Skip to main content

HORROR STORY 300A’s TO THE UNDERWORLD

Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely love the Schindler 300A. I think it was one of the most interestingly-built and programmed low-rise hydraulic lift models of the 1990’s. But, as with any hydraulic lift, the run quality on Schindler 300A’s are always different, as is the case for the two carpark lifts at the Hilton Glendale that go into the “underworld”. Specifically, by the term “underworld”, I mean five or more stories below the ground.

 

However, before I even filmed these lifts, I first rode them the day before to get a gist of what to expect for run quality when I decided to film them.

Before the film

Going down

To give it a spin, I took the right lift down only one level to floor P1. The door closed with a very loud BANG & the lift jolted down to full speed, almost like a vintage single-speed lift. Despite being scary, this gave the lift more character as the motor going down sounded like a SUBMARINE, much like that giant OTIS Series M2 hydro that Traction151 filmed not too long ago. However, this lift also felt like it was built very cheaply and was about to fall apart any second, which added to the fear factor. All-in-all, this lift travels a very long distance underground (for 5 levels), as evidenced by Traction151’s video of these last year or the year before. They were not holding up well at all for the 26 years they’ve been in service. I’ve been on lifts from the 70s and 80s which could be argued run and hold up much better than these fine, classical, epic fails for lifts. A much larger disgrace to Hilton for failing to maintain these lifts to a high-profile brand’s expected standards by its guests and clientele. I’m pretty sure I would NOT be super comfortable getting stuck in a HYDRAULIC lift a very long distance underground in between floors with limited stairway access. All in all, going down on these unreliable lifts was pretty scary, but nowhere near as scary as the infamous MontgomeryKONE/OTIS/Schindler lifts in Atlantic City that I filmed a year and a half before.

Going up

Riding in the same lift, when the door closed, it automatically reopened halfway through closing without me tapping the door open button, which made me run out of the lift panicking. I sent that lift upstairs in nudge mode, as I waited for the lift on the right to take me back up to the lobby level. While downstairs, I stared my camera at the two lifts, as I was waiting for the other lift to take me back up to the lobby level from level P1. When the other lift came, I hit the button for “L”, standing back as the door made rattly sounds while closing. When the doors finally closed, the lift jolted to its full speed, with a motor that sounded like it was about to give out. When it got to the top landing, the lift was pretty low on oil, as evidenced by struggling as it reached the top floor. I could not wait to get out of that lift, as I thought I was going to get stuck in it.

Summary

Over the course of the informative journal, we have learned that:

  • An underworld is 5 stories or more underground.
  • These lifts need to be modernised ASAP.
  • They have mechanical wear-and-tear and the build quality seems to be cheap as these are not holding up well at all for their age at only 26 years.
  • The hydraulic motors are located 5 stories underground with limited stairway access, making these hard to access if a passenger gets trapped anywhere in the shaft.

Expect another journal post soon!



from WordPress https://ift.tt/34ZbtW1
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Schindler & KONE make the best traction lifts

Over the past 2 & a half years of filming lifts at different buildings all over the Eastern Seaboard, I have managed to film a handful of OTIS, Schindler, ThyssenKrupp & KONE traction lifts. Here is my assumption: Schindler & KONE make the best traction & MRL traction lifts of any of the 4 major lift brands. Of course, this could be based on personal bias, but it doesn’t go without knowledge that Schindler lifts, are in fact, more efficient time-based than let’s say, ThyssenKrupp lifts. Here are some things that I really love about Schindler & KONE traction lifts. Their fast acceleration / leveling It is no surprise that Schindler & KONE have some of the fastest average accelerating rates of any major lift brand. This is because Schindler & KONE have a perfect reference-tackle system, which is almost unbeatable by standards of other lift brands. One thing I have noticed when riding Schindler lifts is even at low speeds (200-400 FPM), you head feels like...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE OTIS IN ANAHEIM

Before writing this report, let me quickly give you some background on the lifts and escalators that I have seen during my time at DisneyLand in Anaheim, California with my family. Brief Overview While I was at DisneyLand in Anaheim, I have encountered four sets of very tall MontgomeryKONE escalators, a set of two very fast MontgomeryKONE traction units (partially outdoor as the first landing had a rear door that opened on the outside of the building), this OTIS hydro here that I managed to ride and film & another OTIS hydro that I didn’t get to ride nor film. These lifts, regardless, were still very awesome lifts, but for now, I will be going into a description of this amazing lift. What made this lift so amazing? This particular lift is so amazing because it’s a full-blown commercial hydraulic lift installed fully outdoors , which is rather unusual for an outdoor lift. This alone made it amazing. Upon first glance, it looks like a pretty standard lift that you would typical...
Post a Comment
Read more

How-To: Basic Weighted Lift Character Report

  Instructions Set up a Jotform account by signing up to Jotform with your Google Account (The one you use to manage your YouTube Channel) by going to www.jotform.com .  Once you’re in Jotform, click the button ‘Create Form’ then click ‘Start from Scratch’ . Click ‘classic form’ , not ‘card form’ . Change the form name from ‘form’ to ‘{Your YouTube Channel Username} Lift Character Report’ . On the left-hand side, click ‘Add Form Element’ , hit ‘Widgets’ and type in ‘Slider’ in the search bar.  Drag ‘Sliders with Calculated Result’ onto the form field. A sidebar will pop up to the right. Click directly on the element first & replace ‘Sliders with calculated result’ with your desired title. Delete all of the contents in the ‘Configuration’ field and follow the next set of instructions. In the ‘Configuration’ box, the first line of each slider represents the name of the slider, in this example, the name is ‘Fixtures’ . You can have as many sliders as you want ...
Post a Comment
Read more