Motor controller swap I did on a Dover that went sideways

So I swapped out a motor controller on a Dover elevator in a 12 story building last month. Everyone says to stick with OEM parts or you'll have nothing but problems. But I used a third party unit from a small shop in Ohio and saved the building $2,800. After 3 days the controller started throwing a fault code I could never get to clear. Had to go back and rewire the whole damn thing with the OEM part anyway. I learned that sometimes the cheap route costs you more in labor and headaches. Has anyone else had luck with off brand controllers on older Dover models?

3 comments

3 Comments

roberts.leo1mo ago

Man tell me about it. I did almost the exact same thing on a Dover Hydro 2000 a couple years back. Found a remanufactured controller from some guy on the internet for like half the price. Worked fine for about two weeks then started acting up on the 6th floor landings. Wouldn't level right, kept overshooting by a few inches. Had to eat the cost of ripping it all out and putting in factory parts anyway. The worst part was the building manager was cool about it the first time but after the redo he looked at me like I was some kind of hack. Learned my lesson hard on that one.

jamie_adams1mo agoMost Upvoted

My buddy Mike pulled the same move on a Smartrise C4 last spring. Found a rebuilt board on eBay from some seller with good reviews, saved himself about 800 bucks. It ran perfect for almost a month then one day it just started dropping the car hard on the 3rd floor deceleration, like a full on bounce. The old timer who trained me said he never buys anything but factory parts for anything with a microprocessor in it. Mike had to explain to the property manager why they had to shut the elevator down for two more days while he waited for the real controller.

alicemurphy1mo ago

Yeah I knew a guy who tried patching a hydraulic line with JB Weld once.