Hello all. I hope this is the correct forum for this post. It's not highly technical, but I couldn't find a better option.
I am not a technician, but a condo-board officer with a decision to make. My 11-storey (plus two below-grade floors) building is served by 2 '60s-vintage Otis elevators. The local Otis rep says they're in good shape for their age but are well beyond their expected lifetime. One of them has been experiencing frequent outages, and the most recent has lasted several weeks, since a part needed to rebuild the DC generator isn't available.
The condo board is considering "modernization". Given the age of the elevators, that's certainly the safe recommendation. But I'm not yet completely convinced because I'm a lover of old mechanical things and I can't think of anything mechanical made today that's superior to what was made back then. (Electronics yes, but mechanical? No.) And I have encountered the opinion, online, that "modernization" is in fact the replacement of great old mechanical parts with inferior newer ones.
The only way I can think of to get at the truth is to talk to people who 1. work with these things every day, and 2. don't stand to profit from a decision to "modernize".
So I'm asking you, elevator mechanics: What is the truth, and what should we do? Will "modernized" elevators be an actual improvement? Is there a different course--replacement of the generator maybe, with a rebuilt model, or whatever--that would make more sense?
Thanks,
Bored Member
