Is this Guy a Jerk?

Captain

Captain

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So, I'm talking to a guy in a bar. He tells me he installs elevators. Well, I use elevators a lot so I'm off the bat interested.

I tell him my conviction...why the hell can't we (in 2012 no less) DESELECT a freaking floor??? If I get in and mistakenly press the 11th floor when I'm on the 12th floor...why does everyone on the elevator have to stop at the 11th floor...watch the doors open...wait...watch them close again and proceed? Seems to me in this day and age we should be able to DESELECT the frickin floor!!!!

He then relays news to me that BLOWS MY MIND!!!

Not only doesn't that capability exist...but MOST elevator installation men don't even bother to hook up the 'door close' button! The theory being that if the button is pressed it doesn't matter as the doors will close on their own based on the timer close function.

So, as an elevator user, pushing that 'door close' button is just a stupid button for the idiot operator to press while waiting for the timer to expire!

My question is this...why do people PAY the installer to do a job when he DOESN'T do the job??? If you're PAID to install an elevator with all the buttons then who the hell are you to not hook up the 'door close' button?

Think I'm crazy? Try it out for yourself. 80% of elevators don't have the door close button connected to anything.


So...Is the guy who accepted money to install an elevator and didn't hook up all the buttons a jerk? Or is that just the way the world works now?
 
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I have a hard time believing the installer has any access to any of those buttons. I think he was just telling you a tale.
 
He was probably going to tell you he's a pilot, but you beat him to it.
 
Pilot stuff never came up. You can be sure if I could find a way it would have...but this conversation was JUST about elevators.
 
It's an old elevator installer trick to talk about the "close door" button not being hooked up and to watch your reaction. Then at the annual elevator installer's convention they all talk about about those conversations and chuckle. It's an inside joke. :rolleyes:




:rofl:
 
Pretty sure the door close button is hooked up, it's used in Firefighter mode. Very important in that mode. Think. There's not just one elevator mode. In Firefighter mode, the doors are manually opened and closed.

In normal mode, it's just ignored in software.

Deselect could be done. Probably just breaks a well-known user interface for lots of people. Example...

The elevators at work deselect ALL floors if more than five are selected. I assume it's to stop people from pressing all the buttons and tying up an elevator that's going from floor to floor opening and closing with no one in it.

It's hilarious to watch folks get totally confused by it when the sixth floor is pressed during the lunch rush when the elevators are busy.

The part I'm always amazed at, is that the building-wide card-reader system isn't just integrated with the elevator. There's a card reader in the elevators, and the elevator buttons are disabled after-hours.

But if you swipe your card, you still have to push the silly button. Seems like the metadata for your floor could be (or already is, if a company is already on only one floor) handled with the buttons as a backup. Swipe card, floor lights up.
 
Really? This is a topic worth getting crazy over? So you might have to wait a bit in an elevator, it's not the end of the world. Breathe slowly, think of butterflies and bunnies. :D
 
If an elevator fails and falls can you survive by jumping up before you hit the bottom? :confused:
 
Okay, maybe I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel on my 'is this guy a jerk' series. But really, why do I need to push that button and look like a jerk when the real jerk is the guy who installed the dang elevator in the first place?

Yeah, I can wait my 5 seconds...but everybody gets to wait those same 5 seconds. Totaled up you could use those man hours to build an elevator to space...per elevator and I'm making that up.

Point is, our time is being wasted so some schlep can get full pay for a partially done job!
 
Captain said:
Okay, maybe I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel on my 'is this guy a jerk' series. But really, why do I need to push that button and look like a jerk when the real jerk is the guy who installed the dang elevator in the first place?

Yeah, I can wait my 5 seconds...but everybody gets to wait those same 5 seconds. Totaled up you could use those man hours to build an elevator to space...per elevator and I'm making that up.

Point is, our time is being wasted so some schlep can get full pay for a partially done job!
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I see your point. OBTW I'm right there with you on building an elevator to space. But knowing NASA pushing the "Close Door" button would involve a three page checklist and four ground controllers.
 
But the important question is really, if the elevator cable fails...

Can you still get to your floor using the trim?
 
Geico266 said:
If an elevator fails and falls can you survive by jumping up before you hit the bottom? :confused:
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The answer is yes, but only for another millisecond or two.

DaleB said:
But the important question is really, if the elevator cable fails...

Can you still get to your floor using the trim?
Click to expand...
Perhaps if you were above that floor when the cable failed. (FWIW, if the cables fail the brakes come on).
 
Captain said:
But really, why do I need to push that button and look like a jerk when the real jerk is the guy who installed the dang elevator in the first place?
Click to expand...

To offset the jerk who presses the call button when it's already lit up.
 
I'm still new here, but it seems to me that Captain spends a lot of time seeking out jerks.
 
As noted, the door close button is required in firefighter mode. The elevator will FAIL inspection if it doesn't work in that mode, and that's something they are serious about.

As for it being disabled in software (or even electrically depending on how the fire switch is wired in), that may be true. But every elevator I've ridden in would shut the doors when I pressed the door close button, so I doubt the "80% disabled" statistic.

