Electric gates have become very popular in recent times, and all of these gates have a motor. The price of gates has come down of late, and one of problems with this drop in cost, is that virtually every gate owner has had problems with the motor at some point or another. This is not to say that middle class folks in the suburbs cannot afford a good motor for their gate, but the incidence of gate motor problems has definitely risen, and not in a fashion that would be proportionate to the increase of electric gates themselves.
The gate motor never just stops working all of a sudden. It is always a gradual process, one where the motor starts off by making some unusual noise, a noise that the motor definitely did not make when the gate was first installed. The motor will then start to work very erratically (almost always failing to respond in the rain or when you are in a hurry), this erratic gate motor behaviour will continue until you eventually succumb and call in the expert. This will never happen right away. First you will convince yourself that it will sort itself out, and then you decide that the secret lies in giving the remote control a few taps before pressing. It almost always ends with some implement left near the gate so that you can hammer the gate motor housing case, until it works. The story ends when you miss some crucial meeting because you were playing with the gate motor and you decide it is time to call in the gate motor people.
One will find that in many households, a period of forced anti-tech is put into place. This is when it is accepted that the gate motor is now dead, but you are not ready to spend money getting it fixed just yet. Low tech solutions like getting out of your car to open the gate (imagine something so bizarre) become the norm and there is normally some heavy chain and rusty padlocks involved. So the maddening tale of the gate motor goes round and round in a circle that ends in a new motor every time.
