Your automatic gate will not open. What to check before you call
Seven causes that cover most cases, and what you can check yourself in five minutes without tools and without breaking anything.
It usually happens in the morning, when you are in a hurry. You press the remote, nothing happens, you press again and still nothing.
The good news is that in most cases it is nothing serious. Below are the causes we find most often, in the order worth checking. All of them can be checked without tools and without any risk of making things worse.
1. The remote battery
Obvious, but it is cause number one. A good sign that this is it: the gate works when you stand right next to it, but not from 10 metres away.
Try a second remote if you have one. If the other works, you have your answer.
2. Dirty or misaligned photocells
The photocells are the two small boxes facing each other on the pillars, 50–60 cm off the ground. One emits a beam, the other receives it. If the beam is broken, the control unit refuses to close the gate — and sometimes refuses to open it.
What breaks the beam in practice:
- Cobwebs or dust on the lens — very common in spring and autumn
- Grass grown up or a branch in the way
- Snow or ice on the lens
- A photocell knocked crooked by a car manoeuvring
- Condensation inside, on older units with a tired seal
Wipe the lenses with a soft cloth and check that the two boxes look straight at each other. Many models have an LED that goes out or changes colour when the beam is broken.
3. Power is out, or just the breaker tripped
Check whether the warning lamp beside the gate lights up when you press the remote. If nothing lights anywhere, look in the consumer unit: the breaker on the gate circuit may have tripped.
After a longer power cut, some control units start in a mode where the first command only returns the gate to its reference position. That is normal.
4. The motor is still released for manual operation
If someone released the motor to open the gate by hand — during a power cut, for instance — and did not lock it back, the motor spins freely.
The clear sign: you hear the motor running but the gate does not move. Fixed by returning the release lever or key to its original position.
5. Something is mechanically blocking the gate
On sliding gates, gravel or soil packed into the track. In winter, ice under the gate. On swing gates, a stone or a raised kerb in the path of the leaf.
A quick test, with the motor released: push the gate by hand. If it is stiff or stops somewhere, the problem is mechanical, not electronic. A motor forced against a jammed gate will fail — do not keep leaning on the button.
6. The limit switches have drifted
Limit switches tell the control unit where "fully open" and "fully closed" are. They can move over time, especially on sliding gates where they are magnets fixed to the rack.
The sign: the gate starts but stops halfway, or hits the post and reverses. Adjustment is done at the control unit and is better left to someone experienced — set wrong, the motor strains at the end of travel.
7. The control board
The least pleasant, and also the rarest of the common causes. It usually follows a storm with surges on the line, or water getting into the control unit's box.
The sign: nothing responds at all even though there is power at the unit. Sometimes you can smell burning when you open the cover. There is nothing left to check yourself here.
What to tell us when you call
To arrive with the right part on the first visit, it helps enormously to know:
- Exactly what the gate does: no response at all, starts and stops, motor runs without the gate moving
- Whether the warning lamp lights when you press the remote
- Since when, and whether anything preceded it — a storm, a power cut, a mishandled manual release
- The make of the control unit, if it is visible on the cover: Nice, CAME, BFT, FAAC, Roger
- Whether the wall button works, if you have one
With that, we can often work out what it is over the phone and tell you whether it is something you can fix yourself in two minutes.
We work on any brand, including automation installed by someone else. If your gate is jammed and blocking your access, call us — for emergencies we try to get there the same day.