Another Mechanic and I were having a discussion about "brushes". He insists that "Carbone" is a better manufacturer than "Helwig". I say that as long as you get the right grade after getting the proper info. off the M.G.'s & Hoistmotors, they're all the same. I would like some other opinions and some other Mfgrs. as well. Thanks.

-- Al (Al E Vtr@aol.com), February 27, 2005

Answers

Al,

Great question / great topic...

My experience has been that is you find a brush, Helwig or Carbone, that works well, the next batch you get from them may give you nothing but trouble...

There is no rhymn or reason to it...

Also, don't mix match name brands of brushes unless you want a bunch of callbacks...

-- Will (mtnrambo@msn.com), February 27, 2005.

Hi There, for most jobs 95% of the brush grade is the same,certain jobs are more sensitive to differant grades than others and you need the special company brushes. The best service I have every seen in general is from Adavaced Carbon In Ca. 1800-283-1249

Most times when you call and talk to one of the techs (Mike or Ron are the the best)and tell him what data motor data plate info you have and they will tell you what brush number for that piece of equipement in less than a 5 minute phone call. They have most grades in stock and can imdediately ship and started using them since 1978. Try to get that service from others, good luck. They will on larger jobs come out and survey the equipment at no charge.

I used to walk around with the brush tech when he showed up on jobs in the field. With a paint pen and he would tell me what the brush number was and I would write it on the equipment right then and there for future brush ordering. I still have some of the old Helwig brush angle rulers they had white and silver ones.

-- Jim (elevator555@hotmail.com), February 27, 2005.

Thanks Jim & Will. A lot of our Brothers & "Sisters" don't seem to realize the importance of the right type of brush grade and how important "seating" is also. Thanks again.....

-- Al (Al E Vtr@aol.com), February 27, 2005.

Something interesting a motor shop told me is brushes have a shelf life. They are supposed to have some sort of lubricant impregnated into them. He also said you shouldn't mix not just manufacturers but also batches.

-- Brian (m428rl@hotmail.com), February 27, 2005.

Brian, That makes sense, we used to buy brushes buy the gross ( 12 dozen at a whack ) and it seems we would get a good Lot # and then a bad Lot # from the same brush company...

I've only got 1 Old OTIS put in in 1929 that has brushes, and I have to change MG brushes once a year... When I do, I get complaints for about a week...

Thank God everyone else Modernized, no dust, clean and top performing units....

-- Will (mtnrambo@msn.com), February 27, 2005.

I prefer Helwig to Advanced Carbon any day. I have changed out all of the advanced carbon brushes on my job because the split brush has a plastic hammer plate that comes unglued and the brushes wear unevenly. The only downside is that the Helwig brushes are a little shorter from stock.

-- Jim B (fixingelevators@sbcglobal.net), February 28, 2005.

There are only 2 major supplier for carbon for the U.S market. Spear carbon and Morganite. Carbone owns a good portion of Spear and American Carbon owns a good portion of Morganite. We are the largest elevator supplier of Carbone brushes. At one time I only liked Helwig. Carbone asses each motor and generator as a seperate entity not by a generic E41 grade. Also the carbone brushes have a molded shunt as opposed to a epoxy shunt. Recently,Carbone just hired the Helwig production manager that was there for 15 plus years and has personally told us that the carbone quality is much better than what they were doing at helwig. Most surveys that i go on usually have all sorts of levelling problems and have fixed most of them when we installed the carbone grades. Yes most companies can tweek a grade to make it work, but you get what you pay for.

-- tom przybyla (tomprz@flash.net), March 08, 2005.