As new manufacturers come into the elevator marketplace, the need to sell units will begin to outweight the functional safety and strict requirements for certified installers. The pressure will drive the lower end manufactrurers to offer home elevators to just about anyone. While there are capable contractors, there are also many more incompetent ones.
Having installed over 500 elevators, I have a good understanding of contractors and their lack of focus on specifics. If I had only 50% of the expenses that contractor spent re-doing hoistways because they could not read the plans, I'd be rich.
While I hope that direct sales of residential elevators never happens, I know the need and greed of companies when they get in a bind. They will make short term decisions that sell units in spite of the long term liabilities.
Keep this in mind. You would not trust a roofer or a carpenter to repair the brakes on your childrens school bus. Right? Why would you allow a plumber to install your home elevator?
Just like the (No name elevator company) guy; He did not know if his unit had a line rupture valve or what would happen if the line did rupture and cause the uncontrolled decent of the car and your family and remember the zip tie on the slack safety?
Elevators are not furniture in a box that only require a screw driver to assemble. Although I would guess there will be an internet salesman selling elevators in his underwear in india or North Carolina who will convincingly market just this application.
Be safe and think about what could happen.
Elevator Expert
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2 comments:
I agree with your comments but don't like to see the LEV advertised on the blog. A friend who owns a condo he rents out has a LEV that was installed 4 years ago but rarely used. After a long time of disuse he hired a TKA branch to put it back in service for a new tennant moving in and they came and put in new batteries and left. Next time the tennant went to use lift it wouldn't run so they called the dealer back who said the main board was blown and wanted $2,400. to replace it. I know the board costs 1,000 from TKA which is a crime in my opinion but the TKA branch is marking that up 100% and tacking on 500. for labor when they should have known the new batteries would cook the board. What can I tell my friend other than forget about ever using his LEV? If the main board was blown by the new batteries then shouldn't the dealer have known that and make good on the main board? When the LEV was launched we did a few and ran away when we found out how vulnerable the proprietary boards were and suspected that TKA would be milking owners for the rest of their lives on parts sales. Now I know I was right.
Anonymous,
Thanks for your comment. Let me shed some light on your comments.
When an elevator of any brand sits unused for a long period of time it is subject to power outages that turn the unit on and off. Was this unit in California or an area where there are brown outs?
The voltage fluctuations were a problem for the LEV main boards 4-6 years ago. It had nothing to do with batteries. The UPS and batteries only operate in a power failure mode, so there is no cooking of the boards.
Most likely problem is that the power in your area spiked above 240 volts. The main board was not designed to handle over 240-245 volts. Approx. 3 years ago they changed the main board to handle 257 volt max. This has resolved most of the board issues.
There could also have been an issue created by the electrician, if they did not isolate a neutral and a seperate ground. This motor is a three phase motor yet it works off single phase operation. In one direction it takes power and the other direction it generates power. Without a seperate ground leg to disapate voltage back to ground it pushes it into the main board.
There could have also been a lightining strike that came in on the phone line. The phone line is ran into the main board and COP board. This allowed some transferrance of a lightining strikes to damage the main board and COP board.
We now re-route all phone lines off the boards to avoid any possibility of this transferrance.
As to the price of the board, dealer cost is in that range. The elevator industry lives off service parts and the markups from most of the big 3 elevator companies are in the 100-300% range.
I look for replacement parts from all other sources, before I buy the manufacturers replacement parts. However, many parts are propriatary.
As to the labor, look for another dealer with better service rates the TKA direct sales offices are revenue driven, like most businesses.
Thanks for your comment.
Is this Matt?
Elevatorexpert
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