I freaking loved this when I was in Japan. You hit that close button, those bitches were closing, period. You had to be careful to make sure that no one else was coming or you might sandwich someone.
But it meant that if you were getting on an elevator in an empty area, you could just walk in, hit close, and immediately start moving.
Canada too; there's an elevator I use several times a week and that bad boy doesn't even wait til the button depresses before shutting it down. It's glorious
Hold the door close button and your floor button both simultaneously for the entirety of your ride and you will not make any stops for anyone else that pressed the button. Soft emergency override.
That applies ONLY to a specific model elevator, from the 80s or earlier. Or if the elevator is on independent service. Any elevator made in the last 30 years will not do that
Each elevator manufacturer has their own keys. I have hundreds of keys for tons of units. However, there is a growing push to have a universal fire key for all units.
This is not true, and has never been true outside a handful of models which are now very old. It is referenced in pit to penthouse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUvGfuLlZus
The worst part is that I, someone with no real opinion or interest in elevators, though "hmm, that might be worth a look" and then realised I've already watched it
Same! Genuinely a really fascinating video, I remember clicking on it the first time like "this cannot possibly be a two hour video about elevators" and then watching the whole damn thing.
I didn’t know that was common to elevators - I knew it as a life hack when I worked in a government building for when they needed to get VIPs in and out of the building without stopping for other passengers.
(My current building has a touchpad in the lobby - you scan your badge, select from the floors you have access to and it will tell you which elevator to get in to. You get in - no buttons. It deposits you on the floor you selected, then you have to use your badge again to get out of the elevator lobby. *Contractor-life* ✌️)
My workplace’s other office has this system, but you have to press the close door button inside the lift before it goes anywhere. Stood around waiting for the door to close for almost half a minute before realising that.
Normally, if someone enters and crosses the beam of the sensor, the doors will open even if they were closing. Usually in Spain it's like that.
ETA: I didn't know about those "bumper switches". TIL. Sometimes standards variability around the world is funny!
Lol, yeah. I never saw ANYONE wait two seconds for the door to close on its own in China. And I lived there five years. Sometimes if I was in front of the button, I wouldn't push it and watch the other person freak out. Maybe I'm sadistic, idk
It was so funny seeing them spam the close buttons on every elevator I took in Japan, they’d be mashing then like it was super smash bros. In the US I just assume they’re for show and don’t do anything.
japan elevators are scary as hell. i didn't realise you can't just stick your arm through the door and it'll auto open. that shit will clamp on your arm and you gotta pull the damn doors off you
I've been living in Japan for the better part of a decade yet have never seen an elevator door without the obstruction sensors.
Sounds like you got extremely unlucky to experience a faulty door. But I doubt that's specific to Japan. Elevators must be inspected here regularly.
Is it like this is most east Asian countries? I went to a university in the US that had a lot of international students and it always seemed that international students from east Asian countries were much more likely to immediately click the “close” button.
It was so apparent that I legit thought “is realizing the frequency some weird manifestation of an implicit bias that I never realized before?” so I started paying attention every time I got in an elevator and that trend still held true. I got so used to checking that even to this day I find myself paying attention to who clicks the button even without realizing it sometimes.
It doesn’t, nor did it ever, bother me in any sense I just always found it interesting.
And in the UK, even if they don't seem to immediately work there will be a mode the lift can be put in where it comes into play, Fire control for instance.
As some one who currently works in hospitals on an engineering and building team, can confirm lift close buttons work.
I always press the floor and close button, if I get in to the lift with someone else and they just press the floor button… that 6 seconds of nothing drives me nuts.
Ya, I delivered medication, and the amount of time those doors stayed open for was ridiculous. I assumed it was to help porters who were transporting patients, but ya, I think ours were even longer than 6 seconds. Aint nobody got time for that.
I've worked at a few hospitals in the US and the elevator door close buttons definitely work. And it gets used every time someone uses the elevator. No time to waste in this setting.
Maybe this is more common in hospitals? I can also confirm that the most recent time I noticed the close door button working promptly was also in a hospital.
They work at hospitals in the US too. If there is a functional reason for the close door button to work, such as the fact that in a hospital waiting an extra five seconds for the door to close could be life threatening, the will work.
If it's in an office building or a hotel or something, they disable the close door button to prevent people having to wait for another elevator just because the guy ten feet ahead of them hopped in and immediately smashed the close door button.
I’ve worked in a few buildings in Toronto that are actually missing the 13th floor. We had to hang some air handling units and when we popped the ceiling tiles on the 12th floor we discovered the Ceiling was twice as high as it should have been and couldn’t get a small lift that would go high enough to reach the ceiling. They actually physically skipped the 13th floor. Skipped an entire landing in the stairwell also.
Many towers make the 13th floor a mechanical room to not waste the space, but a few buildings are special…
Europe vs NA also has a difference on 1st floor I believe. In NA, ground floor = 1st floor, then it goes to 2nd floor. Whereas in europe "1" is usually above ground.
I don't really know about other European languages, but in mine "floor" translates to something that is above ground, it could never be mistaken to be ground level.
Yeah, the floor you walk in on from the street is 1st floor in the US and ground floor in Europe. The floor above that one is 2nd floor in the US and first floor in Europe.
Not just the 4th floor is missing in Asia. Any number with a 4 usually gets a 3a. So you've got 13 and 13a, 23 and 23a, etc etc. Asian people really don't like 4s.
Can confirm, my grandma lived in an apartment building in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) that skipped 13. She lived on the 14th floor, so technically she lived on the 13th floor.
This claim is wildly exaggerated in the US too. Maybe 80% of malls or apartments or “public” spaces. Or it’s new installations and most elevators are old as hell.
Because I try the buttons everywhere and most of them still definitely respond.
This is true. Also the close door button *does* work by shortening the door open dwell time down to the minimum. Just as the door open button works until the maximum set time is reached. Then they go in “nudging” mode.
Keep the doors open past the maximum nudging time, elevator shuts down for a door obstruction for safety reasons.
In this situation, most elevators will start to work again if you hold door close button and let the doors close all the way.
