A hydraulic gate closer is a simple piece of kit, yet it fails far more often from how it was fitted than from any fault in the unit itself. Get the mounting right, and a quality closer will quietly push your gate shut for years with little more than the odd squirt of lubricant. Get it wrong, and you can wear one out in a single season. This guide walks through the six mistakes that cause early failure, why each one matters, and what good practice looks like instead. By the end, you should be able to spot a poor fit on sight and know what to check before you ever blame the closer.
Why Installation Decides How Long A Closer Lasts
It helps to understand what a hydraulic closer actually does before looking at what goes wrong. Inside the steel cylinder are oil, a piston, and a set of internal valves. As the gate swings open, the piston is forced back; as the gate returns, that oil is metered through the valves to give a slow, controlled close rather than a slam. The closing speed on a Lockey GC200, GC400, or GC600 is preset at the factory, so there is no gas-release adjustment to fiddle with and no clockwork mechanism to wear out.
That sealed simplicity is the closer’s strength. It also means the unit has no way to absorb a bad installation. Every problem below ends the same way: the piston or seals take a load they were never designed for, and the closer’s lifetime is considerably shortened. Incorrect installation may shorten a closer’s working life from years to months, and the frustrating part is that none of these mistakes is difficult to avoid. They just need to be checked before you reach for the drill.
One more point worth making early. A hydraulic closer is a mechanical device, not a powered one. If you have an automated entrance with a motor, the failure modes are different again, and we will touch on those at the end. For a manually operated swing gate, though, the six issues here cover the vast majority of closer problems we see.
The 6 Installation Mistakes That Cause Early Failure
Skipping The Hinge Check Before You Start
This is the big one, and it is almost always the root cause when a closer fails early. People treat the closer as the thing that moves the gate. It is not. The hinges move the gate; the closer simply controls the last part of that movement. If the hinges are stiff, dry or worn, the closer is forced to fight friction on every single cycle, and that constant strain is what kills it.
Before fitting anything, do three checks:
- Swing the gate fully by hand. It should move freely through its whole arc with no grinding, no catching and no stiff spot.
- Lubricate both hinges and swing it again. A dry hinge can mask itself as a heavy gate.
- Watch for a drop. Open the gate halfway and look at the leading edge. If it sags or drifts downward, the hinges are worn, or the gate is out of true, and that needs repairing first.
Lockey’s own fitting guidance is blunt about this: make sure the hinges are free-moving and lubricated, and test the gate swing to see if the gate drops, then repair if necessary. A closer fitted to a bad hinge is a closer on borrowed time.
Getting The Post And Gate Alignment Wrong
A closer is designed to work across a gate and post that sit square to each other. When they do not, the unit is asked to twist as well as push, and that side load wears the piston and seals unevenly.
Two things need to line up. First, the post and the gate should both be plumb and level, both vertically and horizontally, before the closer goes anywhere near them. Second, the post bracket and the gate bracket must be horizontally aligned on the same plane so the closer body stays straight throughout its travel. Misaligned hinges, causing the gate to sit at a slight angle, will quietly translate into a bent loading path through the closer. It is one of those faults you cannot see at a glance, but the closer feels on every close.
If your gate uses an offset hinge arrangement rather than the common in-line type, take extra care here. The GCTB175 garden closer, for instance, will not work with offset hinges at all, and the larger GC range requires the offset hinge diagram to be followed precisely. When in doubt, Lockey will look at a photo of your gate if you call them.
Choosing The Wrong Closer For The Gate
Fitting a closer that is too small for the gate is a guaranteed route to early failure. The unit runs at the top of its capacity in every cycle; the oil heats, the seals degrade, and what should have lasted for years gives out quickly.
Lockey’s hydraulic range is sized by gate width and weight, so matching is straightforward if you measure honestly:
- GC200/TB200 suits gates up to 1.2m wide and around 80kg, rated at 250 newtons.
- GC400/TB400 covers gates from 1.2m to 1.5m wide and up to 100kg.
