Why Is My Electric Gate Not Working? Common Faults and What to Do

If your electric gate has stopped working, the first thing to know is that the most common faults are also the simplest to diagnose. A gate that is not responding, not closing, or reversing for no apparent reason is often not broken in any expensive sense. It is doing exactly what it was designed to do, responding to a sensor signal, a power interruption, or a safety detection, and resolving it requires understanding what that signal is rather than immediately calling an engineer.

This guide goes through the most common electric gate faults by symptom, what you can check yourself in a few minutes, and where the professional boundary is. For most faults, we tell you honestly which side of that boundary the problem sits on.

Before You Do Anything: The Three Quick Checks

Before working through specific symptoms, three quick checks eliminate the most common causes within two minutes.

Check the power supply. Go to your consumer unit and confirm the gate’s circuit breaker is in the on position. A tripped RCD or MCB is one of the most common causes of a completely unresponsive gate, particularly after a storm or power cut. Reset it and test the gate. If the breaker trips again immediately when you reset it, there is an electrical fault somewhere in the circuit and you need an engineer. Do not keep resetting it.

Try the manual release. Every CAME motor and most other makes have a manual release key that allows the gate to be moved by hand when the motor is not powered or has a fault. Your installer should have demonstrated this at handover. If you cannot locate it, your motor manual or the sticker on the motor housing should show the release point. A gate that moves freely by hand when released rules out any mechanical jam and points the fault toward the motor, control board, or electrical supply.

Try a different remote or access method. If you have a second remote handset, try it. If the gate responds to a second remote but not the first, the fault is in the original remote, almost always the battery, occasionally the coding. If neither remote works but the gate responds to a keypad or an intercom button, the fault is in the radio receiver or remote handset, not the gate system itself.

Symptom 1: Gate Does Not Respond to Anything at All

What you see: The gate does not move, no motor noise, no indicator lights on the control panel.

Most likely cause: No power reaching the gate system.

Check yourself: Confirm the circuit breaker for the gate at the consumer unit. Check whether the fused spur for the gate (usually a white box on the wall near where the cable exits the house) is switched on. Check whether the gate’s battery backup is flat, if there has been a recent extended power cut and the battery was old or not maintained, the gate may have exhausted its backup without the mains power being restored. A CAME system with a flat battery typically produces no response at all rather than a fault signal.

What needs a professional: If the power supply checks out but the gate is still completely unresponsive, the fault is likely in the control board or the power supply unit inside the motor housing. Both require a qualified engineer to test and replace.

Symptom 2: Gate Opens But Will Not Close

What you see: The gate opens normally on command but will not close, or starts to close and immediately reverses back open.

Most likely cause: A photocell fault. This is the most common fault on London and Surrey gates during autumn and winter.

How photocells work: A photocell sends an invisible infrared beam between two sensor units mounted on the gate posts, typically about 300 to 400mm above the ground. When the beam is broken by a person, vehicle, or object, the gate stops and reverses. If the photocell is detecting a break in the beam when nothing is there, the gate will refuse to close.

The London and Surrey seasonal factor: Between November and February, the sun sits at a very low angle in the southern sky throughout most of the day. On gates where the photocell is mounted at an angle that allows direct winter sunlight to enter the photocell lens, the gate will false-trigger on every attempt to close. This is not a fault with the photocell, it is a calibration issue caused by seasonal sun angle change. Fitting a small plastic hood or sun shade over the affected photocell lens resolves it without any engineering work.

Check yourself:

• Wipe both photocell lenses with a clean dry cloth. Spider webs, leaf debris, condensation, and dust are all common causes of false triggering, particularly in autumn across the tree-lined streets of Wimbledon, Richmond, Kew, and Putney.
• Stand between the two photocell units so you are breaking the beam deliberately. The gate should respond. Then step clear of the beam and attempt to close. If the gate now closes, the photocell was triggering on something at ground level, check for overhanging vegetation, a displaced plant pot, or a bin that has been moved into the beam path.
• Check the indicator LEDs on both photocell units. On most CAME systems, a solid green LED on the receiver unit indicates the beam is intact. A flashing or absent LED indicates the beam is broken or the unit has lost alignment. If the two posts have moved slightly, which happens with London clay ground movement over winter, the photocell alignment needs readjusting. This is a simple fix but requires the right small tools and knowledge of the specific system.

