Read an old Otis manual that said they expected a traction sheave to last 50 years

Found it in a box of junk at a building demo in Chicago. The manual was from 1963 and had a whole section on planned obsolescence, which they called 'service life planning'. It said a properly maintained traction sheave should have a 50-year design life before needing major re-grooving. That blew my mind because now we're lucky to get 25 out of a lot of modern units before the grooves are shot. Makes you wonder if the old stuff was just built better or if the math on maintenance changed. Anyone else run into specs from that era that seem totally unrealistic today?

2 comments

2 Comments

danielw883d ago

That's the kind of find that makes you miss the days when things were built to outlive the mortgage. Now it feels like they design stuff to fail right after the warranty ends. Maybe they figured out it's more profitable to sell a whole new unit than just a re-grooving job every half century. Kind of sad when a sixty year old manual has higher standards than today's spec sheets, isn't it?

kai_park3d ago

My grandpa's 1972 Kenmore washer ran for 40 years on basic repairs. I used to roll my eyes when he'd talk about it, but my new one died in five. The repair guy said the transmission is plastic now and they don't even make the parts. He's totally right about the manuals too, the old ones actually showed you how to fix things.