07/30/2025
Why Machine Roomless Elevators (MRLs) Are a Bad Investment for Building Owners 🛑
MRLs were not designed for your convenience — they were designed to create long-term revenue for the companies that sell and service them.
🧰 Harder to Maintain & Repair: Equipment is crammed into inaccessible spaces. Testing is more difficult, and the components are often proprietary — meaning only the original installer can legally or practically work on them.
⚠️ Less Safe: Most elevator-related accidents happen to:
Technicians installing, maintaining, or repairing the equipment.
Untrained building personnel trying to retrieve dropped items or keys from pits to avoid the outrageous cost of a technician dispatch.
💸 A Revenue Machine: The very design of MRLs ensures recurring service calls, specialized parts, and limited competition. It’s a perfect business model — just not for the building owner.
🤔 So Why Are They Legal?
Because the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) approved it. Why? Because:
Code committees are largely made up of big manufacturers, labor unions, and AHJs themselves.
These codes aren’t created by a neutral government agency — they’re written by private-sector engineers who rely on finding "problems" to justify their positions.
Every time a code is enforced, someone gets paid — through permits, proprietary solutions, or service contracts.
🚨 Building owners and property managers: You need to question what you're being sold.
This industry profits from confusion, complexity, and control.
📞 Call Inland Elevator for a second opinion from actual technicians — not salespeople.