What needs a professional: If cleaning and visual checks do not resolve the fault, and the sun angle explanation does not apply to your specific installation, the photocell unit itself may have failed. Photocell replacement on a CAME system takes about 30 minutes for an engineer with the right parts. Do not be tempted to bridge out or disable the photocell to get the gate closing. Under HSE guidelines for powered gate installations, photocells are a mandatory safety device and bypassing them creates a dangerous gate regardless of how convenient it seems in the moment.

Symptom 3: Gate Starts Moving Then Immediately Stops or Reverses

What you see: The gate begins to open or close, travels a short distance, then stops and reverses. There is no visible obstruction.

Most likely cause: Safety edge triggering or increased mechanical resistance detected by the motor’s force monitoring system.

Safety edges: Safety edges are the rubber or PVC pressure-sensitive strips on the leading edge of the gate leaf. When compressed by contact with an obstruction, they send a signal to the control board to stop and reverse. If the safety edge is deteriorated, has a damaged connection, or has a section that is compressed where it should not be, the gate will reverse as soon as it touches the stop position or as soon as it compresses slightly in normal operation.

Force monitoring: CAME motors continuously measure how hard the motor is working as the gate moves. If the gate encounters increased resistance, a stiff hinge, a post that has moved slightly, debris in a sliding gate track, or vegetation growing into the swing path, the motor detects the increased current draw and reverses as a safety measure. This is the system working correctly. The fault is the mechanical resistance, not the motor.

Check yourself:

• For a sliding gate: check the track for leaf debris, stones, or ice. Autumn leaf accumulation in sliding gate tracks on streets with mature trees is one of the most consistent seasonal faults we see across Wimbledon, Richmond, and Kew. Clear the track with a stiff brush and test again.
• For a swing gate: check the hinge area for debris and confirm the gate swings freely by hand when the manual release is engaged. A gate that is stiff or binding by hand has a mechanical problem that the motor will struggle with.
• Check the safety edge for visible damage, separation from the gate frame, or areas where it appears compressed or kinked.

What needs a professional: Safety edge sensitivity testing requires calibrated equipment to confirm the edge responds within the force limits specified by the EN 12453 safety standard. If the mechanical check is clear and the gate is still stopping and reversing, a professional needs to run the force diagnostics and assess whether the safety edge requires replacement.

Symptom 4: Gate Is Slow or Struggles to Move

What you see: The gate moves but is noticeably slower than normal, particularly on cold mornings, or the motor sounds louder and more laboured than usual.

Most likely cause: Increased mechanical resistance from stiff hinges, post movement, or cold-temperature lubricant thickening.

This is one of the clearest early warning signs that something needs attention before it becomes a more expensive problem. A motor that is working harder than it was designed to is accumulating accelerated wear on every single cycle. A gate that starts running slowly in its second or third year of operation has almost always developed increased hinge friction that was not there at installation.

London clay note: Ground movement from London clay’s seasonal shrink-swell cycle is the most consistent cause of gate post shift in the service area. Posts that were perfectly aligned in the first summer can shift subtly over two or three winters. Even a few millimetres of post movement changes the geometry of the gate’s travel path and puts additional load on the hinge and the motor.

Check yourself: Open the gate using the manual release and push it by hand. Compare the effort required now with your recollection of how the gate felt when it was new. If it is noticeably stiffer, particularly at one point in the opening arc, the hinges need lubrication or adjustment. Apply a dry PTFE lubricant (not WD-40, which is a water dispersant and not a lubricant) to the hinge pins and test again.

What needs a professional: If lubrication does not resolve the stiffness, the hinge alignment, gate geometry, or post foundation needs professional assessment. Catching this at the slow gate stage is significantly cheaper than waiting for a motor failure caused by sustained overload.

Symptom 5: Remote Control Not Working

What you see: The remote handset produces no response from the gate, or works only at very close range.

Most likely cause: Remote battery, or remote that has lost its coding.

Check yourself:

• Replace the battery first, even if the LED on the remote lights up. A battery can have enough charge to illuminate the LED but insufficient power to transmit the radio signal at normal range. This accounts for a significant proportion of “gate not working” calls that turn out to be a £2 battery.
• Try the gate from very close range. If it works at one metre but not at five metres, the battery is almost certainly the issue.
• If you have a spare remote or a keypad, test with those. If the gate responds to alternative access methods, the issue is confirmed to the original remote.

