I finally stopped fighting with old relay logic boards.

For years I'd spend hours tracing wires on those old Otis relay panels. My boss in Philly always said 'you learn the hard way'. Last month a job had a 1978 panel with a sticky floor call. Instead of my usual hour, I just swapped the whole thing for a new solid-state conversion kit. Took 20 minutes. The building owner paid for the upgrade and the call never came back. Why did I waste so much time? Anyone else just replace instead of repair on the really old stuff now?

3 comments

3 Comments

christopher_wells414d ago

That "switch finally flipped" moment, is there a specific age or condition where you just stop trying to fix the old panel?

pat_coleman15d ago

Man I feel this. I was the same way with old Westinghouse panels. Spent a whole afternoon once on a phantom door lock signal, just tracing and cleaning contacts. The NEXT week, another call for the same thing. I just put in a new board. Problem solved forever. It's like a switch finally flipped in my head. The old stuff is just too far gone sometimes.

mila_flores810d ago

Totally get what you mean about that switch flipping! My buddy had the same thing with an ancient Montgomery panel. He kept fixing one relay, then another would fail the next week. He finally said forget it and swapped the whole logic section for a modern kit. The building manager was actually happy to pay for it to stop the weekly service calls. He said he should have done it months earlier.