Maybe if they give us permission to publish a photo of our work there – we might even beable to mention which one it is – but until then…

The gates are heavy wrought iron – and they are the original gates to this Georgian building. The gates are really beautiful, but really heavy. Each leaf of the gates weighed aprox 400kgs – so it was a real struggle to man handle them.

The electric gate system that we used is an electro-mechanical system with a capacity of 800kgs per leaf – so it is a very suitable electric gate system for this installation.

The gates had previously been automated – i’m not sure who by, but they made one or two silly mistakes during the installation that meant that the automation only lasted for 18 months and has not operated correctly for the past two years (according to the facilities manager for the embassy).

So how do Electric Gates fare in such conditions?

Well if you have swing gates and you have over-ground gate automation installed – rams or articulated arm operators, or a sliding gate – then the rain and flooding possibly does not bother you – unless the water level rises up to the level of the motors – in which case you probably have more to worry about than just your automatic gates.

If you have underground gate automation then you may have more to be concerned with. Most good makes of underground automatic gate systems are waterproof to IP67 – which means that they can continue to operate if immersed temporarily in water. The motors are completely sealed and as long as your automatic gates have been installed properly by a competent electric gate installer, then you should have nothing to fear.

However, as we have plenty of evidence to prove that competent electric gate installers would appear to be a bit thin on the ground, and properly installed underground electric gate systems as scarce – there is good grounds for concern.

The symptoms of an underground gate automation system that is in trouble is one that causes the trip (mcb/ circuit breaker) on your fuse board to trip off when it rains, one or both of the gate motors moving more slowly than it used to or has become noisy, or a control panel that blows a lot of fuses.

If your electric gate falls into the problem category above, then give us a call and we will look at it for you for a free inspection and test.

We Auto Gate Ireland repair all types of electric gate system regardless of type or who installed it.

Hope the rain doesn’t cause you and your families too much misery.

Thanks for reading

Adrian

Their builder originally told them they only needed a 10foot opening. I looked at the job and said that there was no way that they could get the car through a 10ft opening. The builder ridiculed me, but I went back to visit the customer that evening with a couple of traffic cones and we done a little experiment to see what the minimum opening could be. It turned out to be 16.5 feet absolute minimum. So we decided on 17.5 feet of an opening and the gate would be a little longer to over lap – hence the 18 foot gate.

On Friday we installed the gate. The track that the gate runs on was installed a couple of weeks ago. It is a 5 inch deep rack set in 10 inches of concrete – so it is strong enough to drive over and not sink over time.

The gate is held upright by a supporting post which has two rollers running on the front and back of the gate to keep it upright and running true. This supporting post was set in over 2 feet of concrete – so it is not going anywhere….

We installed the electric gate system and safety sensors today and got the gate running smoothly – despite the heavy rain. We installed a safety edge on the closing side of the gate – which protects against the gate being closed a pedestrian passing or limbs reaching through. This is especially important as there a small children in this home.

In addition to the safety edge, we installed photo cells so that the gate can not be closed over accidentally if the car is parked in the entrance. We also use sliding automation systems with obstacle detection and slow down settings. The obstacle detection will detect any obstacle that gets in the way of the gate but somehow manages to be missed by the photo cells. Gate will sense the resistance caused by the obstacle and stop and reverse direction.

The slow down function is a really useful feature. I have noticed that children sometimes try to play “chicken” with automatic gates. I have been servicing gates when i’d see children deliberately run through an opening just before the gate closes fully. The slow down function slows the speed of gate travel down to about 20% of its normal speed for the last 10 or 20% of the travel distance as the gate opens and closes. This might seem a little annoying if you are waiting on the gate to close fully – but not nearly as annoying as waiting for an ambulance to come to save a child who had been trapped because they lost the game of chicken…. Lets hope that there are no more accidents!

Thanks for reading. Adrian

Auto Gate Ireland are proud of the automatic gates that we install, we want to provide an honest and reliable service to all our customers. We are a family business so each and every customer is extremely important to us and we will always remain thankful for their business, courteous to them their family and neighbours and responsive to their calls should they need our help.

