Repair or replace your gate motor?

The part that failed matters more than the age of the motor:

• Almost always repair: a battery, a remote, the safety beams, a rack that has worked loose, a dirty or misaligned track. These are wear items or simple faults, and a new motor wouldn't fix them; a new motor on the same gate would meet them again.
• Weigh it up: a control board or a gearbox. These are the expensive repairs, and they're where the comparison with a new motor starts to matter.
• Think hard: the same fault for the third time, or several parts failing together on an old motor. That's usually a sign the motor is worn, overworked, or fighting the gate.

Typical Gauteng market prices from published cost guides and shops, not ours:

Prices checked October 2026. When a board or gearbox repair comes close to the price of a new motor plus fitting, replacing usually makes more sense, because the new motor arrives with a new battery and new remotes as well. Our installed kits are below, and the full breakdown of repair prices is on gate motor repair cost.

A motor that's working past its limits fails early and keeps failing. The makers publish how much use each motor is built for:

• Centurion's D5-Evo is built for up to 150 operations a day; its Low-Voltage version for 55.
• Centurion's D10 is built for 750 operations a day.
• ET sets its limits by duty cycle, the share of time the motor runs against the time it rests. Its battery-dependent Drive 300 and Drive 500 are set at 25%, and the mains-powered Drive 600 at 98%.

ET adds that the gate's weight and resistance add greatly to the heat a motor builds up. So a domestic motor on a complex or business gate that opens all day, or on a heavy gate that drags, is a motor in the wrong job. Repairing it buys time; replacing it with one built for the use fixes the problem.

A new motor on a bad gate fails just like the old one. Before deciding, it's worth knowing whether the gate slides freely by hand, whether its wheels and guide rollers turn, whether the track is straight and clean, and whether the rack sits properly on the motor's gear. Fixing the gate first sometimes turns a "dead" motor into a working one, and it always protects a new one.

• Parts. Spares for current models are easy to find. For a motor long out of production, parts get scarce, and a repair can take longer or cost more.
• What you want from it. Newer motors add things older ones can't, such as setup from a phone, app control, and better diagnostics. If you'd want those anyway, a major repair is a sensible moment to upgrade.
• Batteries. Whatever you decide, a battery older than about three years, Centurion's expected service life, is due anyway.

None of the makers' manuals we work from gives a lifespan in years, and we won't invent one. What they do show is what decides it:

• Use against its limits. A motor run within its daily operations or duty cycle lasts far longer than one pushed past it.
• The gate. A heavy, stiff gate makes the motor work harder and hotter on every run.
• Care. Centurion asks for basic checks every six months, from a clear track to free-running rollers.
• The things that kill motors outright: lightning, power surges, water getting in, and insects nesting inside. ET lists ants, water, lightning and mains surges among the damage its factory cover doesn't include.

A well-matched motor on a good gate, serviced and protected, can give many years. One that's overworked, on a dragging gate, with a neglected battery, may not.

Our kits are installed at a set price with battery back-up and remotes, and come with our 1-year guarantee on every motor kit we supply and install: the Centurion D5-Evo SMART sliding gate kit at R7 999, the ET Drive 500 sliding gate kit at R6 999 and the Gemini 12 V DC slider kit at R6 999. For a busy or heavy gate, we quote a motor built for the job. Prices checked October 2026. Your exact price is set in a free quote before any work starts. No call-out fee when we do the work. If no work is done, a R650 call-out fee applies.

On the job card, give the motor's make and age if you know them, what has failed before, and how busy the gate is. We'll find the fault, tell you what the repair costs and whether we'd repair or replace, and why. Every repair comes with our six-month guarantee on our repairs. No call-out fee when we do the work. If no work is done, a R650 call-out fee applies.