Routine preventive maintenance should include a series of visual inspections and adjustments. Any reports of parts wearing out should be remedied and explained.
How often
Most commercial shutters require service once a year, but frequently used shutters may need service more often. Loading bay shutters that take a lot of cycling may require service every six months and some may need service more frequently. Start by looking at the shutter manufacturer’s instructions and DHF (Door and Hardware Federation) guidance. How often shutter service is needed is based upon how hard the shutter is worked. The installer should agree to a service interval based on shutter usage.
What a proper service covers
An engineer must be able to check, adjust or report on the following:
- The curtains including damaged laths, end locks and edge wear
- the guides for alignment, wear, damage, and secure fixing
- the barrel, bearings and endplates
- Spring tensions and condition of manual shutters
- the engine and brakes work and that the shutter stays in place when stopped.
- I set the limit settings so it stops where it should at the top and bottom.
- The safety devices (safety edges, photocells and any light curtains) have been tested to ensure they stop and reverse the shutter.
- the manual override, confirmed working
- the controls and emergency stop
- the fixings into the building
You should expect a written report as opposed to just an invoice.
Why the paperwork matters
shutters are covered by safety standards (BS EN 13241 and BS EN 12453) that expect the doors are maintained. If someone gets hurt or your insurance investigates a break in and there is a gap in service history, it’s hard to explain. Service reports should be kept together, ideally in a logbook that is kept with the shutters.
Between services
Staff is trained to find early warnings, i.e. New noises, the shutter slowing, the curtain running unevenly, etc. Staff is to report these faults immediately. Small faults that are reported are small, and faults that are not reported can become large faults and require a call-out.
When it stops working
It’s always first thing in the morning. Staff are waiting, deliveries are due and the shutter won’t move. Before anything else don’t force it. The damage that can be done to a shutter in the 10 minutes after it stops working is immense.
What you can safely check yourself
Boring stuff comes first. That’s usually the problem.
Is there power? Check the isolator near the shutter and the breaker in the board. Someone may have switched it off. If it is tripped, reset it once. If it trips again, stop there.
If it’s a remote or fob controlled device, try the key switch or the wall button. Dead remote batteries account for a surprising number of call-outs.
Look along the guides on both sides. If there’s a stone, a piece of packaging or a bent lath in the guides, it will stop the curtain, and the motor may cut out to protect itself.
If the shutter has recently been moved up and down several times, the motor may have hit its thermal cut-out. Leave it for 20-30 minutes and try again.
Faults that need an engineer
Some faults aren’t worth trying to fix yourself:
- Quiet drone of an electric motor
Nothing happens.
- curtains fall unevenly, or lean to one side
- laths are out of their end locks or bent
- the safety edge is damaged.
- the shutter stops and reverses for no obvious reason
The curtains on some larger industrial shutters are quite heavy, and the component parts can be loaded, so this is not a job for a stepladder and screwdriver.
Manual override
Most electric shutters can be moved by hand when the power is off. On smaller shutters that is usually a winding handle that fits on the motor. On larger, or industrial, shutters it may be a hand chain. How and where it works should be shown to you when you are handed over the shutters.
If you’ve never been shown how to do it, don’t figure it out for the first time during a power cut. Isolate the power first, use the override to operate it slowly, and don’t leave the shutter halfway if nobody is watching it.
Back to the full guide: Commercial Security Shutters
Related: Roller Shutter Costs in the UK