- GC600/TB600 handles the heaviest, from 1.5m to 2.0m wide and up to 150kg.
- The GCTB175 Garden Gate Closer is a lighter 175-newton unit for gates no heavier than 50kg and no wider than 1000mm, designed for picket and barrier gates and lightweight timber.
Lockey notes that in roughly 80% of cases, the GC200/TB200 copes with gates heavier and larger than its stated figures, which suggests the range carries a sensible margin. The mistake is not erring towards the smaller model; it is guessing the gate weight, underestimating it, and giving the closer no margin at all. Weigh or estimate carefully, and if your gate sits near a boundary between two models, size up.
Leaving Out The Gate Stops
Here is a mistake that costs people their warranty and their closer. A hydraulic closer is built to work through a defined arc, with a maximum opening angle of 90 degrees. It is not designed to be a hard limiter at the end of the swing. Push the gate past its intended travel, or let the wind fling it open, and the shock load goes straight into the piston.
That is what gate stops are for, and the brief here is specific: fit one stop to restrict the swing of the gate from passing through the post line as it closes, which the lock often does already, and fit a second to restrict the opening angle to 90 degrees. Lockey is unambiguous that failure to fit gate stops will invalidate your warranty. The Lockey Gate Stop is an adjustable aluminium unit, 60mm to 140mm in height, fixed with a single M12 anchor bolt, and its rubber cap prevents metal-to-metal contact that would otherwise chip the gate’s paint finish. You can read the full spec on the Lockey Gate Stop page. It is a small accessory, and skipping it is a false economy.
There is a related habit worth dropping: forcing the gate. Do not shove the gate shut or drag it through its arc. Let the closer finish the job at its own pace. Forcing the gate fights the hydraulics directly and is one of the quieter ways closers break.
Using Weak Or Wrong Fasteners
The closer brackets carry real, repeated load. Every open and closed transmission force through those four fixing points, so the fasteners holding them are part of the closer system, not an afterthought.
Lockey closer kits include the fixing brackets, the fitting bar and instructions, but deliberately do not include the fixings themselves, because the right fastener depends entirely on what you are fixing to. The guidance is to use good-quality, strong fasteners. For metal gates, button socket head screws suit the job; for timber, a similar low-profile fixing works well. On steel, brackets can also be welded directly to the post and gate, which is the most secure option.
What you must not do is reach for whatever screws are in the drawer. Undersized or soft fasteners allow the bracket to flex by micro-millimetres on every cycle. That movement loosens the fixing, throws the closer’s geometry out, and you end up chasing a closer issue that is really a fixing issue. Loose wire connections are a common fault on powered gates; on a hydraulic closer, the equivalent weak point is loose or undersized bracket fasteners, and the fix is in the same spirit: use the right hardware and check it.
Mounting The Closer On The Wrong Side
This one sounds too obvious to be common, yet it is not. A hydraulic gate closer must be mounted on the opening side of the gate, where it can push the gate closed as it returns. Mount it on the wrong face, and it cannot do its job properly; at worst, it is loaded backwards against its own design.
Two related points sit alongside this. Mount the closer as close as possible to the gate’s pivot point, especially on the lighter GCTB175, because the geometry there is more sensitive. And remember that the closer force is increased by using the mounting holes further from the gate post, so the bracket position is also your coarse force adjustment. The Lockey closers can be installed on the top, middle or bottom of either the right or left hand of the gate, so there is flexibility, but the opening-side rule is fixed. Get the side right first, then use the hole position to fine-tune the push.
Quick Comparison: Lockey Hydraulic Gate Closers
| Model | Gate width | Max gate weight | Force | Best suited to |
| GCTB175 Garden | Up to 1.0m | 50kg | 175 N | Garden, picket and barrier gates; in-line hinges only |
| GC200/TB200 | Up to 1.2m | 80kg | 250 N | Commercial and Domestic swing gates |
| GC400/TB400 | 1.2m to 1.5m | 100kg | 400 N | Larger domestic and commercial gates |
| GC600/TB600 | 1.5m to 2.0m | 150kg | 600 N | Heavy commercial and industrial gates |
All four are steel-bodied with a protective coating, have a maximum opening angle of 90 degrees, and require gate stops to keep the warranty valid. You can see the full hydraulic range on the Lockey gate closers category page.
