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I finally figured out why those old Otis leveling switches keep failing
Was working on a 1996 Otis in a downtown Chicago highrise last week and noticed the leveling switches were acting up. Turns out the factory grease hardens after about 15 years and jams the contacts. Has anyone else run into this with older units?
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luna_wells5716d agoMost Upvoted
Oh man, I've been dealing with the exact same thing on a 1994 Otis in a building over in the Loop. That old grease turns into this sticky tar-like mess and the contacts just get glued shut. I ended up having to completely clean the switch assembly with contact cleaner and reapply a thin layer of silicone grease to get it working right again. It's wild how something so simple causes such a headache on those units.
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gibson.nathan16d ago
@luna_wells57 wait, you used silicone grease on elevator contacts? I've never heard of that before. I always thought you had to use that special conductive stuff or just plain dielectric grease. Does silicone grease actually work long term without causing problems? I had a similar mess on a 1997 Otis in a medical building downtown. The old grease was like black chewing gum stuck all over the limit switches. Took me half a day with contact cleaner and a toothbrush to get it all off. But I just used dry contact lube afterwards because I was scared of making it worse.
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