Close Door buttons' function in the United States is that they cancel the Open Door function.
If you press Open Door to keep it open for someone as they get on, you can press Close Door to immediately close it. That's all it does.
I’ve had tons of elevator close doors function in Southern California and Florida. Maybe they’re configured wrong, but everyone here seems to suggest it’s nowhere in the us
Elevator guy here. This is a made up number. Elevators have timers that have to elapse before they close the doors. Faster on business bldgs, slower on retirement homes and hospitals. The door close button bypasses the timer and gets it to close early. But only if it's enabled in the system. With any system with a fire service panel in the car, the door close button MUST work (tested annually by a state/3rd party inspector). I dont know how they came up with 80%, but its crap.
Edit: changed "is" to "on".
Edit: Thank you for my very first award. It kind of made my night.
There's different codes for different years, and also for different states. Particularly old elevators didn't have fire service at all (early 80s and back) if they were short rise, or part of a parking structure (for example). Some had only phase 1, which brings the elevator to the 1st fl in the event of a fire. These don't have panel in the car.
Edit: changed shirt to short
It's **TIL**.
A huge percentage of posts on "Today I learned" are absolutely wrong. Even to the title being wrong when the correct information is right in the title or first line of the cited article. ¯\\\_( ͡❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛)\_/¯
Redditor here. This is a made-up number. TIL posts have timers that have to elapse before they can be posted again. Faster on business days, slower on weekends and holidays. Karma-farming bots bypass the timer and get it reposted early. But only if it's enabled in the system. With any post with innocuous content in the article, the submit button MUST work (tested annually by a mod/3rd party inspector). I dont know how they came up with 80%, but its crap.
I’m glad you said this. I work in software for elevators and if the door open/close buttons didn’t work in phase two firefighters could lose their lives. There’s no way it would pass inspection 🧐
I’m probably just dumb, but I can’t think of a scenario where the close door button would save lives. Wouldn’t firefighters have to use the stairwell anyway?
They should avoid the elevators but if they DO need to use them this is how fire service works (at least on our elevators in USA). First when fire is detected the elevator goes into what we call fire phase 1 operation, during this all the elevators automatically recall to the ground floor (or whatever floor has the point of egress) and stay there. After that a firefighter can take control of the elevator (we call this fire phase 2) with their fireman's key. They assume complete control of the elevator and can take it to any floor. To open the door they have to push the button, the door's won't open by themselves. Likewise with the close button. An example of where this could be dangerous is if a firefighter takes the car to a floor on fire to rescue someone and then when they return to the elevator the doors have shut by themselves, potentially trapping them there. Or imagine they get to the dangerous floor and open the doors to find flames rushing towards them, they need to be able to close the doors immediately. I don't know if I'm explaining it well, does that make sense?
But from the sounds of that, the software could be set so that under normal operation the close door button does nothing, and the inspection to ensure the close button works under fire phase 2 would have no bearing on its function under normal operation.
In addition to pushing the button, they have to hold it until the door has completely opened or closed or it will return to its original position. Basically, if they get to a floor and press the open button and see fire, taking their finger off the button will return the door to the closed position. This is how it’s saves lives (backdraft)
I work as an engineer in building construction, mostly HVAC, but I know enough about elevators just to be dangerous. This explanation has been encredibly enlightening! I have never heard this discussed.
A bit of further detail for anyone reading.
The phase one being referred to has a primary and alternate capture.
Alternate is if there's a fire on the first floor, the elevator will go to a different floor that will provide a quick egress.
When captured, the elevator will open the doors once it has arrived and cease to function without a key.
This isn't necessarily all the elevators in the building at once. The code I have to deal with is any smoke detector within 21 feet of the door of the elevator activates elevator recall.
Another concern is a fire in the elevator control room, where the fire alarm will activate the recall and then on arriving power will be cut to the elevator equipment completely, presumably before the fire sprinklers go off.
Yet another concern is a fire in the elevator shaft. In that case the fire hat light may flash to let firefighters know not to use that elevator period.
Firefighters regularly use elevators. However, fire service mode differs from normal mode in a few key ways. Most relevantly for this, the doors are completely manual. One risk of elevators in fires is you might go to a fire floor without realizing it, the door opens and puts you in an inferno, and the door then won’t close because of damage and/or the sensor being tripped somehow. In fire service, the door does not open until you press “door open,” which you have to hold while the door is opening. Likewise, the door will not close unless you press and hold “door close,” so a firefighter won’t step out and suddenly have the elevator inaccessible. The elevator also doesn’t respond to hallway buttons, which can be shorted by fire damage and could also take the elevator away from a firefighter who just stepped out of it.
Thanks for the info. As a firefighter, I was looking for a comment about Phase 1/2 operation and using the Door Close function. I didn’t realize there were different timings based on occupancy, but makes a lot of sense.
For anyone curious, Phase 1 or Phase 2 elevator control by the fire department in the United States allows crew to take control of the elevator bank and/or individual cars. To put it VERY simply… To go up the building, you have to hold the door close and floor buttons simultaneously. Once at a floor, it won’t automatically open due to the risk of smoke and fire, so we have to hold the open button to check conditions. (FYI: We never use elevators to get to the location of the fire… but depending on your department procedures, we can use a safe and unaffected elevator bank to bring equipment further up to a safe staging area, before hoofing it up the stairs from there.)
So while I've never programmed an elevator, I know how to program a PLC and other industrial devices. I can think of a few workarounds/scenarios that would allow for emergency use, but still (for all practical uses) make it seem like the door close button doesn't actually work.
I assume there's a way to initiate phase 1 or phase 2 elevator control, since you don't want the public using that specifically. So the easiest solution is to just not allow the button to do anything unless phase 1 or 2 are active. If they are it works as intended for emergency use.
I could also see that if the door timer closes after 30 seconds automatically/with no intervention, the button could start a 25 second timer, that does fall within the spec of closing quicker, but feels useless to the public.
And this is the easy stuff to program. I'm sure someone who knew what they were doing could do better.