Finally, as for the "swipe card and your floor lights up", I'd expect that there are relatively few organizations that have just one floor that their employees are limited to using. So it makes sense to have the prox reader be an "unlock" function for certain floors rather than a "select" function.

Edit - the guy's still a jerk for spinning you up the way he did, but it does say as much about your readiness to be spun up as it does about him.
 
Captain said:
So, I'm talking to a guy in a bar. He tells me he installs elevators. Well, I use elevators a lot so I'm off the bat interested.

I tell him my conviction...why the hell can't we (in 2012 no less) DESELECT a freaking floor??? If I get in and mistakenly press the 11th floor when I'm on the 12th floor...why does everyone on the elevator have to stop at the 11th floor...watch the doors open...wait...watch them close again and proceed? Seems to me in this day and age we should be able to DESELECT the frickin floor!!!!

He then relays news to me that BLOWS MY MIND!!!

Not only doesn't that capability exist...but MOST elevator installation men don't even bother to hook up the 'door close' button! The theory being that if the button is pressed it doesn't matter as the doors will close on their own based on the timer close function.

So, as an elevator user, pushing that 'door close' button is just a stupid button for the idiot operator to press while waiting for the timer to expire!

My question is this...why do people PAY the installer to do a job when he DOESN'T do the job??? If you're PAID to install an elevator with all the buttons then who the hell are you to not hook up the 'door close' button?

Think I'm crazy? Try it out for yourself. 80% of elevators don't have the door close button connected to anything.


So...Is the guy who accepted money to install an elevator and didn't hook up all the buttons a jerk? Or is that just the way the world works now?
Click to expand...

In my experience, State inspectors will meticulously test the functionality of all the buttons, the functionality of the fire alarm system and corresponding elevator response, and inspect the wiring and lockouts. Sounds like a tale to me.
 
It all depends on the age of the elevator, and controls. There is also usually a delay on the Door Close buttons. They are connected, but do not act immediately. All bets are off on very old elevators, and how their controls are configured.
 
some have timers to keep the elevator in the lobby during morning rush, they have a load sensor and will leave the floor after a certain weight...In the bigger buildings there are so many options...up peak, down peak... most of the time they are broken because people just slam the button... and when to many buttons are pushed if they dont match the weight in the cab they will cancel...so some kid doesnt push all the buttons and hops out !
 
April 6, 2007 snopes:

http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=6603

A friend told me he "knew a guy" who used to work at an elevator factory (Otis elevator is, indeed, located here in Bloomington). He said the story he heard was that the elevator company added the "door close" button when people got frustrated waiting for the door to close. The catch is, the button is not connected to anything, it's just so people feel better.

I thought that was a funny story, if nothing else. Anyone have a clue if its true?
Click to expand...



Your "friend" gets around, doesn't he.
 
Geico266 said:
If an elevator fails and falls can you survive by jumping up before you hit the bottom? :confused:
Click to expand...

Yes, but only if you can jump as high (or close to as high) from the ground as the height from which you started your fall.
 
Elevator repair standards have been scrutinized in NYC in the past couple of years; some people have died due to apparent negligence in repairs performed. With that in mind, don't march on Captain with your torches just yet... (no, these deaths weren't because of a faulty "close door" button:rolleyes2:)

As for an elevator plummeting to the bottom floor, (assuming it is a cabled elevator) IIRC Mythbusters checked this one, and up to a certain height, a fall was survivable if occupants lay flat on the floor.:hairraise:
OTOH, a hydraulically operated elevator won't plummet like a cable will, but they are also much more limited in how far up they can go.

As for the original question, IMO anyone who takes payment before the job is 100% complete and walks away (i.e. "got my money so I'm done") is certainly a jerk.
 
There's a fantastic new elevator control system that greatly speeds up vertical travel. I've only seen it in one building. First of all, there aren't any floor select buttons in the cabs. When you walk into the elevator lobby, you go to a console and press the floor you want. The console responds with the cab you should take. So if you want to go the 20th floor, you press "20" and the console responds with CAB "E". You wait in front of CAB E and get on when the doors open. Once you're in, you can't select a different floor. The software monitors all calls and the locations of all elevators. It also monitors the number of people and weight in each cab. If 10 people get on on the 20th floor to go to the first floor, that cab probably won't stop at any floors on the way down.

It sounds complicated but in practice, it's very easy to use. The tenants in the building love it. They spend a lot less time waiting for and riding in elevators. In a high rise building, it's a big plus.

I'm not sure if the system we saw was this one - I think it was - very clever.

http://www.otis.com/site/us/OT_DL_D...t Information - Compass®/Compass Brochure.pdf
 
Since reading this thread I have tried EVERY SINGLE ELEVATOR BUTTON.

Even at the POA fly-in. Both "open door" and "close door" work, immediately.

Just in case you were curious. Oh and PHL is interesting.
 
How many elevators is that? I'd say from my experience it's around 30 to 40 percent arent hooked up.
 
Captain said:
How many elevators is that? I'd say from my experience it's around 30 to 40 percent arent hooked up.
Click to expand...

No clue. But I will continue my studies and report back if I remember. I would say, so far, I've only tested about 4 elevators.
 
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