Hot take: I stopped using factory recommended door oil on my Otis elevators

I know everyone swears by the OEM stuff for door operator rails, but after 8 years I switched to plain 30 weight motor oil on a hunch. My boss thought I was nuts when he saw me pouring it in at a job in downtown Austin last spring. Well, six months later and those sticky doors are still sliding smoother than any of the units we serviced with the expensive stuff. I had less buildup on the shoes and no weird gelling in the cold weather we got this January. It saved my company about $40 a month per route on supplies alone. Has anyone else tried a non-standard lube and gotten better results?

2 comments

2 Comments

felix9811d ago

Whoa, hold on there. I gotta jump in and say something about that 30 weight motor oil. I get that it's working for you now, but motor oil has detergents in it that can actually eat away at certain seals and rubber parts over time. Those Otis door operators have specific nylon and plastic components that might not hold up well with that stuff in the long run. You might be fine for six months, but two years down the road you could end up with cracked rollers or swollen gaskets. The factory stuff is usually a non-detergent oil for a reason, even if it costs more. I'd keep an eye on it and maybe pull a sample off the rails after a year to check for any metal shavings or sludge.

perez.mia10d ago

For real, I had almost the exact same thing happen with a set of Schindler doors a couple years back. My lead guy was calling me crazy for running standard hydraulic fluid instead of the pricey Schindler stuff, but after a full year the doors were way quieter and the tracks barely had any gunk in them. It's wild how the "official" stuff feels like a total cash grab once you actually try something simpler.