When a power outage strikes, people often wonder how they will get by without electric devices in their homes. Many people with electric gates overlook the device protecting their home until they try the remote control for their automatic gate and find that it won’t open. In that situation, you might need to call a professional fence company.
Can electric gates be forced open if you need to leave your residence or let someone in during a power outage? The short answer to this question is, yes, electric gates can be forced open when the power goes out.
Although in some circumstances, this could leave you vulnerable to intruders during the outage, electric swing gates and sliding gates are designed to open during an outage. Otherwise, if the driveway gates were the only way onto or off of your property, you or your family members might not be able to leave the house until the power came back on.
Proper Installation Matters
If the gate could not open in an emergency, it would keep first responders from getting to the emergency quickly and might force them to tear the gate down. All of this could put someone’s life at risk. Plus, the property owner would then have to pay thousands of dollars to repair the gate. Proper gate installation prevents any of these events from occurring.
Fire codes require that gates, or anything else that could obstruct firefighters, must have “approved means of emergency operation.” That means that if the power goes out, they still have to be able to open the gate. There are different ways to accomplish this:
- Turn off the electric lock so that firefighters or the owner can manually retract the gate. In this case, the owner could still secure the gate with a chain and padlock or similar device.
- Have the gate opened as soon as the power goes out.
- Provide backup power for as long as possible and then have the gate opened.
A correctly installed gate should follow one of these patterns. If a contractor cut corners and did not install the gate automation system correctly, the gate motor might not respond to the power outage by opening the gate, or the automatic gate opener might not work.
Testing Your Electric Gate
To find out if your electric gate can be forced open during a power outage, first disconnect power to the gate and then follow these steps:
- Step 1: Open the door on the gate motor
- Step 2: Manually slide the gate open
- Step 3: Close the door on the gate motor
If the gate slides open during step 2, the gate should open during a power outage.
Contact Us Today for Assistance
For servicing and repairing your electric gate in Baton Rouge, LA, call Forrest Scott Fencing at (225) 230-1798, and we’ll send a technician to help. You can also complete our online form if you have any other questions or concerns you’d like assistance with regarding your fencing.
