Opening Automatic Steel Gate During The Power Cut
Blackout! Power cut! Electricity’s gone! Many ways to say it but the outcome is one. Life stops! Kind of…And so does operation of your automatic steel gate, if you have one. Seems that nowadays we just can’t operate without electricity. Starting from simply turning your living room light on when it get dark outside, or charging your phone, smart watch or computer that you just cannot live without as they have become essential in running your everyday life. Life really stops when the power’s out, doesn’t it? And using all the perks of having automatisation, you have installed an automatic steel gate for your security and of course for your convenience, but now suddenly you’re facing the problem of rushing to work, but the power’s gone and you’re stuck with the gate that supposed to open with a push of the button, but it doesn’t. What to do?
How to open an automatic steel gate in case of power shortage?
If you’ve used a gate operator/installer who’s trusted and experienced, and you should know that by doing your research, communicating and asking for quotes and information from different contractors, or simply from recommendation, then at least you know that you’re receiving quality product and insurance that it will operate the way it’s supposed to.
So in case you have used a competent gate installer, then there should be 3 case scenarios if power shortage happens.
I. After the power’s out, gate will open automatically and will stay open till the power comes back on.
II. Even if the power’s out, the gate will continue to function as normal until the backup power runs out, and the steel gate will stay open till the power will came back.
III. Once the power supply for your steel gate stops during the power shortage, your steel gate will default to the unlocked position so you can open it manually by hand.
Automated gate safety is an important issue. You might think that oh well, you can wait till the power’s back on, there’s no rush. But can you imagine one of the worst case scenarios? Let’s say you’ve installed a super-duper strong automated security steel gate for your home, or your huge factory to keep people away. But to save some costs during the installation of an automated gate, you’ve decided to go with a cheaper option, a bit dodgy, but cheaper option. You found an and on Gumtree and decided to go with that guy. There’s not much information, or actually none of the reviews, but you still went with him. You got your new automated steel gate installed, and everything seemed to work very well. For months you’ve had no problems what so ever. Until one day there’s a big storm, it’s so windy, and suddenly it starts to rain heavily. And then thunder! And being the unluckiest person ever, the lightning strikes your home, or your factory if you decided to go with that scenario. Fire picks up very quickly, and in no time you have fire trucks behind your gate. They try to open it, but since the power’s out, they can’t because seems that the gate you’ve installed does not function according to the 3 case scenarios we described above!
Your automatic steel gate, in case of the power shortage, didn’t open automatically, it didn’t continue to function as normal as you didn’t have a backup power, neither did you know that you had that possibility as your gate provider didn’t introduce you that option, and your gate didn’t go into the default unlocked position so you or the firemen could open it.
So here you are standing and waiting till the firemen try to break down the gate, and it is quite difficult and time consuming to open a steel gate that’s locked, and there goes the precious time! Didn’t matter that firemen were lightning fast and arrived to your home in just few counted minutes, the time that they spent on opening the locked gate was all it took for your home to burn to ashes. Or your long built factory to burn with all its pricy inventory.
There are even more scarier scenarios, but we will leave that to your imagination. What we won’t leave to your imagination is the information you should know when it comest to installing appropriate, high-quality, well-functioning automated steel gate.
When it comes to unlocking automated gate when the power’s gone, ask the below questions from your gate supplier.
1. Does the automated gate your interested in has a backup device? And is it a single open battery backup, meaning that it opes immediately or one time when using a key switch? Or has it multiple battery backup device, meaning that the automatic gate will open many times until the backup battery will die?
2. Or does it have a mechanical lock that will release when the power’s gone and your are able to push or slide the gate open, depending if you have a swing or sliding gate?
Those questions are the questions you can ask your gate provider, and if they are competent gate provider, they will have those options on their list to offer.
So leave unqualified gate providers behind the door, and turn to experienced and trustworthy, and competent gate providers. Diamond Fence is one of them. You can turn to us with your automated gate installation requests and questions. We have installed countless numbers of automated gates, either for home owners who are looking for more convenience when it comes to automatisation, or huge building sites, factories and warehouses who need big gates that will help them operate as efficiently as they can.
Call us on (03) 9753 4566, shoot us an email on info@diamondfence.com.au, or just get a FREE online quote. Together we’ll figure out what automated gate option is best for you!
