Your gate is the first thing tenants interact with and the last thing you want failing at 9 PM on a Friday. When it goes down, you're not just dealing with an equipment issue — you're dealing with locked-out tenants, missed rentals, and a phone that won't stop ringing. For regional operators managing multiple sites, a gate failure at one location creates a ripple that eats into the whole day.
The answer to how often you should inspect is simple. Most operators either wing it or wait until something breaks. Neither is a maintenance strategy.
The Recommended Inspection Schedule
Inspect your gate system at minimum twice per year — once in spring and once in fall. The reasoning is straightforward: thermal cycling through winter puts real stress on mechanical components, and spring is when you find out what didn't survive. Fall inspection prepares your system before temperatures drop again and close-tolerances in motors and control boards start causing intermittent failures.
Beyond the biannual schedule, inspect after any major weather event — high winds, ice storms, flooding near the entry lane — and after any repair work. Any time a technician touches your system, you want confirmation the adjacent components are still dialed in.
What the Inspection Should Cover
A proper gate inspection isn't a walk-by. It includes:
- Loop detectors — buried detection loops lose sensitivity over time, especially after freeze-thaw cycles crack the asphalt above them. Test for proper vehicle detection and confirm no false triggers.
- Gate arm and pivot hardware — check for wear, looseness, and corrosion at all pivot and mounting points. An arm that's slightly out of alignment accelerates motor wear.
- Operator motor and drive system — test cycle count if accessible, listen for bearing noise, check wiring connections and control board for corrosion or burn marks.
- Safety edges and obstruction sensors — these are your liability protection. If the gate closes on a vehicle or person, a non-functional safety edge is a problem. Test under real conditions.
- Access control integration — confirm keypad inputs route correctly to the gate operator. Test all entry codes, card readers, or mobile access connections. Check for communication lag.
- Keypad firmware — older keypads on systems like PTI or OpenTech can fall behind on firmware, causing sync issues with tenant accounts. Note the version and flag if an update is due.
Signs You're Already Overdue
If you're seeing any of these, you've passed the point of preventive and are into reactive:
- Gate hesitates or stutters on open/close cycles
- Loop detector triggers inconsistently — gate opens for nothing, or doesn't open when it should
- Keypads respond slowly or drop tenant codes
- You've replaced the same component more than once in 12 months
- Your last inspection date is unknown
One failed inspection cycle usually means the next failure is a matter of when, not if.
How SMS Structures Preventive Maintenance
Storage Maintenance Specialists offers two structured programs designed for operators who want inspections handled without having to schedule them from scratch each year.
The Basic Plan at $600/year per facility includes one full-system inspection annually, priority scheduling when you call in a service request, and waived trip charges on the scheduled inspection visit. It covers gate operators, entry systems, access control, keypads, cameras, and a sample inspection of facility doors.
The Premium Plan at $1,200/year per facility adds a second inspection — spring and fall — plus a 10% parts discount at invoice and access to priority remote support. For operators managing higher-traffic facilities or sites with older equipment, the parts discount alone often offsets the cost difference.
Both plans put SMS on your site on a defined schedule and move you to the front of the line when something goes wrong between visits. That's the operational value: you stop being reactive.
Review plan details and enroll at storagemaintenance.com/service-agreement.
Get on a Schedule Before Something Fails
A gate system that goes uninspected long enough will fail at the worst possible time. Twice a year, plus after weather events, is a realistic standard that most facilities can build into their operations calendar. If you don't have a technician handling this on a defined schedule, SMS can.
Call (888) 506-6586 or reach out at sales@storagemaintenance.com to talk through what your facility needs.