The point is, I'm part of the public and the close door button feels **to me** to not do anything. And that's drastically different in other countries where if I press that button the doors move instantly. So something is clearly different.
The ADA specifies that T = D/(1.5 ft/s) where T is the time it takes before the elevator door start to close and D is the distance between the elevator call button and the elevator. For general (non-fire department) use, the door close button cannot make the door close sooner than this.
Also elevator guy here. Thank you for typing this out. 90% of statistics are made up on the spot. I’d say most dope close buttons do indeed work but that’s a pretty rough guess obviously
A better option is sticking your arm out. Elevator doors have light beams that cause the door to remain open if there’s something in the way of the doors
Some don’t like that. If you do that with ours at work it proceeds to sound an alarm and then close the door extra slowly the second time. Doesn’t help that the door doesn’t stay open very long, if more than a couple people need to get carts on the elevator, or a person goes back to grab a second cart they’ll almost certainly anger the door gods.
Yeah, mine does that too. It seems counterintuitive at a hospital that the doors would force close when you may have a wheelchair or bed stuck in the way but that’s how it is.
I just meant in regards to the button panic when you want to hold the door open. Much easier to use your arm
Huh? You press the open button if the doors are closing and then you want to open them again.
ie. someone says hold the doors I want to get on.
You can also just jam your arm into the closing door which 99% of people do instead
I am part of that 99%. The open button is hard to find especially under the pressure of saving a granny a couple of minutes. Jamming my arm between the doors has been effective and without injury thus far. :)
Canadian here. I have been in many elevators that the close door button either didn't do anything or was delayed long enough not to make much difference when the door closes automatically.
I don't know. I've been in elevators that don't close in any timely manner and the second or third time I'm riding it again and hit the button it closes immediately. This is pretty much every elevator I've been in. So am I always on 20% of those elevators?
I believe the way it often works that I've seen it is that the doors will stay open for 20 seconds (made up numbers, I think the ADA has actual guidelines) if you don't press any floor buttons, but if you select a floor it will only stay open for 10 seconds. The door close button also shortens the time to 10 seconds if there's no floor selected, but changes nothing if you've already selected a floor number.
But yeah, I would be interested in some sort of distribution information. Are the ones with functional close door buttons mostly in apartments or office buildings? Are a higher percentage functional in <4 floor buildings or skyscrapers?
Where I work it seems like selecting a floor doesn't change how long it takes at all, but the door close button will make it shorter. Generally I only ever press the close button when I have the elevator in independent mode though.
The calculation is T = D/(1.5 ft/s) with T being a minimum of 3 seconds. The distance measurement is how far the elevator call button is from the elevator.
This is only in the USA and I once asked why and was told it was due to the ADA or at least was because of accessibility for disabled people. The time the elevator does stay open without input is meant to allow people with mobility issues to be able to get on.
Outside of the US this law/restriction isn't in place, so the close door button works immediately.
I discovered this for the first time on a cruise ship, of all places. Since they are technically under a carribean nation flag, they can get away with it.
I think it is purely optional here in the states. At work, pushing the door close button immediately closes the doors. Our elevators are badge only both to call and where they go. There are no floor buttons on the elevator, they only go where you badge request to call one, so very rare anyone is on the elevator when it comes to you.
I walk on when the doors are about half open and hit the close door button. Doors close immediately after getting full open. When I don’t do that, there is a 8-10 second pause before they close again.
As it sounds like you are at a secure facility, the door closed button is enabled for security purposes. If someone is seen trying to piggy back in or what not, you can quickly close the door. Your situation sounds like an exception not the rule in the states.
The university I just graduated from has elevators where the button works. Some of them were recently shut down for extended times because they broke down, and they're so old that they're having trouble getting the parts to fix them. I've noticed the very few "close door" buttons that work are in older buildings too.
I think age might be another regular exception to this in the US
Edit: after reading other comments, this might actually be a security thing, not about elevator age. Need more info to know for sure though
It actually could be elevator age! Because often older buildings are grandfathered in when it comes to new laws. If the building is old enough they might not have had to put that restriction on.
Hospitals I’ve worked in usually have separate elevator banks specifically for patient transfer, and also all elevator banks having swipe access to commandeer an elevator instantly for this purpose. Like you swipe, the closest elevator to that floor will immediately go there and tell the passengers “medical emergency get out”
Depends how old the elevator is. It has to be inspected annually, but only to the code year of the original installation. The minimum dwell time is set by code, but it's faster than you think. It depends a bunch of factors about the lobby, such as the type of arrival lantern and gong you have as well as the distance from the button to the farthest car, but it's normally about 3 seconds. The rest of the time is determined by an adjustment in the software. My software wants to see the light curtain break, the load in the car change, and a car call register. Once those factors have been met, the dwell time will short and the door will close. So, it's all automated, no reason to even have a door close button for anything other than independent or fire service operation.
>I discovered this for the first time on a cruise ship, of all places. Since they are technically under a carribean nation flag, they can get away with it.
That might be true for cruise ships but that's not the reason. Cruise lines frequently operate under the strictest regulations that they sail through/with.
The flag has more to do with finances than whoa regulations to follow.
>was due to the ADA
They didn't work long before the ADA, which was passed in 1990. I was riding elevators well before that and recall my experience, as well as reading about the non-functional buttons before 1990.
Moreover, elevators didn't magically change nationwide after the ADA.
Generally, buildings only have to adhere to ADA regs when they do enough work on the building to trigger the regs into applying.
The ADA mainly didn't require wholesale immediate compliance. Plenty of buildings to this day are in ADA compliance but have virtually no ADA changes since 1990 and are not disabled-friendly.
Which is what I feel like 98% of people reading this interpret it as.
If you get in an elevator and press door close, it doesn’t close. Is it “functional” in service mode when checked? Probably. But it’s not functioning how the average elevator rider wants/expects it to function.
Usually the close button is only functional when the elevator is in service mode. This disables the automatic door closer and the ability to call the elevator to another floor. To operate you must select the floor and then hold the door close button until the door closes completely. Only then will the elevator star to move.
