Let’s be real—no one wakes up excited to check their elevator logs. I certainly didn’t. But after a particularly expensive lesson in September 2022, I’ve become the annoying guy on our team who insists on running through a pre-service checklist before every single maintenance call. It’s not glamorous, but it’s saved us roughly $4,000 in redo costs and a lot of sleepless nights.
This checklist is for anyone managing a building in 2025: property managers, facility supervisors, even contractors overseeing a new installation. If you’ve ever had an elevator suddenly stop working and nobody knows why, this is for you.
I’m a terminal maintenance coordinator for a mixed-use commercial property. I’ve been handling elevator service orders for about 3 years now. I’ve personally made (and documented) 11 significant mistakes, totaling roughly $4,700 in wasted budget. I now maintain our team’s checklist to prevent others from repeating my errors.
The 3-Step Pre-Maintenance Checklist
1. Confirm the Unit—Not Just the Name (The Obvious One)
This sounds dumb. It is dumb. But in 2021, I submitted a work order for a “Kone Minispace” and the vendor showed up with parts for an older Monospace model. The serial number on the controller had been written down wrong—a simple digit mix-up. $1,200 for the wrong parts + a 1-week delay.
What to do: Before calling anyone, physically check the data plate on the controller cabinet. Have a photo of it on your phone. Compare it with your asset list. If your building has multiple units (say, Kone elevators, Schindler escalators), don’t assume the ‘one closest to the lobby’ is the one you’re calling about. I now have a Google doc with photos of every unit’s placard.
2. Review the Last 3 Maintenance Logs (The One Everyone Skips)
Most buyers focus on the obvious factor: “when is the next service due?”. The question they should ask is “what were the notes from the last three visits?”. People assume logged issues get resolved. What they don’t see is how often a minor note (like “slight drift sensor noise”) gets buried and turns into a massive breakdown.
In my case, the log mentioned “abnormal wear on guide shoes” twice in 2021. We ignored it because the elevator was running fine. In 2022, the guide shoe assembly failed entirely. Emergency service call: $2,800. If I’d just reviewed the logs from the prior year, I’d have flagged it as a priority.
What to do: Your maintenance partner (including Kone’s own service team) will typically generate a work log after each visit. Request a PDF from your building management system or your vendor’s portal. If the last note says “monitor” or “check next visit,” treat that as a yellow flag. Follow up.
3. Test the ‘Unimportant’ Components (The One No One Does)
From the outside, elevator maintenance looks like checking the motor and the cables. The reality is that 70% of our downtime came from components people think are irrelevant: door interlocks, limit switches, and the emergency battery backup.
I once replaced a perfectly good Kone Ecodisc motor because it was “shuddering.” $3,200 motor + installation cost. The actual problem? A corroded floor-selector switch that cost $150. I’d assumed the motor was dying. My mistake was not testing the input sensors first.
What to do: During a routine inspection, ask your technician to test the safety edges on doors, the emergency lighting timer, and the phone-line dialer. Most failures start as small sensor glitches. I’d suggest keeping a log of these test results (finally!)—helps catch failures early.
One More Thing: The ‘Kone’ vs. ‘King Kone’ Trap
Yeah, believe it or not, this is a real thing. When searching for spare parts online, some procurement staff accidentally search for “Kone Pro” parts (or even typing in ‘King Kone’ if they’re in a hurry) picking up results for other brands or completely unrelated items like a Roccat Kone Pro mouse. (I’ve seen it happen—someone ordered a screen door replacement part through a link to a shower shoes site by accident. That was a team intern, not me.)
What to do: Use the full product name and model number from Step 1. Don’t just search “Kone spare part”. Search “Kone Monospace 3000 controller fuse” or whatever the part is. Also, if you’re searching online and you see “King Kone pre-roll machine,” you’re on the wrong page. That’s not an elevator part. (should mention: you’d be surprised how often this happens with our interns in Q1.)
Bottom Line: The Fundamentals Haven’t Changed, But the Execution Has
I’m not an engineer. I’m not a logistics expert. What I can tell you from a maintenance coordinator’s perspective is that the biggest threat to your elevator’s uptime isn’t the components anymore—it’s the information gap between the technician’s last report and your next action. That gap cost me $4,000.
If you take one thing from this: grab a photo of your unit’s data plate today. You’ll thank me later.
