Three hours to fix a 10 minute job on a dumbwaiter today

Got called to a restaurant downtown for a dumbwaiter that kept stopping between floors. Turned out the limit switch was just a quarter inch out of alignment from someone bumping it during a delivery. Took me three hours to find it because I started checking the controller first, then the motor brake, even pulled the cables before I finally looked at the damn switch. Has anyone else spent way too long on something that simple just because you thought it had to be a bigger problem?

2 comments

2 Comments

taraj1123d ago

Had the same thing happen with a conveyor belt at a warehouse last year. Checked the whole control board, tested the motor windings, even swapped a VFD that was probably still good. Wasted a whole afternoon before realizing a cardboard box had just nudged a prox sensor. Now I tape a list of the dumbest possible causes to the inside of my tool box lid and read through it before I start pulling anything apart. Saves me so much time. What's your go to first check now after a lesson like that?

colesanchez23d ago

Idk man, maybe my brain is wired to assume the worst first because that's what usually pays better. But I read something from an old elevator tech forum once where a guy said "you're not looking for the broken part, you're looking for the last part someone touched" and that stuck with me. @taraj11 your list idea is actually solid, I might steal that for my truck. It's funny how we all have that same instinct to dig into the complex stuff before checking the simple shit that's right in front of us.