What needs a professional: If multiple remotes fail to work, the fault may be in the radio receiver inside the motor housing, or the receiver may have lost its programming. Re-pairing the remote to the receiver is a straightforward job for an engineer with the system manual, taking 10 to 15 minutes on site.

Symptom 6: Gate Beeps Continuously or Shows a Fault Light

What you see: The gate motor produces a continuous or repeated beep, or the control panel shows a steady or flashing fault LED.

Most likely cause on CAME systems: Battery backup failure.

CAME residential motors use a specific beep pattern to communicate faults. A continuous or regularly repeated beep on a CAME system most commonly indicates the battery backup has failed or is below the minimum charge threshold. This typically happens when the battery is more than three to five years old or when the gate has operated on battery for an extended period without mains power being restored.

Check yourself: Switch off the mains power supply to the gate at the consumer unit, wait 30 seconds, and switch it back on. If the beeping stops and the gate operates normally, the battery backup discharged during a power interruption and is now recharging. If the beeping resumes after the mains is restored, the battery has failed and needs replacement.

What needs a professional: Battery replacement on most CAME systems is straightforward enough for a competent homeowner with the motor manual and basic tools, the battery is a standard sealed lead-acid unit available from electrical suppliers. If the beep pattern does not match a battery fault, or if the fault light corresponds to a specific code in the motor manual, an engineer should interpret the code. CAME motor manuals are available online and the fault code table is usually on the last page.

Symptom 7: Smart Gate App Not Connecting

What you see: The smart gate CAME Connect app shows the gate as offline or commands sent through the app produce no response.

Most likely cause: GSM module power or connectivity issue, or the SIM card in the GSM module has lost its data connection.

Check yourself: Confirm the gate itself is working normally via the remote handset. If the gate opens and closes with the remote but not with the app, the mechanical system is fine and the fault is in the GSM connectivity layer. Check whether the SIM card in the GSM module has credit or data remaining, on pay-as-you-go SIMs this is a common cause of app disconnection. Check that the CAME Connect app is up to date on your phone and that your phone has a working mobile data connection.

What needs a professional: If the app connectivity issue persists after basic checks, the GSM module may require reconfiguration, a SIM replacement, or firmware update. This is a 30-minute job for an engineer familiar with the CAME Connect system.

When to Call an Engineer: The Clear Indicators

Call an engineer without attempting further DIY diagnosis when:

The circuit breaker for the gate trips repeatedly when reset. This indicates a live electrical fault in the circuit.

The gate makes a grinding, scraping, or high-pitched mechanical noise during operation. This indicates mechanical damage that will worsen with continued use.

The gate has contacted a person or vehicle, even if it subsequently reversed as designed. A force compliance check should be carried out before the gate is used again.

The control board shows error codes that do not correspond to simple battery or sensor faults.

The gate fails the manual release check, it will not move freely by hand when released. A gate that cannot be operated manually is a safety risk if the motor or power supply fails.

Any fault involving water ingress into the motor housing or control box.

Preventing Faults: What Helps Most

Most of the faults above become less frequent with regular maintenance. See our annual maintenance checklist for London homeowners for the full seasonal guide. For how long each gate component should last before needing replacement, see our guide on how long electric gates last. For the full annual cost picture including servicing and replacement budgets, see our electric gate running costs guide.

About NOVA Gates & Railings

NOVA Gates & Railings is a CAME-approved gate installer based in Wimbledon, installing and maintaining electric gates, swing gates, and smart gate systems across South West London and Surrey.

All NOVA Gates & Railings installations include full EN 12453 safety compliance documentation at handover and a 10-year structural warranty on fabricated steelwork.

Book a Service or Free Site Survey

Call us on 020 7117 2642 or get in touch to arrange a service visit or a free site survey.

We cover SW19, SW20, SW15, SW18, SW4, SW11, SW17, SW3, SW6, TW9, TW10, TW1, TW2, TW11, KT1, KT2, KT10, KT17, SM1, SM2, and surrounding areas.

NOVA Gates & Railings. Bespoke Electric Gates. Wimbledon, London and Surrey. CAME Approved. 10-Year Warranty.