This afternoon we were called to look at an automatic sliding electric gate on the Lower Ballymount road Dublin, close to the Walkinstown roundabout. The gate had collided with the business owners car as she was leaving the premises. The gate closed against the car and could not be backed off to allow the car to get clear.

When I was told of the accident I did not believe it. It is not one of our installations – they had the gate fitted by a welder and an electrician installed the automation.

When we arrived at the site to look at the gate I was shocked. This is definately the most dangerous sliding gate that i have ever came across. I’m not going to put a photo up because it would identify the business – but this is a really good advert for NOT having an electrician install gate automation – and I am not exaggerating at all.

Here’s what we found:

1. There was no safety sensors working across the gate opening. There was 2 sets of photo cells n the inside of the gate but neither were working – usually the should fail safe – preventing the gate from closing – they had been bypassed so the gate will try to close regardless of what is in the opening (hence the damage to the owners car).

2. There are vertical bars in the gate and supporting and no safety edges fitted. This means that if someone tried to reach through the bars of the gate and the gate started to move it would shear off an arm as there is no sensors in place to protect against this type of injury.

3. Inside the motor there was a three phase electricity supply with the conductors of the cable exposed and jointed to another piece of cable that goes into the motor. This is a 415v cable that is dangerously jointed and loose in a metal motor that would conduct the electricity to the gate if it touched the motor. There is no visible earth connection – which means that there probably is not one.

4. The gate is opened by entering the code into one of two keypads mounted to the gate support frame – one on the outside and one inside. The keypad on the inside was damaged and does not work – so the employees had to “run the gauntlet” by reaching through the bars of the gate, enter the code on a keypad outside that they can’t see and quickly take their arm out before the gate would catch it. There is no way I would even attempt to do it – i need my arms for work – and eating my dinner!

The business owner asked me what I thought was wrong. I told them that it was dangerous and should not be used. If somone was hurt the injury would be terrible – just imagine what woudl happen if it were a child that reached through??

We are going back on Monday to make it safe, but in the mean tome they are leaving the gate shut and turning the power off.

Auto Gate Ireland repair all types of gates automatic gates electric gates hydraulic gates manual gates.

We manufacture all types of gates wooden gates hardwood gates wrought iron gates steel gates and automate new and existing gates.

The security gates are on a small business park where there are 12 small business units in a private cul-de-sac. Several of the businesses are car repair related and several thefts had occurred recently when the businesses were closed.

We installed an 8foot high sliding gate across the opening of the complex with sliding gate automation equipment. The gate will now be closed and locked when business hours are over and posibly during lunch times during the day.

Hardwood automatic sliding metal gate

Each business can open and close the gates with their remote key-fobs or by entering a code on a digital keypad on the gate. The access control system means that only members of staff who have authority to open and close the automatic security gates can do so.

He told me that his gates were broken and would we have a look at them and repair if possible. Gate repairs to all types of gates is a large part of our business.

Electric hardwood gates, automatic timber and steel gates, wrought iron security gates. Any automation to any gate and any repair. Thats what we do.

Anyway, when we arrived the gates looked really well from a distance – grey painted wooden gates with a stainless steel trim. But up close it was a different story. The owner thought that maybe the gates had been damaged – look at the picture below. The gates were actually made from mdf not hardwood – maybe the guys who made the gates originally could argue that they were made from a hard-wood – but they certainly are not hardwood.

The gates were badly water damaged and had swelled substantially.

The automation used on the gates was quite poor to begin with but were badly installed. The gate automation had pulled out of one of the gates. The type of electric gate system used was an articulated arm system – which is ideal for solid gates like this – but like all electric gate systems  it must be properly installed.

At the time we repaired the gate, but informed the owner that it was only a matter of time before he would esperience further trouble because of the mdf. In case you don’t know mdf is a little like a very dense thick cardboard material – and when it gets wet the material swells and disintegrates. Imagine what happens to a cardboard box when wet – exactly the same.

Six months on and we are now going to replace the gates with new mahogany gates. This time when were were called to help – the automation had broken too. So in addition to replacing the gates, we are to replace the automation too. We are also installing access control to the pedestrian gate in the form of an intercom link with the main gate, electric locks and digital keypad for pedestrian access.

