Intercom not working: what to check first

• Wireless: a gate station and a cordless handset in a charging cradle, with no cable between them. Zartek's are common.
• Wired: a cable runs from the gate to one or more handsets on the wall. Centurion's Intercom Handset system is one.
• GSM: the gate station calls your cellphone using a SIM card. Centurion's G-SPEAK is one.

Then find your symptom below.

• The gate station needs its supply. Zartek is clear that a permanently installed gate station must run from 12 V, either its own power supply or the gate motor's 12 V. Its AAA batteries are only a back-up that runs flat within days. If the gate motor is also dead, the problem may be the motor's power; see gate motor not working.
• The handset needs charging. A Zartek handset lasts about 15 hours away from its cradle. Put it back and check the charging light.
• A handset that behaves strangely can often be reset. Zartek's advice is to take its battery out and put it back.

Zartek gives the range from gate to house as 50 to 70 m in built-up areas, and less where it's very built up or full of trees. A system that used to reach and no longer does has usually lost range to something new: a steel carport, a wall, a thickening hedge, or a handset moved into a different room. Zartek recommends placing the gate station and handsets as openly as possible, away from metal, concrete and electrical equipment.

Try the handset closer to the gate. If it works there, it's range; a better handset position or an aerial often fixes it. Interference from nearby systems is the other cause: Zartek's CDP-808 has four channels for exactly that, and every handset must be on the same one.

A wireless handset only talks to the gate station it's paired with. A handset that has lost its pairing, or a new handset that was never paired, simply won't connect. Zartek recommends pairing again even on a new system, both for privacy and to stop a neighbour's identical model from triggering your gate lock. Pairing is a quick job on a visit.

Centurion's manual for its wired Intercom Handset system lists the faults we see most:

• Nothing works after new wiring: the two-wire cable is polarised, and wired the wrong way round, the system won't work, though it isn't damaged.
• Speech breaks up when the gate starts: an intercom powered from a 12 V gate motor supply can be affected as the voltage dips when the motor starts.
• A howl or squeal: turn the entry panel's volume down; Centurion suggests the handset's volume at about 75%.
• One handset doesn't ring: check its group selector, since the system can ring groups of handsets separately.

Cable damage from digging, garden work or a rodent is the other common cause, and finding it takes a technician with a meter.

First, try the gate with a remote. If the remote opens it, the gate motor is fine and the fault is on the intercom side: the link between the intercom and the motor, or the intercom's own release. If the remote doesn't open it either, the problem is the gate motor; see gate motor not working. Connections at the gate station and inside the motor are a job for us.

A GSM intercom is only as good as its SIM. When one stops calling, the SIM is the usual suspect: airtime used up, a SIM that expired or was blocked, or a number changed in the system. A weak signal at the gate is the other common cause. Check the SIM's balance and status with its network, and that your number is still the one programmed in.

A wireless gate station on back-up batteries keeps going for a while, then stops: Zartek's AAA back-up lasts days, not weeks, and Zartek recommends alkaline cells over rechargeable ones because rechargeables lose capacity in the cold. If the intercom is powered from the gate motor, it stops when the motor's battery does. Once the mains is back, give the motor's battery time to recover.

Call us when the gate station has power and still doesn't work, when range can't be fixed by moving the handset, when a wired system has gone silent, or when the intercom rings but won't open the gate. All our spare parts are genuine, and every repair comes with our six-month guarantee on our repairs. More on intercoms is on intercom repairs.

On the job card, say what kind of intercom you have, its make if you know it, what it's doing and whether the gate still opens by remote. Same-day repairs are offered when the day allows. No call-out fee when we do the work. If no work is done, a R650 call-out fee applies.