Gate repair in Wichita for swing and sliding gates

If an automatic gate has slowed down, stopped halfway, started sagging or picked up a new noise, you're on the right page. We work on powered swing and sliding gates across the county, from subdivision driveways to acreage entrances off the section roads, along with the operators, controls and safety devices that run them.

Most gates here are ordinary: steel double leaves on linear arms, an aluminum slider on a chain operator, an ornamental iron gate with a solar panel on the post. What fails on those is what we carry.

Acreage gates tend to run on solar, because trenching power out to a post far from the house is a big project. Subdivision gates are more often wired from the house or a nearby panel. Both kinds come through the same schedule, and both get the same look at the gate before the operator.

• Nothing happens at the remote; the box clicks once or stays silent.
• It opens but won't close, or closes partway and reverses.
• The operator hums or grinds, and the gate doesn't budge.
• On a double gate, only one leaf moves.
• The gate has started to scrape the drive or catch on the post.
• It crawls open on winter mornings.
• The remote works and the keypad doesn't, or the other way around.

Everything on a gate lives outdoors. Straight-line wind and spring hail dent panels and bend tracks, ice storms freeze rollers and hinges, and summer heat wears on batteries and control boards.

Wind catches people off guard. A solid-panel leaf acts like a sail, and a hard gust against a half-open gate can bend an arm or rip a bracket off the post. An operator set to hold against the wind, and a leaf that isn't left standing open through a storm, prevent a lot of those calls.

Hail is the other one. A solar panel on the post takes the same hits as a car hood, and a cracked panel charges poorly long before anyone notices. The gate slows down over a few weeks and then quits during a cloudy stretch.

Every operator has a force setting. As a gate starts to bind, the force gets turned up, the safety reverse becomes less sensitive and the motor runs hot. A new operator on a dragging gate fails the same way, just sooner.

That's why the first part of a gate visit looks nothing like electrical work. The arm is released, the gate is swung or rolled by hand, and hinges, rollers, posts and track are checked before anyone opens the operator box.

If the gate itself needs work, you hear that first: a hinge worn oval, a post that has started to lean, a slide track packed with gravel and dirt. Those get dealt with before anyone passes judgment on the operator.

The operator is only one half. Everything that tells it to move is the other: remotes, keypads, exit loops, intercoms, phone entry and timers. When those fail, the gate looks broken when it's really a control problem.

We program remotes and codes, replace keypads and receivers, fix or recut exit loops, and bring older controls up to date where the parts still exist.

Timers and hold-open settings get a look too. A gate set to stay open for a party last summer and never set back is a common find, and so is a keypad code half the neighborhood knows.

Most gate repairs are finished in one visit because the parts that fail are the ones on the truck.

1. Tell us the symptomStuck open, stuck shut, dragging, silent or humming, plus whether it swings or slides. That's enough to book.
2. A two-hour windowWith a call before the technician sets out, so you're not waiting around all day.
3. The whole gate firstHinges, rollers, posts and track come first; the operator's arm, board, battery, limits and sensors after.
4. Tested before we goPhoto eyes, loops and the safety reverse are tested with the gate moving. If a part must be ordered, you're told right there.

The operators on gates around here are mostly Ghost Controls, GTO, FAAC, Elite, Linear, DoorKing, Viking, Nice and Apollo, Mighty Mule and LiftMaster. Common parts for all of them ride along, and most others can be sourced.

Whether the operator shows any light, whether it's solar or wired, whether it hums or stays silent, and whether the gate is stuck open or shut. Those details decide which parts ride along.

If the gate is stuck open, lead with that. A property standing open to the road moves up the list, just like a garage door that won't shut. If a car is trapped behind it, mention that too.

When it really is the operator

Sometimes the operator really is at fault: a burned motor winding, a dead board, a failed transformer or charger, a photo eye or the receiver. A meter at the box identifies which, and most are fixed on the spot. When an operator truly is finished, you hear why, and what a correctly sized replacement involves, before anything is ordered.

A single call sets a two-hour slot, and the technician phones before heading your way. We don't buy leads, and no one diagnoses a gate by phone.

Estimates are free, and they come before any work.