Getting an electric gate for your property is a good call, getting one which has a timer, or a scheduled hold open, is an even better one. It means you don’t have to fumble for your smartphone as you come up towards your electric gate every morning. Each person might manage their gate timer in a different way but there are some common good practice themes and things to know which should be able to stand you in good stead going forward.
Don’t Leave Your Electric Gate Open For Too Long
The whole purpose of an electric gate is to control access to your property. This might be your home, your business, or an electric gate which leads into a wider community. If you use a timer all of the time, you’re not going to be benefiting from the sole purpose the gate provides. Try to be limited with your timer and use it when you’re expecting to leave for work and come back, or for other predictable time slots where you know you’ll be using the gate. You can also use it when you’re expecting large numbers of guests at your home over a certain time frame. Once you’re in the practice of using it well, it’ll become easier.
Remember To Cancel Your Scheduled Open
If you change your working practices, such as working at home instead of at the office, or you change your shift start time, you need to remember to cancel or adjust your scheduled open. It’s really easy to do, you just log into the relevant app, and either change the time or cancel it. If you’re using Nimbio cellular gate access system, you:
- Log in to https://community.nimbio.com or by tapping the “Admin” tab in the bottom right corner of the app (you must be a gate administrator to access this page)
- Select “Hold Opens” in the left navigation bar (or the menu in the Admin tab of the app)
- Select “New One Time Event” for a specific date and time period, or “New Recurring Event” if you want to schedule the gate to be held open for recurring days and times.
You can find further information on our features page.
Canceling a scheduled open is really important in the grand scheme of things. Forgetting, or not cancelling the scheduled open means your property will be vulnerable and without the benefits of access control.
Fix Any Electric Gate Timer Faults As Soon As Possible
It’s really important to get to those faults asap. Try restarting the app, or checking if there’s an update available. If these don’t work, consider talking to your installer. If you’re noticing the gate isn’t opening when you think it should be, check your admin panel and see if it recognises the time you’ve previously specified. The sooner you can fix faults, the less chance there is of your home going unprotected for a period of time.
Teach Others How To Use The Electric Gate Timer
It’s important to teach others how to use the electric gate, whether family or the wider community who benefits from it. Using the timer is equally important. If you’ve all got multiple timers open on the gate, it might end up being open all day. That’s why you need to be careful regarding who you give master key access to, rather than shared key access. The timer is accessed through the admin tab in the app.
For those that do have access, teach them how to use it properly. If the gate is part of a wider community, talk about the times you’ll need it held open on a timer. There might be multiple people who need to leave the community the same time every single day, so you can decide to have a communal timer of sorts. The same applies to coming home.
Be Careful About Leaving It On Over Night
If you leave the gate open during the day you can get away with it. If the gate is left open all night then you’re lessening your security. The FBI estimates that most theft and robbery occur during the night, so it stands to reason that this is the time you need to be protected. This applies to both communities and single properties. Try to make sure your timer isn’t set for a long period in the night when you’re not there. For example, you work really late, but something happens and you end up staying in the office for a couple of hours longer. As a result, your gate is wide open in the dead of night for two hours. It’s not very good security wise. Only leave your electric gate timer on overnight if you’re going to be sure you’ll be coming back in time.
Check It Periodically
If other people have access to your cellular electric gate timer, you might need to check it from time to time to see if there are timers on the system which you might not recognise. Get into the practice of checking once a week or so to make sure there are no suspicious hold open times on your app. This applies to your own premises, but it’s even more important if it applies to your gated community or business where more people might have access.
Timed Smart Gate On A Business
A timed gate on a business is really hard to manage. If you’re not directly customer facing and work in an office, it’s a lot easier but then if you have people starting at different times it becomes problematic. A common workaround is by keeping the gate open at the most popular time then closing it afterwards leaving people to use the cellular access to enter as they need to. Toeing the line between electric gate security and ease of access is tough when a business comes into consideration. When the cellular electric gate is protecting employee’s vehicles and possessions it’s even more important that you get it right.
Smart Gate Timer Round Up
In short, the timer or scheduled hold open on your smart gate is a brilliant bit of proptech which can help you live your life in a more convenient way. You just need to make sure you use it properly otherwise access control will be compromised. As the electric gate itself is purchased to provide access control, mismanagement can render the gate completely null.
If you want to check out more relating to Nimbio’s particular timer, have a look at the feature page or contact us if you want a chat about the product. There’s a lot more information about cellular electric gates, proptech, and gated communities in our blog if you want to read further.
