Your electric gate stands guard outside your home, business or gated community. It helps keep you and your loved ones safe. But how can you ensure its longevity or long time function? If you’ve bought a top quality cellular electric gate the likelihood is that it will last an extremely long time…but you can help it last even longer. Like all things, wear and tear is a distinct possibility as is damage via human error. 

Know The Gate’s Opening Arc

With cars driving in and out there’s the chance one of them might collide with the gate system itself. If the car hits the gate or the post it can knock the gate out of operation pretty easily. If you know the opening arc you can limit the chances of any accident happening. You’ll know exactly where the limit is after you’ve used it a couple of times. Problems can occur when delivery vans and trucks need to use the gate. Anyone who doesn’t use it regularly might make a mistake if they’re in a large vehicle. If you can mark the gate limit with a bollard or a sign, you’ll limit the chances of this happening.

Also, speak to those who you know that use the gate regularly so that they know how to deal with the opening arc. This includes friends and family, as well as delivery drivers who you know will end up using the gate most often. 

If you live in a gated community, there’s more chance of car related accidents because there will be so many more vehicles using the gate. In these cases, it might be worth syncing the gate up with the markings on the road. A solid white line can easily denote where to stop until the gate is fully open and can limit those unfamiliar with a gate arc from causing accidents.

If you need to turn out of the gate, or turn into the gate, it can pose more of a problem. The open gate will force you into a wider turning circle. Once you’ve done it a few times, it’s likely you’ll be fine. However, knowing the situations where these accidents can occur will give you a better chance of it not happening.

Keep The Sensors Clean

The sensors on most electric gates stop them closing when a car is still in between them. It means the electric gates won’t hit the car and cause an accident. These are needed because people drive at different paces. If there weren’t sensors and someone was driving too slowly, the gate would hit the moving car…likely damaging both the car and the gate itself.

You need to keep the sensors clean. They’re usually in posts near the gates or on the gate itself. Use a dry lint-free cloth to wipe the sensor down periodically to make sure marks and scuffs aren’t interfering with the gate function. If you live somewhere with torrential rainfall, make sure the gate sensor is properly sealed and waterproofed. Water ingress can sometimes cause it to malfunction too.

Remember, there are probably more than one sensor on the gate…depending on how big it is. Make sure you clean all of them. Sensors can be located:

There are different kinds of sensors too, the most popular are:

Of course, if you use a cellular smart gate your phone just signals the gate upon request, meaning motion sensors aren’t required. It’s one less thing you need to worry about. 

Stop The Kids From Playing On The Electric Gate

Not only is climbing on the gates completely dangerous, it’s also damaging to the gate. Excessive weight on the gate might make it sag. Once it’s sagged, the gate will hit the floor when it swings open…further damaging the gate and the ground. It might damage the electric gate motor system too because the gate will try to open against the ground. 

Kids like to climb on things. It’s part of growing up. Not only can they damage the gate but if the gate opens while they’re on it they’ll end up falling and hurting themselves. If you’ve got an iron spiked gate there’s the added danger of impalement. 

The key is for you to lay down the rules right from the outset. This is of course age dependent but it’s important they know about the electric gate and how they should respect it as much as possible. 

Keep Your Cellular Electric Gate Clean

Gates get dirty and dirt can interfere with the gates motion. Mulch and build up in the hinges don’t help and if the electrical motor or power supply is open to the elements rainfall can interfere with the electrics.

Spend some time keeping the gate and the gate system clean. If you live near trees this might be clearing leaves from around the gate so that it can open properly, or if you live somewhere dusty it’s just a case of keeping the sensor lense clear and wiping the gate down. 

If the gate is a community gate then you just either need to work out a schedule and take turns in keeping the gate clean, or put your money together and pay someone to do it for you. 

Do You Use A Cellular Electric Gate?

Cellular electric gates are brilliant bits of proptech which allow you to use your phone to open and close the gate. It means there’s a signal between the app on your phone and the gate in question. The signal between the two needs to be preserved for access control to continue to be viable. Make sure you look after your cell phone and be sure the app is kept up to date along with your phone’s operating software. 

Taking care of your gate isn’t that hard. If you’ve had it installed by a professional and make sure there are no accidents you can benefit from your cellular electric gate for a long time. Basic maintenance can make sure nothing gets damaged over time too. Education is a large part of it, whether a personal electric gate for your home, or one for the larger community.

Our blog is full of other details regarding electric gates and other elements of proptech. If you want to know more about cellular gate access control feel free to contact us or check out the key features.

Open your gate or building with your phone