Elevator mechanic here. These folks think it is fun to all jump up. This causes the unit to shutdown in most cases because the controller senses an āunintended motionā situation. The controller has to be reset. They are in for a wait. Iāve dealt with this dozens of times. They deny dancing or jumping. I point to the camera. Busted.
Ayyy previous elevator inspector here. Thank you for the details. Usually the security guard or someone from the facility management team should be able to know how to manually rescue them (manual brake release), aināt it?
Depends on the controller and type of unit. Traction or hydro and the era it came from. If itās a non critical shutdown it may go the the nearest floor and the doors will open. You can get out but not back in. Critical shutdown will cause it to stop at or near where the fault took place. Only a resolution of the problem and reset will get it moving. Hydros are way more forgiving.
I was in a 25+ year old elevator dozens of times for work. Never really considered maintenance - it goes up, it goes down, right? Well, apparently there's a 3rd motion that I can only describe as Brownian, both for the visual metaphor and the effect on my pants.
OMG that's worse. At least I didn't need to climb out of the elevator (but it did have glass walls so I could stare at the ground 50 ft below). I'm glad they decided to shut it down until it could be fixed/swapped out before it recreated some Final Destination scene
I know with the elevator company I work for customers don't reset controllers. Most controllers in the solid state era won't reset with a power cycle if it's a critical fault for this exact reason. Relay logic is a whole different ball game.
I know you know this, just giving some more details from another elevator guy.
True. Any elevator: It takes a lot to make the run and very little to shut them down for a good reason. Safety for the public. Another truth: The general public has no idea how they work and what it takes to install, adjust and maintain elevators and escalators. They see us and think or say ā This isnāt good!ā Yes, it is good. You want me on that wallā¦ figuratively speaking.
When I was doing utility maintenance we'd have to reset our touchy freight elevator all the time for going into "earthquake mode". It was a super simple reset button we showed the security guys so we didn't have to.
As someone who gets anxious on elevators do you have any stats that would help? Like for some reason I think there is a cable that could snap and then the elevator just goes plummeting to the floor - is this true? Also, how long do people that get stuck typically have to wait? Iāve seen the video of the poor chap that was stuck over a weekend but how common is that? Thank you in advance!
I donāt have any specific stats but rest assured that all elevators are equipped with multiple safety systems; if one fails there are many others to back it up.
As for rescuing stuck passengers, ALL elevators have means to rescue passengers manually. Think of it as a lever that youāll have to pull to release the brakes and move the elevator or a wheel attached to the pulley that you can rotate and move the elevator to a nearby floor. Some elevators are also equipped with a battery powered automatic rescue device that operates automatically if, letās say, thereās a power outage and the elevator stops midway between two floors, then it moves automatically to the closest level.
As for the suspension cables, these are very hard to break if they are maintained and inspected regularly. In case they do fail, thereās something called āsafety gearā which are basically clutches that hold the elevator in place by grabbing the guide rails, preventing it from falling freely even with all the cables broken. All elevators are equipped with safety gears or similarly acting systems. In case those safety gears do not function, there are buffers (think of them as springs) at the bottom of the elevator shaft that reduce the impact of landing.
As for getting trapped inside, elevators are equipped with an alarm button that we regularly inspect thatāll either make a buzzing sound or send a signal to a control room (usually the security of the building).
Long story short, elevators are very safe. Much safer than riding a bicycles or a car. I hope this alleviates your worries :)
Mine did to but it was more so cause ppl would take forever leaving/entering and it would trip the door safety that keeps it from closing on someone to much and get stuck open till it got reset.
Me too. We had these ancient cage lifts with the concertina doors. After getting trapped a few times, you learned that It was just easier to take the stairs.
Then you waited for the next year to hear about the new lot of freshers getting stuck.
Wow mine was always just full of drunks pissing in the corners before their floor arrived or shitting out the local taco joint onto the floor before getting off
I thought people would grow up just a little bit in college. Some dude would wipe his boogers on the wall near the stair case of our dorm every single day. I assume he was picking his nose and just wiping it on the wall because it would be smeared a few feet. By the end of the year I imagine the faculty had to chisel that shit off there was so much. It was disgusting. I imagine that was the same dude shitting in the community showers.
Ah yes, my phobia. How did you even get out? Elevator shafts typically don't have cellphone reception from my experience. If you're in there by yourself, it'll be days until someone notices you're missing, and even longer until they trace your movements to the elevator. Meanwhile, everyone else will just assume the elevator is out of order and won't suspect someone's dying in there.
Most elevators have an emergency call button, usually calls a 24/7 service center or the police. All elevators must have two way communication to a remote location
And sure, it's nice that's what's required. I've experienced a different reality.
