Hilton Raleigh Elevator Hydraulics

Some of you staying at the con may have noticed that if you ride one of the elevators up to the top floor, at the very end of its travel it sounds like a mechanized blue whale trying to fuck an undersea vent.
Yeah... that's bad.
Normally, you do not want an elevator to make a sound like that. :-)
What you are hearing is heavy cavitation in the hydraulic system, most likely due to low fluid reservoir levels.
Howard listened to this and said, "Yeah, I probably wouldn't have people riding that to the very top of its travel. That's a great way to either burnout the pump motor or get yourself entrapped."
I've let the hotel know, and now I'm letting you folks know.
Stay safe here and enjoy CarolinaCon!

[@qeelevators2960]

The pump is to be submerses in oil but if it’s low on oil it will try and pump air which is both very bad for the pump and affects the ride quality with those “normal shakes caused by this”

[@mman454]

Any sign of it sinking after it leveled with the floor? Aerated hydraulic fluid can actually become somewhat compressible due to the tiny air bubbles entrapped in it.
Same concept behind why slightly overfilling some cars with oil can be very bad. Crankshaft stirs air into the oil as it repeatedly hits it. The bearings in an engine use oil pressure, rather than balls or rollers to keep the rotating components separated from the bearing race. Compressible air in the oil keeps the rotating shafts from "floating" on the oil. Hence spun bearings.
//end tangent

[@DeviantOllam]

it didn't sink, but the hotel didn't take it out of service, i can say. as of the last day there, it was still running up to six, and i was refusing to ride it =)

[@qeelevators2960]

THERS NO ENGINE OF CRANKSHAFT

[@captapraelium1591]

"probably normal"

[@ElevationStationProductions]

Low oil elevators always scare the living crap out of me... the journey is going so smooth then BAM! Noises out of NOWHERE.

[@upanddownadventures]

I haven't uploaded the video yet, but I once filmed an elevator that was even lower on oil. It was in a large complex full of poorly maintained elevators. I went back over 6 months later or so, and it was broken (I wonder if that was why, or if it was for a different reason).

[@WickdPerfekT]

Needs more Multizorb and she'll be good as new. ;)

[@Nf6xNet]

You have a gift for words! :D

[@MikeF1189]

Ghosts trying to get in.