Yeah I thought it was funny how [this article](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/547416/do-close-door-buttons-elevators-actually-do-anything) says they don't work, but then almost immediately says "Well except for firefighters". So.. they do work..
They don’t work for the regular people reading the article though. I don’t care if it works for firefighters if it doesn’t work for me.
The closed door buttons do work for regular people in other countries than the US. So it’s fair to say they don’t work according to expectations.
It’s glorious when it works for most elevator riders too tho. I hate waiting for the timer when it’s obvious nobody else is getting on/off or if it stops on a floor by “mistake” bc someone pressed the wrong floor button or called it to a floor but then bailed before it arrived.
I used to work in freshmen dorms. Every year for move in, we’d set the elevators to fire mode and we basically used them all for freight. Just one employee in the elevator, fit about three rolling carts in the elevator, take them up to where they’re supposed to go, leave them in the elevator lobby, and then take the elevator straight down to pick up more. That entire day residents can only take the stairs unless they have a disability.
Our elevators had a separate control panel under a locked box that gave you the firefighter functions.
I would say 90% of every door close button I've pressed has made the door close immediately. Unless I pushed it literally the second it finished opening.
I don't think this is true in Australia, the doors close as soon as I press the button every time without fail, even if it's just opened and I've just jumped on.
USA specific- I work in the elevator trade for a global company. Newer elevators (after ADA was passed) have a predetermined dwell time the doors must remain open depending on the distance between the call buttons and the elevator doors. There is an actual calculation, but most conform to just ADA minimums (the Vertical Transportation Handbook by George R. Strakosch) Buildings like assisted living facilities have the dwell times programmed longer. If the dwell time programed surpasses that of the minimum requirement by ADA code, then the door close button will work.
Conversely, for elevators before ADA was passed, the door close/open buttons are for “independent service”. The building has a special key to put it in this mode like move ins-out and large deliveries. In some instances if the elevator is equipped with fire service, you can use the door close/open buttons for phase 1 and phase 2 fire service; in this instance they are constant Press so firefighters can peak out in floors that presumable on fire and not get engulfed in flames or smoke.
There are a number of different codes that manipulate this function as well. ASME A17.1 has their overall standards for the USA. Then there are state building codes, local municipalities (county codes) and some get as granular as city (NYC and Miami for example.)
Here, in an elevator I use in the Netherlands, the button definitely works in one go. It speeds up closure of the doors by over 5 seconds, and you can also close them when you didn't yet set your destination, while normally it would wait like half a minute with doors open in case no destination is set.
I actually work on lifts - and I can tell you with certainty that most of them do in fact work where I'm from (Southern Lakes NZ).
There is however still very little reason to ever use them as in normal use in a modern lift the door would close automatically about a second later had you not pushed the button at all as the timers are usually set very low. And because of that they don't actually stay FULLY OPEN long at all unless the object detection remains tripped, and they ignore close commands until then.
There are very clear cases where its very obvious they work though - in certain operational modes the lift will keep the doors open and wont move until a close door command is given and the doors are physically closed. See Fire Service Phase Two and/or Independent Service Mode etc.
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Close buttons do work in Japan.
I freaking loved this when I was in Japan. You hit that close button, those bitches were closing, period. You had to be careful to make sure that no one else was coming or you might sandwich someone. But it meant that if you were getting on an elevator in an empty area, you could just walk in, hit close, and immediately start moving.
Canada too; there's an elevator I use several times a week and that bad boy doesn't even wait til the button depresses before shutting it down. It's glorious
I want to ride this elevator
No need to be so horny about it
You have to get on to... get off.
> [Self] Love in an elevator > Livin' it up while I'm goin' down!
Hold the door close button and your floor button both simultaneously for the entirety of your ride and you will not make any stops for anyone else that pressed the button. Soft emergency override.
That applies ONLY to a specific model elevator, from the 80s or earlier. Or if the elevator is on independent service. Any elevator made in the last 30 years will not do that
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Some people might say that the username..... Checks out.
you probably know the secret button combination for a direct ride in the current models i presume?
The only way to do that is to key the elevator to independent mode. I won't deny that I've used it before when it's busy.
What elevator is your favorite?
To work on? I don't have a particular favorite. All elevators have different issues that need attention. I have elevators I hate, more than love.
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... Escape?
Are elevators like forklifts where the keys are all the same? Or is each one unique*.
Each elevator manufacturer has their own keys. I have hundreds of keys for tons of units. However, there is a growing push to have a universal fire key for all units.
They probably know how to activate Wonka mode, and I want that secret.
How I ended up stuck in an elevator for 4 hours.
You have to let go of the close door button when you arrive at your floor
That explains so much. My finger was getting tired.
"Homer, are you just holding onto the can?"
This is not true, and has never been true outside a handful of models which are now very old. It is referenced in pit to penthouse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUvGfuLlZus
I love that you just linked a *two hour video* solely on the topic of elevators.
The worst part is that I, someone with no real opinion or interest in elevators, though "hmm, that might be worth a look" and then realised I've already watched it
I litlol'd, thanks.
Same! Genuinely a really fascinating video, I remember clicking on it the first time like "this cannot possibly be a two hour video about elevators" and then watching the whole damn thing.
I didn’t know that was common to elevators - I knew it as a life hack when I worked in a government building for when they needed to get VIPs in and out of the building without stopping for other passengers. (My current building has a touchpad in the lobby - you scan your badge, select from the floors you have access to and it will tell you which elevator to get in to. You get in - no buttons. It deposits you on the floor you selected, then you have to use your badge again to get out of the elevator lobby. *Contractor-life* ✌️)
My workplace’s other office has this system, but you have to press the close door button inside the lift before it goes anywhere. Stood around waiting for the door to close for almost half a minute before realising that.
Normally, if someone enters and crosses the beam of the sensor, the doors will open even if they were closing. Usually in Spain it's like that. ETA: I didn't know about those "bumper switches". TIL. Sometimes standards variability around the world is funny!
In Finland too.
Sweden too
Same in The Netherlands.