Getting The Fit Right: A Short Pre-Installation Checklist
Before you commit a single screw, run through this. It takes ten minutes and saves a closer.
- Hinges checked, lubricated and confirmed free, with no drop in the gate.
- Post and gate are both plumb and level, and the two brackets are horizontally aligned.
- The closer model matched the gate’s measured width and weight accurately.
- Hinge type identified, in-line or offset, with the correct diagram to hand.
- Two gate stops are ready to fit, one for the closed position and one to cap the opening angle at 90 degrees.
- Strong, correctly sized fasteners chosen for the gate material, or a welding plan for steel.
- Mounting position confirmed on the gate’s opening side.
After fitting, the maintenance side is genuinely light. Lockey closers need only periodic inspection and joint lubrication. Keep the hinges oiled, glance at the fixings now and then, and the closer largely looks after itself. One word on weather: these units have a minimum operating temperature of about -9.4 degrees Celsius and a maximum of 50 degrees Celsius. UK conditions sit comfortably inside that range, but a closer run hard outside those limits may behave erratically or fail, which is worth knowing if you are fitting one somewhere unusually exposed.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the common problems with gate closers?
Most common problems trace back to installation rather than the unit itself. The frequent culprits are stiff or worn hinges that force the closer to overwork, a closer undersized for the gate, missing gate stops that allow shock loads, and weak bracket fasteners that loosen over time. A Lockey GC200 fitted correctly to a freely swinging, well-aligned gate rarely gives trouble. If a closer is not closing fully or has become noisy, check the hinges and fixings before assuming the closer has failed.
How long should a gate closer last?
A quality hydraulic closer that has been fitted correctly should last many years, since there is little inside to wear beyond the seals. Lockey GC range closers use a sealed design with no clockwork mechanism, which removes the parts that typically fail first on cheaper units. Lifespan depends almost entirely on the installation: a closer matched to the gate, mounted square, and protected by gate stops will outlast one that is undersized or fighting bad hinges by a wide margin.
What causes a gate closer to fail early?
Early failure usually comes from the closer being forced to absorb loads it was not built for. Stiff hinges add friction to every cycle; an undersized model runs at its limit permanently; and missing gate stops let the gate slam past its 90-degree arc, shocking the piston. Forcing the gate by hand, rather than letting the closer finish, also accelerates wear. Correct alignment between the post bracket and gate bracket is essential, as a twisted loading path wears the internal seals unevenly.
Does an electric gate motor last as long as a hydraulic closer?
They are different devices with different lifespans. An electric gate motor is a powered automation unit, and its life expectancy depends on cycle frequency, weather sealing and electrical factors such as incorrect power supply voltage or wiring polarity. A hydraulic closer like the Lockey GC200 is purely mechanical, with no electronics to fail, which often makes it the simpler long-term choice for a manually used swing gate. Lockey supplies mechanical gate closers and keyless gate locks rather than powered motors.
Can I fit a Lockey gate closer to any gate?
Not quite any gate, and matching matters. The closer must suit the gate’s width, weight and hinge type. The GCTB175 garden closer works only with in-line hinge arrangements and lightweight gates up to 50kg, while the GC200, GC400 and GC600 cover heavier gates and both in-line and offset hinges. Steel and timber gates are both fine. If you are unsure whether a model fits your gate, Lockey recommends sending a photo and calling their team for advice before buying.
Get The Right Closer And Fit It Once
A gate closer rewards a careful installation and punishes a rushed one. Match the model to your gate, check the hinges, square up the brackets and fit your gate stops, and a Lockey hydraulic closer will serve you quietly for years.
Browse the full hydraulic range and accessories at lockeydigital.co.uk, or if you are not certain which model your gate needs, email the team at enquiries@lockeydigital.co.uk with a photo of your gate and they will point you to the right one.
