Hit my 1,000th door level adjustment yesterday and it got me thinking

I do door leveling and re-leveling almost every week on these old Otis units. Yesterday I hit my 1,000th adjustment on the same model series. That number surprised me. Not because I kept count, but because it made me realize how many times a fraction of an inch matters. If I miss it by 1/16th, the door drags and the hall call gets no love. After 1,000 of these, I can tell by feel and sound when it is right. My ear catches that little chirp from the hanger bearing when it is off. Has anyone else ever hit a milestone like that and seen how much small details stack up over time?

3 comments

3 Comments

lewis.brian14h ago

Man that really hits home. You just described my whole career right there.

pat_roberts5515h ago

Did you ever read that old trade magazine article about the guy who did a thousand level adjustments on the same model and wrote down every single one? I swear it was in Elevator World back in the 90s. He kept a log in a spiral notebook and by the end he could predict exactly which bearings would chirp first. I thought that was a little much at first, but honestly after hitting around 500 on those Otis units I started picking up on the same patterns. That 1/16th of an inch really is the difference between a smooth close and a callback the next morning. It gets to where you can walk into a lobby and know which door is off just by how it settles when it hits the sill.

ramirez.vera4h agoMost Upvoted

@pat_roberts55 I had a buddy who logged every single adjustment for a year straight. Drove him crazy but paid off big time.