city power the electric was restored and all was back to normal, except the lift doors would not open when i went to retrieve some prints. Made a call to our local otis and he was able to upen the doors but said to get the lift working again it was going to cost 2k. I purchased and installed this lift for 12k, what could be causing the problem? He said the control was bad. Control reads flt on board. It is a 211. Parts and labor 2k not including 300 service. Advice is asked for. Thank you.

Understand that Otis has sent a trained proffesional to do his job

My advice let him do his job

Montanabridge,

You paid 12k for an elevator 26 years ago! Wow, you were given a deal.

Just out of curiosity did you ask what Otis elevator charges per hour? How close is their office to you? And what is the cost of the part?

FLT is a description that there is a fault. Ask what the fault codes is and it's description. If you can come back with that information we would be able to answer your question.

I understand trained professionals. I work everyday with trained professionals. Engineers, builders, contractors. I am perfectly willing to write a check to get the job done right. His labor as well as the retail estimates for the every inch of that job are available at the click of a button!. Why wont he produce it as requested is anyones guess. The repair sheet he produced says simply "replacement of control module" if the module is bad why is it lit up like a xmass tree with full readouts, how can he operate the doors with a bad control. No justification equals no job. Thats how the world works. Simple internet search on google shows that a 211 control mint in the box is 300 plus shipping. So how much is labor??? You keep a business and 20 employees working by not just signing blank checks to anyone who walks through the door. In my business you justify not mystify to get paid.

Appreciate the timly response, it was installed in 1998 so its not quite that old. And our firm did the engineering and build out for the shaft. We also supplied the commercial electrical contract work through one of our companies. So ya we got a good deal, most others i have heard running 30+, figured we saved more than half by in-house work. Plus the cab was new but we got it for 5k from a failed business complex in spokanne. Otis at the time was very happy to do the job and submitted estimates detailing every inch of the contract. I was hoping to get that information from the tech but he said no secondary part had failed, just the control board needed replacing. I will post photos this evening. The tech is in town, There is no labor/part breakdown on the estimate, just a total for job completion and the initial service call, that is separate, he was there 45 minutes, so 300/hr? I have a guy on my staff who engineered a 450 foot two lane highway across the Missouri river for 210/hr. Still wraping my mind around this guy, only game in town though buys you allot of blank checks. Just got off the phone with the tech, he said divulging that information would place him in breach of company policy and state law.
Getting fishier and fishier as the day progresses. Thank you again for your interst in finding a solution.

This sounds like the over current has blown the control pcb of the lift. It could be a software or hardware issue. Most of the time, the mechanic just does the field work and the supervisor does the repair costing(not sure in this example). If you only have a service and inspection contract then this can happen(high repair/part costs). If you have a full comprehensive contract then in most instances this is covered. Think of it as an insurance policy for your lift. Talk to management about this issue, to get some clarification. Either way, you need to be informed of all ramifications of the contract that you end up taking and the costs involved for all scenarios. Even if you are forced to pay this fee, you now more informed. Get quotes from other companies as well.

Very helpful, thank you for this information. It is just a service repair contract. I have made a call to the other lift service technician and will have it looked over by them tomorrow. Thank you agian for your time and input.

Montanabridge,

26 was a typo... 12k would have been a deal that long ago too.

Your elevator is proprietary equipment of Otis Elevator Co. You probably are paying $300.00 an hour. If the mechanic won't answer your questions, try going up the ladder.
Your only other option is to call other elevator contractors. But here's a tip ask how many Otis 211s they service. How long have they had them under contract. Ask for references from Otis 211 customers. And last a certificate of insurance.

Power surges ,misuse and abuse(not tge case here) and other acts of god are very very very seldomly covered by many maintenance contract .

Sound like the CPU board is toast , the cost of the board loaded with the correct software and adjusted for optimal performance are PRICELESS

I am not an Otis employee just keep in mind so many things are now software,computer oriented with elevators now a days

Good luck on your travels

sounds like the main controller is displaying FLT on the screen, Ive seen this a few times, and it is usually the solid state starter that has failed, this happens frequently on power outages. I am guessing they want to replace the control board inside the starter, this is usually the part that goes bad during a power outage. it is fairly cheap, and requires less then an hour to install. Now it could be that one of the SCR units in the drive are bad, in which case the entire starter would have to be replaced. the starter is a bit more cost wise, around 1K or less, plus a couple of hours to install on the fat side. they should at least advise of which control board is being replaced. i would suspect if it were the main controller board, the display would not be working, and indicating the FLT fault. it is possible that it has failed, but doubtful. at any rate the cost of around 2K to replace the main controller Board is probably fair or nearly a fair deal. 2K to replace the starter control board is definitely not a fair proposal.

This is true however I know here, most commercial building insurance will have motor fuse or surge cover.

The FLT error is typically displayed when the soft starter has detected an issue with the main line or the soft starter took a dump. Since the installation is 1998', it would also be a good idea to update the chips on the IO board to allow service tool interface with the main controller.

Most of those use the Siemens wye delta starter . There pretty simple to replace... this is where the 3 phase power is landed l1/ l2/l3 on the split lug with the motor wires at the back that go over to the Mc1 contactor. Motor leads on top go 123 and on the bottom go 645. This is the same for the newer Otis hydro fit controllers as well as thyssen krupps tac 20/22/32 as well .. so really there is 6 motor wires 3 power wires and a plug on the side with the valve solenoid wires... most companies usually charge 150/hr a man and 300 /hr for over time if its after hrs or on the weekends...