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Three hours to replace a door sensor and it was a loose wire the whole time

Got a call for an Otis elevator stuck between floors at a 12 story office building. Checked the door lock circuit, swapped the sensor, even reprogrammed the board. Three hours later I found a wire that had vibrated loose from the connector. Has anyone else spent way too long chasing phantom faults that end up being something stupid?
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chen.fiona
chen.fiona22h ago
One time I had a chiller that kept tripping its safeties, swapped out three parts before realizing a tech had left a plastic bag sucked against the condenser coil. Now I always start with a good visual look and a multimeter before touching anything else.
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evan_jenkins
Man that stings. I've been there on a similar wild goose chase where I spent half a day replacing limit switches on a freight elevator only to find out a mounting bracket had shifted a millimeter over time from the vibration. Now I always pull out my meter and check for loose connections at the controller first before I start swapping anything. You learn fast that 90% of problems in older Otis stuff are just bad terminations or crusty relays. At least now you know exactly where to look next time it acts up.
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