10
Had an old Otis controller catch fire last week in a Chicago high rise
We were doing a routine PM on a 30 year old Otis system in the Loop and smoke started pouring out of the controller cabinet. Turned out a capacitor had been leaking for months and finally shorted. Anyone else here been dealing with aging controllers that are getting dangerous?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
emma_garcia2d ago
Is it really that serious though? I've seen those same old Otis boxes running fine for years after people said they were ticking time bombs. Maybe a thermography scan would catch things earlier, but sometimes a quick visual check does the job just as well without all the extra cost.
10
mileslane2d ago
Man, that's exactly why we're pushing to retrofit all our old stuff before it gets that bad.
5
phoenixk642d ago
And that's the thing with these old Otis controllers, they just keep running until they literally don't. The leaky capacitor thing is a classic failure mode once they hit 25+ years, and the soot from a small fire can mess up an entire floor's air handling. You guys running a regular thermography schedule on your older gear, or just waiting for the smoke?
2