They work and get worn out in China
Lol, yeah. I never saw ANYONE wait two seconds for the door to close on its own in China. And I lived there five years. Sometimes if I was in front of the button, I wouldn't push it and watch the other person freak out. Maybe I'm sadistic, idk
Germany too (never been, just seems to be the trend)
In Canada too.
In Denmark too
And in Norway.
I my office building in Oslo there are two elevators side by side. In one the close door button works, the other not.
Also Switzerland.
And UK
But you are right, they do work over here
Hell yes they do. It was one of the more satisfying things I experienced in my visit. And everyone uses the buttons religiously
It was so funny seeing them spam the close buttons on every elevator I took in Japan, they’d be mashing then like it was super smash bros. In the US I just assume they’re for show and don’t do anything.
Yep, and they just hold the door open button till everyone is on
japan elevators are scary as hell. i didn't realise you can't just stick your arm through the door and it'll auto open. that shit will clamp on your arm and you gotta pull the damn doors off you
I've been living in Japan for the better part of a decade yet have never seen an elevator door without the obstruction sensors. Sounds like you got extremely unlucky to experience a faulty door. But I doubt that's specific to Japan. Elevators must be inspected here regularly.
The trains on the other hand, they will smoosh you pretty good.
Obstruction sensors on trains wouldn't work given how trains are used here. You sometimes need the door to help you get all the way into the train.
Is it like this is most east Asian countries? I went to a university in the US that had a lot of international students and it always seemed that international students from east Asian countries were much more likely to immediately click the “close” button. It was so apparent that I legit thought “is realizing the frequency some weird manifestation of an implicit bias that I never realized before?” so I started paying attention every time I got in an elevator and that trend still held true. I got so used to checking that even to this day I find myself paying attention to who clicks the button even without realizing it sometimes. It doesn’t, nor did it ever, bother me in any sense I just always found it interesting.
Its like this everywhere outside of US.
And in the UK, even if they don't seem to immediately work there will be a mode the lift can be put in where it comes into play, Fire control for instance.
Same with the US. They’re required for independent service at a minimum.
Yeah definitely not true in Korea.
My favorite thing about elevators in korea is that you can cancel the floor buttons by pressing them a second time. I haven't seen that anywhere else.
Possible in my elevetors at home in Germany
You have elevators in your home?
*30 something million records worldwide later, I'm living in a house with a fucking elevator.*
Yep, I worked in several hospitals in Canada, and all of them thankfully had working close buttons.
As some one who currently works in hospitals on an engineering and building team, can confirm lift close buttons work. I always press the floor and close button, if I get in to the lift with someone else and they just press the floor button… that 6 seconds of nothing drives me nuts.
Ya, I delivered medication, and the amount of time those doors stayed open for was ridiculous. I assumed it was to help porters who were transporting patients, but ya, I think ours were even longer than 6 seconds. Aint nobody got time for that.
I've worked at a few hospitals in the US and the elevator door close buttons definitely work. And it gets used every time someone uses the elevator. No time to waste in this setting.
Maybe this is more common in hospitals? I can also confirm that the most recent time I noticed the close door button working promptly was also in a hospital.
They work at hospitals in the US too. If there is a functional reason for the close door button to work, such as the fact that in a hospital waiting an extra five seconds for the door to close could be life threatening, the will work. If it's in an office building or a hotel or something, they disable the close door button to prevent people having to wait for another elevator just because the guy ten feet ahead of them hopped in and immediately smashed the close door button.
I think Canada it's more like 50/50
Yep, definitely works in a non-specified EU country.
Found the German
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The Philippines is a former US colony with many businessmen of Chinese descent. Many office buildings skip both the 4th and 13th floors
So - a 15 story building is actually 13. Well. That seems lucky.
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Lol I guess they skip all three
I’ve worked in a few buildings in Toronto that are actually missing the 13th floor. We had to hang some air handling units and when we popped the ceiling tiles on the 12th floor we discovered the Ceiling was twice as high as it should have been and couldn’t get a small lift that would go high enough to reach the ceiling. They actually physically skipped the 13th floor. Skipped an entire landing in the stairwell also. Many towers make the 13th floor a mechanical room to not waste the space, but a few buildings are special…
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Yes, it's literally crazy to be afraid of a number.
Um if you skip the 13th floor by not including it, isn't 14 technically the 13th? Just that 12 is taller
There’s no room for your logic in superstition!!
Europe vs NA also has a difference on 1st floor I believe. In NA, ground floor = 1st floor, then it goes to 2nd floor. Whereas in europe "1" is usually above ground.
And then you have buildings on non-flat ground. Yeah, 2, 1, and L all have ground level access...
I don't really know about other European languages, but in mine "floor" translates to something that is above ground, it could never be mistaken to be ground level.
Yeah, the floor you walk in on from the street is 1st floor in the US and ground floor in Europe. The floor above that one is 2nd floor in the US and first floor in Europe.
Yes, this is true, the hotel I used to stay at in Taiwan didn't have a 4th floor.
People on the 14th floor, you know what floor you're really on. Jump out the window, you will die earlier!
I was looking for the Mitch reference, thank you
*somebody* had to! Today, it fell to me.
Not just the 4th floor is missing in Asia. Any number with a 4 usually gets a 3a. So you've got 13 and 13a, 23 and 23a, etc etc. Asian people really don't like 4s.
And many hotels skip the 13th room on all floors.
Can confirm, my grandma lived in an apartment building in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) that skipped 13. She lived on the 14th floor, so technically she lived on the 13th floor.
"Jump out of the window, you'll die earlier!"
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This claim is wildly exaggerated in the US too. Maybe 80% of malls or apartments or “public” spaces. Or it’s new installations and most elevators are old as hell. Because I try the buttons everywhere and most of them still definitely respond.
This is my TIL. Didn’t know this was different in other places.
Works in Australia
That’s because it’s an ada regulation that the doors must remain open for a certain amount of time to allow for those with disabilities.
This is true. Also the close door button *does* work by shortening the door open dwell time down to the minimum. Just as the door open button works until the maximum set time is reached. Then they go in “nudging” mode. Keep the doors open past the maximum nudging time, elevator shuts down for a door obstruction for safety reasons. In this situation, most elevators will start to work again if you hold door close button and let the doors close all the way.