We have started work on the new hardwood gates in our workshop outside Dundalk. We hope to be replacing the gates in under three weeks from now so i will post some pictures of the new gates when we hang them.

Thanks for reading

Adrian

Wooden gates the hard way. Electric wooden gates made from mdf by cowboys

With the dark evenings returning they would now feel more secure if the gates were closed as soon as it gets dark – as they don’t want to go out to chain it after dark. They wanted to know if their existing gates could be automated or if they would have to get new gates.

Our solution was to automate the existing gates. We did this by installing articulated arm operators on the back of the pillars. The motors are not visible from the front and the gates are closed and locked securely by the motors. The gate motors can not be forced open, yet they can be manually released by using a key if there is a problem.

As for the visitor issue – we installed a video intercom. The customer originally opted for an audio intercom – where they could hear and talk to the visitor – but as they can not see their gate from the house – they decided to upgrade the intercom to a video intercom – as they could then see, hear and talk to the visitor at the gate before opening the gates from the intercom.

In this case we also installed a battery back-up system that will allow the gates to continue to operate even if the electricity is off. This back-up system adds a little to the cost but provides priceless convenience if you find your self locked out or in if the power is off and you can’t remember how to manually release the gates or can’t find the keys.

Automatic electric gates are more and more popular because of the convenience, safety and security that they provide. Give us a call from a free quotation or just to discuss the options.

What are those causes? The main causes of problems with electric gates are due to bad installation. Believe it or not we have repaired a lot of one particular brand of electric gate system in the Newry area (Newry, Warrenpoint, Rostrevor, Camlough, Meigh, Mullaghbawn, Forkhill, Crossmaglen) – that were installed by the same individual – and all with the same set of problems. 8 or 9 systems in a little over a year – that to me is a lot – considering they are all by the same guy.

I will spare the guy the embarrassment of naming him – but he is an electrician – and he should know better than to leave these installations in the manner he does. He probably is a reasonably good electrician – but he should stick to what he is good at.

Water and insects are the two greatest problems with electric gate systems. Water can make its way into the underground motors and insects can make their way into the control panels of automatic gate systems if not properly installed.

If you would like to know more about automatic electric gate systems, please get our free Electric Gate Buyers report by going to our home page and click on the free Report button and register.

Alternatively if you would like a free quotation of advice on your automatic gate system, please feel free to contact us on 07855-781433 or 02830-886666 or get in tough by going to out contact page.

Thanks for reading

Adrian

The electric entrance gates were a pair of sliding gates. The gates were installed several years ago and were supposed to operate together. If you imagine the the automatic gates are supposed to open back like a set of curtains and close together again and meet in the centre – well they did not. The electric gates were operated with remote control key fobs. One side of the electric gate would open immediately every time – the other automatic gate would open maybe every second attempt. For the staff, closing the electric gates was a bigger problem – the gates were not operating together properly and it would regularly take 30 to 40 minutes to get the gates to close properly in the evenings.

When we started working at the automatic gates we quickly found that the gates were operating on separate radio receivers and were not synchronised – they were operating as separate electric gates.

We made several modifications to the control systems and made one gate the master and the other a slave. One gate now controls the operation of the second gate – making them fully automated.

We also corrected the alignment of the two gates to make sure that they automatically close together properly every time.

Given that this automated entrance is very busy and lies on an extremely busy Dublin street, it is very important that the electric gates operate reliably for the safety of the users entering and leaving the site via the gate. Also as opportunistic crime like theft and vandalism are a huge concern for businesses in this part of Dublin, security is a big issue to consider.

For Walk with you in Walkinstown, Dublin, we have resolved the problems that they had with their automated security gates. We thanks them for their business and hope we can be of service to them again in the future when they need us.

AutoGate Ireland manufacture and install all types of automatic electric gate systems. We manufacture Hardwood and Softwood gates, wrought Iron and steel security and driveway gates. We automate new and existing driveway gates. AutoGate Ireland also repair all types of automated gates, sliding gates and swing gates.

AutoGate Ireland install electric automatic gates in Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Wicklow  and throughout Leinster and Ulster. We service Dublin and the Leinster through our Dublin office and Ulster through our Newry office.

Sliding gates are very popular in Dublin especially in car park gates as they take up less space than swing gates.