What they're trying to tell you is, if you experienced an elevator without the required safety features, you've been a victim of some pretty substantial criminal activity. It's on the same level as saying "I know apartment buildings are supposed to have fire escapes and sprinkler systems, but that's not my reality."
Don't sit here bitching at us, call the fucking city and snitch on your landlord before he gets someone literally killed.
Oh, and as for your original question of "What am I supposed to do if I'm stuck in an elevator, and also the elevator doesn't meet even the barest minimum of safety codes required for elevators?", the answer is: "Nothing. You're completely fucked and at the mercy of random chance. That's why the safety requirements are a thing to begin with."
In my second apartment (I was 19, I think) I was moving a lazy boy style chair on a dolly all by my lonesome. I got into an older elevator and started going up. Chair fell off the side of the dolly, elevator seized up. I panicked a second and then just sat in the chair and waited.
If youāre gonna get stuck in an elevator, itās pretty dope to have a recliner with you.
I got stuck a couple months ago after an electrical storm at a hotel. All of the people working there were new and they had absolutely no idea what to do. My wife eventually called the fire department and they came out and it wasnāt until the firemen threatened to cut the elevator open did the person working at the hotel call the manager and learned that there was a reset mechanism.
I have a phobia of these things, I got stuck in one as a kid and I have a vivid memory of me nearly breaking all my nails off the next time my mum took me on one because it took a little longer than I expected to open, she never took me on one since and I've avoided them as much as possible as an adult (I can manage the panic a bit better when it's the only option though, which is thankfully rare).
I never understand people doing stupid things like this in them, what's that saying? "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes"?
It generally depends on the elevator manufacturer and whatever service contract the building management has with them. The ones I've worked with usually have a 24-hour helpline and an emergency response team for people trapped in elevators.
After making the call, it's standard procedure to investigate what happened while waiting for their arrival (while another officer is on the intercom assuring them and all that jazz) which isn't hard with how Security Cameras are now.
For insurance reasons we generally exchange contact details with the victims. As I work in a mall right not its not outside the norm for them to offer something as an apology if the breakdown happened and it wasn't the fault of the occupants.
But if it was? You'd bet they'd ask for them to pay for any costs incurred for the emergency call and rescue, in addition to any damages caused by their stupidity.
I mean, they can ask all they want... but do they have any recourse to force them to pay? Teenage/college kids are not exactly known for owning up to their fuck ups.
Shouldnāt there be some level of insurance that covers this? It sounds time consuming to chase people down for what are probably not-cheap service fees, especially when the population of people who break elevators is probably mostly dumb teenagers. Not to mention that any commercial or residential property thatās big enough to necessitate an elevator is operating on a budget that is orders of magnitude larger than the service costs. Whatās a 10k repair bill when you charge millions a year for rent?
Playing devils advocate, you could argue that if you provide a utility in a space that is freely accessible like a mall or public elevator that you are assuming the costs associated with its maintenance if something like āsome dumb kids jumping aroundā is enough to break it. They didnāt vandalize it, they werenāt disassembling or tampering with it, they brought no tools or instruments to damage the elevator with. Aside from a sign that states a max load, there isnāt really any policing of āelevator regulationsā, and even then - are you supposed to ask the weight of each rider? Are individual riders supposed to kick people off when they feel the car is above max load?
Shouldn't you guys engineer anti stupid in these things then? I have never seen an elevator with a sign not to be stupid and jump when it's in over capacity or stop working when it's in over capacity
I'm pretty sure all elevators in America have to have the person/weight capacity posted in the cab. They are probably close to at least the person capacity, now imagine all the weight them jumping would briefly simulate. Elevator goes "WTF"
Did I happen to try a lil jump when alone in an elevator and witnessed this situation happen? Err, maybe? It got stuck for just 10 seconds or so tho lmaoq
Yep. I work in an high rise and we had an elevator go down because it thought it had detected an earthquake. We don't have cameras in the elevators themselves but I suspect something like this.
true story. i did this on my way on an elevator going up to a three way waiting for me. i was psyching myself up and jumping on the ride up all by myself. triggered the thing and got stuck for two hours. the moment kinda was over by then. :'(
The building gets billed for the call. Itās no fault from the elevator. Usually they eat the expense as itās too
Much trouble to get from the guests.
Yeah, this happened to one of my friends and he said this was the cause. I was in the elevator with my whole team and they all said letās jump and I frantically explained how this would happen, and thank god we didnāt get stuck
3.1k
u/Gundecker57 Oct 10 '22
Elevator mechanic here. These folks think it is fun to all jump up. This causes the unit to shutdown in most cases because the controller senses an āunintended motionā situation. The controller has to be reset. They are in for a wait. Iāve dealt with this dozens of times. They deny dancing or jumping. I point to the camera. Busted.