How it's done
Gate Keypad or Intercom Stopped Working
An access device that has gone dead is either not receiving power, not sending its signal, or sending a signal the gate cannot act on because the gate itself is at fault.
Keypads, intercoms and fobs are the part of a gate installation people touch every day, and they live outside in the weather on a post or a pier. They are the first component to show its age, and they are also the first thing blamed when the gate misbehaves for a completely unrelated reason.
Before anyone is called out, there are a handful of checks that separate an access device problem from a gate problem. They take five minutes and they change what needs fixing.
Does anything respond at all?
Press a key and look and listen. A backlight, a beep or a click at the keypad means the unit has power and is doing something. Nothing at all points at power or the unit itself. A beep with no gate movement points the other way, at the gate or the controller.
That single distinction decides everything that follows, so it is worth being precise about it rather than reporting only that the keypad does not work.
- Lights or beeps but no movement: the signal is arriving, look at the gate and controller
- Completely dead: power supply, wiring or the unit has failed
- Intermittent: often moisture ingress or a corroded terminal
Test with a different method of entry
If you have a fob, a remote, or a second keypad, use it. A gate that responds normally to a remote but not to the keypad has narrowed the fault to the keypad and its wiring. A gate that ignores every method of entry has a gate side fault, and the keypad was never the problem.
Note down what worked and what did not, because it is the most useful thing you can hand to whoever comes to look.
Weather, batteries and wear
Outdoor keypads take a hammering. Rubber keys perish and let water into the membrane behind them. Wired terminals corrode where the gland seal has hardened. Wireless keypads run on batteries that die slowly, often working at close range but not from a car window first.
On intercoms, a call button that has become intermittent and a speaker that has gone quiet are usually the same root cause, which is water finding its way into the housing.
- Replace wireless keypad and fob batteries before assuming a failure
- Look for cracked keys, a hanging cover or a perished gasket letting water in
- Intermittent faults that worsen after rain almost always mean moisture ingress
When the gate is the real fault
A gate that has become stiff, dropped on its hinges or moved off its track will often stop responding in a way that looks like an access fault. Controllers refuse to act when they detect resistance or when a safety device is unhappy, and from outside all you see is a keypad that no longer opens the gate.
If a remote works and the keypad does not, that is an access device fault. If nothing works and the gate is also visibly dragging, catching or out of square, deal with the gate first.
What is safe to do yourself
Changing batteries in a fob or wireless keypad, wiping a lens or a keypad face, checking the cover is properly closed, and testing a second method of entry are all sensible things to do before calling anyone.
Opening a wired keypad housing, working inside a control panel or touching gate wiring is not. Access equipment shares a housing and a supply with mains powered control gear, and that is competent person territory with the supply isolated.
- Safe: battery changes, cleaning, closing covers, testing alternative entry methods
- Safe: writing down exactly which methods work and which do not
- Not safe: opening wired units, control panels or touching gate wiring
Talk to us about the gate side
Our work on automated and commercial gates across London and Hertfordshire regularly starts with a report of a dead keypad and ends up being a mechanical fault on the gate: a dropped leaf, a worn roller, a pier that has moved. That part we handle directly.
Ring 07885907880 or use the enquiry form, tell us which entry methods still work, and we will look at what is actually stopping the gate.
Frequently asked
My keypad beeps but the gate does not move. What does that mean?
The signal is being sent, so the fault is on the gate or controller side rather than the keypad itself.
Why does the keypad only fail after rain?
Almost always moisture getting into the housing through perished keys or a hardened gland seal, which causes intermittent contact.
Should I change the fob batteries first?
Yes. Weak batteries typically work at arm's length but not from a car, which reads as an unreliable gate rather than a flat battery.
Can a mechanical gate fault look like an access fault?
Frequently. A dragging or dropped gate can stop the system acting on any command, and from outside it looks like dead access equipment.
Can I open the keypad to look inside?
We would not advise it on a wired unit. It shares wiring with mains powered control gear and needs isolating by someone competent.
Do you handle access equipment as well as gates?
Our direct work is the gate, its hanging and its mechanical condition, which is where a large share of these faults actually sit.
Which entry methods still work?
That one answer narrows the fault before anyone arrives, and it often points at the gate rather than the keypad.