Old timer in my building changed my mind about door dwell settings

I've been an elevator mechanic for 8 years now, and I always set door dwell times tight. I figured people should move faster, and it keeps the car moving. There's this retired guy, Bill, who rides our elevators every Tuesday to get coffee. Last week he cornered me in the lobby and said these new tight doors almost knocked his walker over on the second floor. He told me he's timed it and the old settings gave him a full 4 seconds to get through, now he's barely getting 2. I pulled up the controller on my phone right there and saw the dwell was set to 2.8 seconds from a modernization job last month. Bill talked about how he used to manage a nursing home and learned that slow doors reduce fall injuries by a lot. I updated the dwell to 4.5 seconds on the spot, and I'm going back through my last 10 jobs to check the same setting. Anyone else had pushback from tenants who need more time with the doors?

2 comments

2 Comments

ivanb4123d ago

Yeah my grandma broke her hip at a department store because the door closed too fast back in '02.

troy_gibson4323d ago

Bill is right, a couple extra seconds per stop is worth preventing a single fall lawsuit.