Hello,

I am a building owner with an Otis LVM 211 hydraulic 2-floor elevator that is about 23 years old. Recently Otis contacted me about an this upgrade. It was stated that it would add 10-15 years to the life of my elevator and help prevent downtime.

I am hoping someone who is knowledgeable regarding this elevator and upgrade could advise me on the necessity for this upgrade.

How will this "extend the life of the unit," or is that some sales hooey?
If the existing board goes out, could I not just do the upgrade at that time? Or is there something I am missing?
Is the failure of this board a common thing?
Is there some other reason, other than failure, that it would be a good idea to do the upgrade now?
It's pretty pricey at $20,000. Is that a good price? Can it be had less expensive?

As you can tell, I'm a neophyte when it comes to this equipment. I appreciate any expert advice you can give me. Thanks in advance!

It’s just another Otis product with the same inherent problems as the old one. Which is it’s not open sourced. It’s not independent equipment. You want independent equipment. It’s open sourced. Interchangeable with other independent equipment in the future. You will never be free and truly own your own elevator until you have independent equipment. So never let your installing elevator company put in their own equipment.

Need a little more information. Is this in regards to the door lock monitoring? Yes, you could upgrade at the time of failure, but you may be down for an extended period of time. I am not sure what is being marketed, as I was not aware of an upgrade for the 211. More information as to what they are telling you is needed, that would be helpful to get more opinions.

The 211 has recently become “obsolete” sounds like the sales dept is just using that to push mod sales. The 211 is a great elevator and I would not recommend an upgrade.

It would be silly to spend any more money to "upgrade" to another Otis controller. They're looking for ways to make money on existing equipment. Otis must be done trying to scam their customers with the "you need to replace your hydraulic oil" trick?

You would be much better off to replace it with non proprietary equipment (read, virginia controls mh3000 or mce motion 2000 with Gal operator and gal or innovation fixtures) and get 40 more years out of your elevator for probably the same money.


Either way, I wouldn't be looking to modernize your elevator unless it is already having a lot of issues consistently. If it's not broke why fix it?

Just my 2 cents

211’s are work horses, probably one of the best hydros ever made, no need for an upgrade if it’s running fine, sounds like a money grab. If they ever say “MRL” just say NO!

MRLs should be illegal...

What's an MRL?

Here is the explanation I received from my Otis rep on the upgrade:

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While your Otis LVM 211 hydraulic elevator is recognized in the industry for its reliability and robustness, it has been out of production for many years and replacements for your LVM 211 control board are no longer available. To address this, Otis has created the HydroEnhance upgrade kit, a proactive solution that leverages Otis' latest technology to extend the life of your LVM 211 and improve the reliability and uptime of your elevators.
​
Otis will supply and install HydroEnhance upgrade to replace your current existing obsolete LVM 211 control board. This upgrade will provide the following below:

BENEFITS
Extend the life of your elevator controller
Enhance elevator safety by meeting the latest building code for door lock monitoring compliance
Enable real-time equipment monitoring with our Otis ONETM system
Physically fits in existing controller cabinet eliminating the need for building modifications
UPGRADE KIT INCLUDES:
Engineered adapter and mount kit
Otis HydroAccel processor board
Unit-specific software engineering

Number of Units Total Price
1 $19,800.00

The price is based on a percent (100%) downpayment in the amount of $19,800.00.

_______________________________________________________________________

EElevator agreed. If your code compliant and good functioning equipment why upgrade unless going non proprietary with a private company.
I dont have enough experience with 211's to know if the old board has DLM, but you and every building owner in the united states will eventually need to comply.
This seems like the Argus monitoring upgrade but Otis version. If they are just adding a monitoring board then the old board would still remain.

The old board if it ever broke could be repairable or possibly still in production/stock. I stay away from Otis equipment unless modernized. Resort back to EElevators comments.

Sounds like a 4 hour plug-n-play job with a new $1500 circuit board. They could reproduce the old boards if they wanted to but then they would go out of business. There is nothing cheap when it comes to owning an elevator. If it was my elevator I would get a second opinion/quote from your local KONE, TK Elevator, Schindler, or an independent elevator company sales team.

I would also advise you to alway know your service contract anniversary date so that you can send your written certified letter of intent to cancel between 90 and 120 day of the anniversary date so you can renegotiate your contract and red line those pesky cancellation clauses.

This is a kit that makes a 211 a Hydrofit. Replaces the IOBD with a Hydro Accel IOBD and a GCS CPU. It’s cool they have that option since the 211 IOBDs are not supported anymore. I have a job that could use the upgrade but Otis hasn’t made it available through Unitec yet. I really don’t see any reason to do it preemptively though.