Gate motor not working or not opening: what to check

"Not working" covers several different faults, and what the gate does, or doesn't do, points to the cause:

• Nothing at all, no sound, no light: almost always power and the battery. See no power.
• It beeps or its light flashes, but won't move: read the signal first. See the status light.
• The motor runs, but the gate doesn't move: it has probably been left released. See the manual release.
• It opens, but won't close: the safety beams. See beams.
• It starts, then stops or reverses: something it feels as an obstruction. See the gate itself.
• It works from the intercom or keypad, but not the remote: the remote. See remotes.

Nearly every domestic gate motor runs from its battery, and the mains only keeps that battery charged. So when the power has been off long enough, or the charger has stopped charging, the battery runs down and the gate stops.

Centurion's D5-Evo and D10 protect themselves when that happens. Once the battery drops below 10.5 V on a D5-Evo, or 21 V on a D10, the motor finishes its cycle, closes the gate and shuts down until the battery recovers. It's deliberate: running a battery completely flat damages it.

What you can check:

• Is there power at the property? If the house is off too, wait for it to come back.
• Is the motor's own supply on? Its plug, or the isolator switch beside it, may have been switched off or tripped. Look, but don't open anything.
• Give it time. After a long power cut, a battery needs hours, not minutes, to recover. ET advises at least 8 to 10 hours of uninterrupted charging before checking a low battery again.

If the power is on, the battery has had a night to charge and the gate still won't move, the battery or charger has probably failed. See gate motor batteries.

Most motors report their state on a status light, on the controller or on a light wired to your intercom. Count the flashes:

Note how the same count means different things on different motors: four flashes is a collision on a Centurion and a low battery on an ET Drive. If you're not sure which motor you have, a photo of it is enough for us to tell. And if a setting has gone wrong rather than a part, how to reset a gate motor explains which reset you need, and which ones wipe your remotes.

In a power cut, a sliding gate motor can be released so the gate slides by hand. If nobody re-engages it afterwards, the motor may run while the gate stays put, or the gate simply moves freely when pushed.

Re-engaging it is a safe job, done the way the motor's manual shows:

• Centurion D5-Evo: turn the release thumbwheel back anticlockwise until it feels loose, close the access door, then slide the gate until the drive engages. Centurion is clear that the motor should never be run before it has engaged.
• ET Drive 500 and 600: with the key, swing the release lever back into its recess, turn the key back and remove it, then push or pull the gate until the gears click in.

Keep the release key somewhere you'll find it; the full steps for each motor are in the model manuals.

Many motors have a holiday lockout that disables the gate while you're away. On Centurion's D5-Evo and D10 it immobilises the motor and every remote, keypad and intercom input, and it switches on only once the gate is closed. If someone presses a remote while it's on, the motor beeps for 30 seconds to say it's locked.

On an ET Drive 500 or 600, the status light gives five rapid flashes every time a remote is pressed. ET's way to clear it: press and release any remote button set up as the holiday lockout, then any button set up to open the gate.

A lockout switched on by accident, often with a remote's spare button, is one of the easiest "faults" to fix.

Safety beams across the entrance stop the gate closing on a person, a pet or a car. On Centurion's D5-Evo and D10, an interrupted closing beam means an open gate can't close, and a closing gate stops and opens again. ET is just as strict: when autoclose is in use and the beams aren't working, the gate opens but won't close again.

What you can check:

• Anything between the beams: a bin, a parked car, a plant or branch that moves in the wind.
• The lenses, wiped gently with a soft cloth if they're dusty or webbed.
• A beam knocked out of line by a car or a mower; don't force it back, tell us.

A motor stops when it feels more resistance than it should, because that's how it protects people. If the gate keeps meeting resistance, Centurion's D5-Evo and D10 count the collisions; after more than four (the default) before the gate fully closes, the controller shuts down and the status light flashes four times until the next valid command.

What you can check:

• Walk the rail and clear stones, sand, leaves and anything wedged in it.
• Look along the whole travel for anything the gate could catch: a bin, a pot plant, a sagging guide roller.
• Feel the gate by hand, with the motor released as its manual shows. It should slide smoothly the whole way. If it's stiff, binds or drops at one point, the gate needs repair, not the motor. Re-engage the motor afterwards.

If the gate opens from the intercom, a keypad or another remote, the motor is fine and the fault is that remote: a flat battery, a remote that has lost its coding, or one deleted from the receiver. Try a second remote before anything else. See gate remotes for replacements and coding.

Stop at the safe checks. Call us when:

• the power is on and the battery has had a night to charge, but the gate still won't move;
• the status light shows a fault you can't clear;
• the gate is stiff, has dropped, or has come off its rail;
• you smell burning, hear grinding, or see water inside the motor.

Don't open the controller or the motor cover. ET's manual puts it plainly: there are no user-serviceable parts inside, and only qualified people may repair or service its motors. Fuses, chargers, controllers and gearboxes are a technician's job.

• Centurion: the D5-Evo manual and its troubleshooting page, the D10 manual and the D5 SMART.
• ET: the ET manual, its Drive 500 error codes and the Drive 300.
• Gemini: Gemini manuals and Gemini troubleshooting.

On the job card, give the motor's make if you know it, what the gate is doing and what the status light shows. A gate stuck open is a security problem, and the 24/7 emergency repairs across Gauteng are there for exactly that. Same-day repairs are offered when the day allows, every repair comes with our six-month guarantee on our repairs, and typical costs are on gate motor repair cost. No call-out fee when we do the work. If no work is done, a R650 call-out fee applies.