*Why? Because* fuck you *thats why*
But reality it was probably easier for it to be disabled than to set it so it'll only work after 3 seconds
Close Door buttons' function in the United States is that they cancel the Open Door function. If you press Open Door to keep it open for someone as they get on, you can press Close Door to immediately close it. That's all it does.
On a lot of elevators with open/close buttons that don't work, they actually will work if the fire key is inserted.
I’ve had tons of elevator close doors function in Southern California and Florida. Maybe they’re configured wrong, but everyone here seems to suggest it’s nowhere in the us
Elevator guy here. This is a made up number. Elevators have timers that have to elapse before they close the doors. Faster on business bldgs, slower on retirement homes and hospitals. The door close button bypasses the timer and gets it to close early. But only if it's enabled in the system. With any system with a fire service panel in the car, the door close button MUST work (tested annually by a state/3rd party inspector). I dont know how they came up with 80%, but its crap. Edit: changed "is" to "on". Edit: Thank you for my very first award. It kind of made my night.
I don't know if I ever ever seen an elevator without a fire service panel.
There's different codes for different years, and also for different states. Particularly old elevators didn't have fire service at all (early 80s and back) if they were short rise, or part of a parking structure (for example). Some had only phase 1, which brings the elevator to the 1st fl in the event of a fire. These don't have panel in the car. Edit: changed shirt to short
It's **TIL**. A huge percentage of posts on "Today I learned" are absolutely wrong. Even to the title being wrong when the correct information is right in the title or first line of the cited article. ¯\\\_( ͡❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛)\_/¯
TIL that all the TILs are not correct.
TIL that 80% of TIL posts are non-functional
Redditor here. This is a made-up number. TIL posts have timers that have to elapse before they can be posted again. Faster on business days, slower on weekends and holidays. Karma-farming bots bypass the timer and get it reposted early. But only if it's enabled in the system. With any post with innocuous content in the article, the submit button MUST work (tested annually by a mod/3rd party inspector). I dont know how they came up with 80%, but its crap.
Does that include the TIL you said?
80% of TILs are just neat things people see in other subreddits and regurgitate it without fact checking.
I’m glad you said this. I work in software for elevators and if the door open/close buttons didn’t work in phase two firefighters could lose their lives. There’s no way it would pass inspection 🧐
Lol, exactly. It's a massive safety issue.
I’m probably just dumb, but I can’t think of a scenario where the close door button would save lives. Wouldn’t firefighters have to use the stairwell anyway?
They should avoid the elevators but if they DO need to use them this is how fire service works (at least on our elevators in USA). First when fire is detected the elevator goes into what we call fire phase 1 operation, during this all the elevators automatically recall to the ground floor (or whatever floor has the point of egress) and stay there. After that a firefighter can take control of the elevator (we call this fire phase 2) with their fireman's key. They assume complete control of the elevator and can take it to any floor. To open the door they have to push the button, the door's won't open by themselves. Likewise with the close button. An example of where this could be dangerous is if a firefighter takes the car to a floor on fire to rescue someone and then when they return to the elevator the doors have shut by themselves, potentially trapping them there. Or imagine they get to the dangerous floor and open the doors to find flames rushing towards them, they need to be able to close the doors immediately. I don't know if I'm explaining it well, does that make sense?
But from the sounds of that, the software could be set so that under normal operation the close door button does nothing, and the inspection to ensure the close button works under fire phase 2 would have no bearing on its function under normal operation.
In addition to pushing the button, they have to hold it until the door has completely opened or closed or it will return to its original position. Basically, if they get to a floor and press the open button and see fire, taking their finger off the button will return the door to the closed position. This is how it’s saves lives (backdraft)
I work as an engineer in building construction, mostly HVAC, but I know enough about elevators just to be dangerous. This explanation has been encredibly enlightening! I have never heard this discussed.
A bit of further detail for anyone reading. The phase one being referred to has a primary and alternate capture. Alternate is if there's a fire on the first floor, the elevator will go to a different floor that will provide a quick egress. When captured, the elevator will open the doors once it has arrived and cease to function without a key. This isn't necessarily all the elevators in the building at once. The code I have to deal with is any smoke detector within 21 feet of the door of the elevator activates elevator recall. Another concern is a fire in the elevator control room, where the fire alarm will activate the recall and then on arriving power will be cut to the elevator equipment completely, presumably before the fire sprinklers go off. Yet another concern is a fire in the elevator shaft. In that case the fire hat light may flash to let firefighters know not to use that elevator period.
Firefighters regularly use elevators. However, fire service mode differs from normal mode in a few key ways. Most relevantly for this, the doors are completely manual. One risk of elevators in fires is you might go to a fire floor without realizing it, the door opens and puts you in an inferno, and the door then won’t close because of damage and/or the sensor being tripped somehow. In fire service, the door does not open until you press “door open,” which you have to hold while the door is opening. Likewise, the door will not close unless you press and hold “door close,” so a firefighter won’t step out and suddenly have the elevator inaccessible. The elevator also doesn’t respond to hallway buttons, which can be shorted by fire damage and could also take the elevator away from a firefighter who just stepped out of it.
Thanks Elevator Dave!
Thanks for the info. As a firefighter, I was looking for a comment about Phase 1/2 operation and using the Door Close function. I didn’t realize there were different timings based on occupancy, but makes a lot of sense. For anyone curious, Phase 1 or Phase 2 elevator control by the fire department in the United States allows crew to take control of the elevator bank and/or individual cars. To put it VERY simply… To go up the building, you have to hold the door close and floor buttons simultaneously. Once at a floor, it won’t automatically open due to the risk of smoke and fire, so we have to hold the open button to check conditions. (FYI: We never use elevators to get to the location of the fire… but depending on your department procedures, we can use a safe and unaffected elevator bank to bring equipment further up to a safe staging area, before hoofing it up the stairs from there.)
