In this elevator rescue training video, instructor Geoff Davis discusses different types of elevator door keys and how use them to activate the door mechanism when opening elevator doors during an elevator rescue emergency.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:

 Drop keys are going to be by far your most popular. The Half Moon or the Schindler key. There’s T keys. Shove knife I’ve never had much of a use for on elevators.

Lunar crescent, Schindler, all the same thing. It’s that lever action. You stick it in at a downward angle, it catches the lever, push up, and door opens.

T key is the exact same thing as that, just a different shape. The rotation isn’t the same every single time, depending on what the mechanism looks like behind the door. You might stick it in and rotate it clockwise. You might stick it in and rotate it counterclockwise. It’s gonna take some feeling around once you get it through to feel the mechanism on the other side.

The mechanism opening, to me, makes a distinctive clunk, for lack of a better term. Like, once I hit it and I actually activate that, I can hear it and know I’ve got it.

What we’re looking at here is the backside of the door. That’s the actual mechanism we’re trying to catch with the key. The key goes in straight.

That hinge allows it to drop once it gets to the other side of the door. And now it can freely rotate up and catch that bolt that’s going through that rod.

If your keys not long enough to catch that rod, or catch that bolt, you can rotate right around and miss it. That’s where the doubles and triples come in.