The Truth About ‘Close Door’ Elevator Buttons

How often have you been in an elevator, either by yourself or with a group, and you mash the ‘close door’ button to close the doors as quickly as possible to get where you need to go? You might be surprised to learn that pushing an elevator’s ‘close door’ button likely does nothing and has been that way since the 1990s.

There’s a good reason these buttons wouldn’t work. It came about because of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. Elevators had to be open for at least three seconds to allow someone with a disability enough time to get inside the elevator. Any elevators built after the Act were either built with an ineffective or “dummy” ‘close door’ button or the button was not wired to the control panel.

In some instances, an elevator can have a ‘close’ button that works, but it should only work after the built-in delay was done. In these cases, the elevator door would already be closing before the ‘close’ button became operable. If someone came in the elevator, the delay should start again. Since elevators have around a 25-year lifespan, most older elevators would have been replaced with a non-functioning ‘close door’ button if they had been upgraded or replaced to comply with the ADA. Of course, there are probably elevators that don’t comply with the rules set from the ADA.