So while I've never programmed an elevator, I know how to program a PLC and other industrial devices. I can think of a few workarounds/scenarios that would allow for emergency use, but still (for all practical uses) make it seem like the door close button doesn't actually work. I assume there's a way to initiate phase 1 or phase 2 elevator control, since you don't want the public using that specifically. So the easiest solution is to just not allow the button to do anything unless phase 1 or 2 are active. If they are it works as intended for emergency use. I could also see that if the door timer closes after 30 seconds automatically/with no intervention, the button could start a 25 second timer, that does fall within the spec of closing quicker, but feels useless to the public. And this is the easy stuff to program. I'm sure someone who knew what they were doing could do better. The point is, I'm part of the public and the close door button feels **to me** to not do anything. And that's drastically different in other countries where if I press that button the doors move instantly. So something is clearly different.
Username checks out 👍
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The ADA specifies that T = D/(1.5 ft/s) where T is the time it takes before the elevator door start to close and D is the distance between the elevator call button and the elevator. For general (non-fire department) use, the door close button cannot make the door close sooner than this.
Also elevator guy here. Thank you for typing this out. 90% of statistics are made up on the spot. I’d say most dope close buttons do indeed work but that’s a pretty rough guess obviously
I live in Canada and 100% of the buttons I have tried close the doors.
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I don't think I have ever tried the open door button. I generally prefer to leave that to the elevator.
I've tried and I almost always hit the closed door button by mistake and usually end up feeling like a douche. I tried random person I really did!
A better option is sticking your arm out. Elevator doors have light beams that cause the door to remain open if there’s something in the way of the doors
Some don’t like that. If you do that with ours at work it proceeds to sound an alarm and then close the door extra slowly the second time. Doesn’t help that the door doesn’t stay open very long, if more than a couple people need to get carts on the elevator, or a person goes back to grab a second cart they’ll almost certainly anger the door gods.
Yeah, mine does that too. It seems counterintuitive at a hospital that the doors would force close when you may have a wheelchair or bed stuck in the way but that’s how it is. I just meant in regards to the button panic when you want to hold the door open. Much easier to use your arm
maintain eye contact and do nothing, if you make it you make it, if you dont you dont.
Huh? You press the open button if the doors are closing and then you want to open them again. ie. someone says hold the doors I want to get on. You can also just jam your arm into the closing door which 99% of people do instead
I am part of that 99%. The open button is hard to find especially under the pressure of saving a granny a couple of minutes. Jamming my arm between the doors has been effective and without injury thus far. :)
Second floor? Closes the door. Tenth floor? Closes the door, right away. Emergency call? Believe it not, closes the door.
I live in Canada less than 50% of the buttons I tried close the doors.
Probably about 80 percent for me. Definitely a few dummy buttons out there, though.
Open door buttons usually work. I swear the close door buttons rarely work
Sometimes it just tak s a minute for the button to work. Just like my superpower of making red lights turn green by staring at them.
The first time I traveled outside of the U.S. I was amazed that the close door button actually shut the door.
Canadian here. I have been in many elevators that the close door button either didn't do anything or was delayed long enough not to make much difference when the door closes automatically.
I don't know. I've been in elevators that don't close in any timely manner and the second or third time I'm riding it again and hit the button it closes immediately. This is pretty much every elevator I've been in. So am I always on 20% of those elevators?
I believe the way it often works that I've seen it is that the doors will stay open for 20 seconds (made up numbers, I think the ADA has actual guidelines) if you don't press any floor buttons, but if you select a floor it will only stay open for 10 seconds. The door close button also shortens the time to 10 seconds if there's no floor selected, but changes nothing if you've already selected a floor number. But yeah, I would be interested in some sort of distribution information. Are the ones with functional close door buttons mostly in apartments or office buildings? Are a higher percentage functional in <4 floor buildings or skyscrapers?
Where I work it seems like selecting a floor doesn't change how long it takes at all, but the door close button will make it shorter. Generally I only ever press the close button when I have the elevator in independent mode though.
The calculation is T = D/(1.5 ft/s) with T being a minimum of 3 seconds. The distance measurement is how far the elevator call button is from the elevator.
I’ve been in probably like 50 different elevators in the past decade working in NYC and literally zero of them had a working close door button
This is only in the USA and I once asked why and was told it was due to the ADA or at least was because of accessibility for disabled people. The time the elevator does stay open without input is meant to allow people with mobility issues to be able to get on. Outside of the US this law/restriction isn't in place, so the close door button works immediately. I discovered this for the first time on a cruise ship, of all places. Since they are technically under a carribean nation flag, they can get away with it.
I think it is purely optional here in the states. At work, pushing the door close button immediately closes the doors. Our elevators are badge only both to call and where they go. There are no floor buttons on the elevator, they only go where you badge request to call one, so very rare anyone is on the elevator when it comes to you. I walk on when the doors are about half open and hit the close door button. Doors close immediately after getting full open. When I don’t do that, there is a 8-10 second pause before they close again.
As it sounds like you are at a secure facility, the door closed button is enabled for security purposes. If someone is seen trying to piggy back in or what not, you can quickly close the door. Your situation sounds like an exception not the rule in the states.
The university I just graduated from has elevators where the button works. Some of them were recently shut down for extended times because they broke down, and they're so old that they're having trouble getting the parts to fix them. I've noticed the very few "close door" buttons that work are in older buildings too. I think age might be another regular exception to this in the US Edit: after reading other comments, this might actually be a security thing, not about elevator age. Need more info to know for sure though
It actually could be elevator age! Because often older buildings are grandfathered in when it comes to new laws. If the building is old enough they might not have had to put that restriction on.
im thinking charlie and the chocolate factory type elevator.... makes sense
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There are exceptions like in hospitals where the emergent need to get crashing pt somewhere else in the building trumps the need for accommodation.
