An automatic gate that stops working always seems to do it at the worst moment — the car is on the wrong side, it is raining, and you are already late. The good news is that most gate faults we attend across Brighton and Bayside are minor: a flat battery, a photocell knocked out of line, a track full of leaves. Here is how to work out what is going on before you pick up the phone, and what to leave to a technician.

Start with the obvious: is there power?

A surprising share of "my gate is dead" calls come back to power. Check the circuit breaker or safety switch the gate runs from. A storm, a tripped RCD elsewhere in the house or an electrician working on something unrelated can take the gate out with it. If the motor has a status light, see whether it is lit.

If the power is off and the gate is closed, every automatic gate has a manual release — usually a key-operated lever on the motor housing. Releasing it lets you push the gate open by hand. Find out where yours is before you need it, and keep the key somewhere reachable from the street side of the gate.

The remote works up close but not from the car

This is nearly always a flat remote battery. Remotes lose range gradually before they stop altogether, so "I have to hold it right up to the gate" is the tell. Replace the coin cell before assuming anything worse.

If a fresh battery does not fix it, the receiver aerial on the motor may be damaged or the remote may have lost its programming. Both are quick fixes for a technician.

The gate starts, then stops or reverses

A gate that begins to move and then stops or runs back is doing exactly what it is designed to do: it thinks something is in the way. The causes, in rough order of likelihood:

Photocells out of alignment or dirty. The sensors either side of the opening send a beam across the driveway. A bump from a car, a spider web, salt haze on the lens or low sun can break the beam. Wipe them and check they face each other.
Something in the track. On a sliding gate, gravel, leaves, a stick or sand blown up from the foreshore will stop the gate or trip the force limit. Sweep the full length of the track.
The gate is binding. A gate that has dropped on its hinges or a roller that has seized makes the motor work harder than its force setting allows, and it stops for safety. If the gate is hard to move by hand on manual release, this is the problem.
Force or travel limits drifted. Less common, but settings can need adjusting after a service or a battery change.

Do not simply turn the force setting up to push through an obstruction. That defeats the safety function that stops the gate injuring a child or a pet.

Corrosion: the Bayside special

This is the fault that separates Brighton from the rest of Melbourne. Salt air off the bay pits and seizes anything that was not specified for it. Symptoms are a gate that gets gradually stiffer and noisier over a couple of years, hinges that squeal, rollers that flat-spot, and — inside the motor — connectors and terminals that green over and start dropping out intermittently.

If your gate is a few years old, has never been serviced and is getting slower and grumpier each winter, corrosion is the likely story. It is far cheaper to address at the hinge-and-roller stage than once it reaches the control board.

The gate is slow, noisy or stops partway

Slow or hesitant movement usually points to the backup battery, lubrication or the track. A gate that stopped working during a blackout and never came back has almost certainly run its backup battery flat, and older batteries do not always recover.

The gate opens but will not close, or closes and reopens

Auto-close relies on the photocells and any safety edges being clear. A gate that reopens the moment it closes is typically seeing an obstruction — often the same misaligned photocell. A gate that refuses to close at all after a power cut may simply need its cycle reset.

Water in the motor

Motor housings are weather-resistant, not waterproof. After a very wet week, or years of southerlies driving spray at an exposed frontage, moisture can get into an older unit or one whose seal has perished. Symptoms are erratic behaviour — a gate that works some days and not others — and in bad cases a tripped safety switch. This one needs a technician, and it is worth acting on early before the board corrodes.

What is safe to do yourself

Check the breaker and the power
Change the remote battery
Clean and align the photocells
Clear the track
Use the manual release to get the car out

What to leave to a technician

Anything inside the motor housing, wiring or control board
Adjusting force, travel or safety settings
Replacing the backup battery
Gates that bind, drag or have dropped on their hinges
Any fault that keeps coming back

When it is time to book a repair

If the checks above do not sort it, or the same fault returns within a few weeks, the gate needs a proper look. Our automatic gate repairs and servicing across Brighton, Brighton East, Hampton, Sandringham and Bentleigh cover all common motor brands, whether we installed the gate or not. We carry batteries, photocells and the common parts on the van, so most repairs are finished in a single visit.

And if your gate has never been serviced, a yearly check — lubrication, battery test, safety test, alignment and a look at the corrosion points — is the cheapest way to make sure you never need this article again.

Automatic Gate Not Working in Brighton? What to Check Before You Call