A Ghost Opens My Sliding Gate Sometimes

Ha, Ha , yes it does happen. I have been told that clients come home and the gate is open or it opens and closes during the night for no reason.. These issues can be hard to sort out but there are a few reasons that cause this to happen.. First of all, most sliding gates have a infrared beam, or photo cell or beam to stop the gate working when there is a car in the gate way. Now there are two types of beam systems. One model has a transmitter on one side and a beam receiver on the other side. These are not so popular these days because you need to run a twin cable across the drive to the other side.  The new models have a transmitter on the motor side and a reflector panel on the other side. That means it operates like a police traffic radar. It sends out a beam that hits the reflector object and bounces back to the transmitter.. These are all good models, but you cannot control the width of the beam being sent out to the other side, so if the beam can travel say 30-50m as some can, then the beam at this distance can be quite wide. This can be an issue as reflections from older model car head lights make a good reflector and this can mess with the beam . The older style where there is a transmitter and receiver usually has a more focused beam to work so these do have less issues, where the reflector type has a wider beam and a much larger reflector surface which can be messed with by another object passing.. Another issue I find, especially with the reflector type, is they can get dampness or water droplets inside the transmitter that can play with the beam. This is usually during frosty or cold wet nights.. Not much you can do here but I have found a hood cover does help a lot.  Another issue I have found is a touchy remote control in someones pocket with raised buttons that can easily be touched or pushed by something else in your pocket. Try using a remote with a slide button cover.. Or it could be a worn out remote where the buttons are getting stuck, so check that one out.  What I do to check if it is the photo cell or the remotes that are causing the issue, is to disconnect the photocell for a week and see what happens. If the ghost is gone then that is the issue. cheers Graeme