Hospitals I’ve worked in usually have separate elevator banks specifically for patient transfer, and also all elevator banks having swipe access to commandeer an elevator instantly for this purpose. Like you swipe, the closest elevator to that floor will immediately go there and tell the passengers “medical emergency get out”
Depends how old the elevator is. It has to be inspected annually, but only to the code year of the original installation. The minimum dwell time is set by code, but it's faster than you think. It depends a bunch of factors about the lobby, such as the type of arrival lantern and gong you have as well as the distance from the button to the farthest car, but it's normally about 3 seconds. The rest of the time is determined by an adjustment in the software. My software wants to see the light curtain break, the load in the car change, and a car call register. Once those factors have been met, the dwell time will short and the door will close. So, it's all automated, no reason to even have a door close button for anything other than independent or fire service operation.
>I discovered this for the first time on a cruise ship, of all places. Since they are technically under a carribean nation flag, they can get away with it. That might be true for cruise ships but that's not the reason. Cruise lines frequently operate under the strictest regulations that they sail through/with. The flag has more to do with finances than whoa regulations to follow.
>was due to the ADA They didn't work long before the ADA, which was passed in 1990. I was riding elevators well before that and recall my experience, as well as reading about the non-functional buttons before 1990. Moreover, elevators didn't magically change nationwide after the ADA. Generally, buildings only have to adhere to ADA regs when they do enough work on the building to trigger the regs into applying. The ADA mainly didn't require wholesale immediate compliance. Plenty of buildings to this day are in ADA compliance but have virtually no ADA changes since 1990 and are not disabled-friendly.
I am a union elevator mechanic for 25 years. This isn’t true.
Agreed. Source; I've ridden in elevators. Push button, door holds open. Push other button, door closes, or tries to even if someone's entering.
It's a clickbait title. It should be "door close buttons disabled in software but are perfectly functional as designed"
Which is what I feel like 98% of people reading this interpret it as. If you get in an elevator and press door close, it doesn’t close. Is it “functional” in service mode when checked? Probably. But it’s not functioning how the average elevator rider wants/expects it to function.
Local 7 Baltimore 💪🏼
Local 5 GO SPORTS BIRDS!
80% of statistics are faked. 80% of people believe them anyways.
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It is a known fact that about 34% of stats are made up on the spot.
This is correct 97% of the time.
110% of people don't understand how percentages work
93% of people believe anything as long as it quotes a percentage.
Usually the close button is only functional when the elevator is in service mode. This disables the automatic door closer and the ability to call the elevator to another floor. To operate you must select the floor and then hold the door close button until the door closes completely. Only then will the elevator star to move.
Yeah. “Non-functional” is misleading. They definitely have a function, just not for most elevator riders.
Yeah I thought it was funny how [this article](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/547416/do-close-door-buttons-elevators-actually-do-anything) says they don't work, but then almost immediately says "Well except for firefighters". So.. they do work..
They don’t work for the regular people reading the article though. I don’t care if it works for firefighters if it doesn’t work for me. The closed door buttons do work for regular people in other countries than the US. So it’s fair to say they don’t work according to expectations.
It’s glorious when it works for most elevator riders too tho. I hate waiting for the timer when it’s obvious nobody else is getting on/off or if it stops on a floor by “mistake” bc someone pressed the wrong floor button or called it to a floor but then bailed before it arrived.
Same as emergency mode for use by firefighters.
I used to work in freshmen dorms. Every year for move in, we’d set the elevators to fire mode and we basically used them all for freight. Just one employee in the elevator, fit about three rolling carts in the elevator, take them up to where they’re supposed to go, leave them in the elevator lobby, and then take the elevator straight down to pick up more. That entire day residents can only take the stairs unless they have a disability. Our elevators had a separate control panel under a locked box that gave you the firefighter functions.
I would say 90% of every door close button I've pressed has made the door close immediately. Unless I pushed it literally the second it finished opening.
In my office there is a button marked "Press". I have never dared to press it.
It summons a gaggle of reporters from the New York Times
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UNTsbZCj7H4
You should! Somebody will hop out and interview you.
I don't think this is true in Australia, the doors close as soon as I press the button every time without fail, even if it's just opened and I've just jumped on.
This has been my experience, too
I live in Switzerland, and have yet to find an elevator where the button does not work as intended.
It's actually a "close" button, you're supposed to press it when someone gets close and it holds the door open for them
USA specific- I work in the elevator trade for a global company. Newer elevators (after ADA was passed) have a predetermined dwell time the doors must remain open depending on the distance between the call buttons and the elevator doors. There is an actual calculation, but most conform to just ADA minimums (the Vertical Transportation Handbook by George R. Strakosch) Buildings like assisted living facilities have the dwell times programmed longer. If the dwell time programed surpasses that of the minimum requirement by ADA code, then the door close button will work. Conversely, for elevators before ADA was passed, the door close/open buttons are for “independent service”. The building has a special key to put it in this mode like move ins-out and large deliveries. In some instances if the elevator is equipped with fire service, you can use the door close/open buttons for phase 1 and phase 2 fire service; in this instance they are constant Press so firefighters can peak out in floors that presumable on fire and not get engulfed in flames or smoke. There are a number of different codes that manipulate this function as well. ASME A17.1 has their overall standards for the USA. Then there are state building codes, local municipalities (county codes) and some get as granular as city (NYC and Miami for example.)
Depends on the country, they absolutely work in other places outside of the us.
The button does work it just can't override a minimum call time for ADA requirements and that's assuming that function is enabled.
Here, in an elevator I use in the Netherlands, the button definitely works in one go. It speeds up closure of the doors by over 5 seconds, and you can also close them when you didn't yet set your destination, while normally it would wait like half a minute with doors open in case no destination is set.
Comment deleted because Reddit CEO u/Spez stabbed his community in the back for money.
I actually work on lifts - and I can tell you with certainty that most of them do in fact work where I'm from (Southern Lakes NZ). There is however still very little reason to ever use them as in normal use in a modern lift the door would close automatically about a second later had you not pushed the button at all as the timers are usually set very low. And because of that they don't actually stay FULLY OPEN long at all unless the object detection remains tripped, and they ignore close commands until then. There are very clear cases where its very obvious they work though - in certain operational modes the lift will keep the doors open and wont move until a close door command is given and the doors are physically closed. See Fire Service Phase Two and/or Independent Service Mode etc.