TIL a trick for old Otis door operators from a guy in Kansas City

I was working on a 1998 Otis Gen2 and the door operator was chattering. I had to pick between replacing the whole motor or just the hall position sensor. I went with the sensor, a $45 part, and it fixed the noise right up. Has anyone else had luck with just swapping the sensor on these older units?

3 comments

3 Comments

bailey.sam2mo ago

Yeah but @sam_anderson has a point about the band-aid fix. I did the sensor swap on a 2001 last year and it was fine for maybe two months. Then the chatter came back worse and it fried the controller card. Cost me way more time and the part. Now if the motor's original, I just bite the bullet and change the whole thing. It's not worth the risk of having to go back.

diana_flores252mo ago

Wasn't the motor always the first suspect on those? I used to just swap the whole thing out without a second thought. After seeing a few forum posts like this, I tried the sensor fix on a noisy one last month. It's running quiet now, so I guess I was throwing away good motors for years.

sam_anderson2mo ago

Hold up, @diana_flores25, swapping it was the SMART move. That sensor fix is a total band-aid. I've seen them quiet for a week then fail hard, taking the whole board with it. A new motor is cheap insurance against a callback.