How to Prevent Frost Build-up on Your Photo Eyes

For most of the United States it’s that time of year when the trees shed their leaves and residents have to scrape frost off their cars every morning. That’s right, we’re transitioning from fall to winter. This is the time of the year when Jack Frost visits and our gates may not want to open or close. This is when our safety devices can frustrate us the most.

 When your gate fails to open and close on command, you may think you have a troubled gate operator. You might call someone out to check your system and POOF, it all is working at it should. However,when you go to open your gate the next morning, the same problem occurs.The problem likely doesn’t have to do with your system, but with the frost that appears in the mornings and late evenings. Frost can form on safety devices such as reflective photo eyes and through beam photo eyes, causing an operation malfunction. Just like your car’s windows and windshield, the frost blocks the vision of these items and can compromise safety.

There is no solution that completely prevents frost from forming on your safety devices, but you can take a few steps for your reflective and through beam photo eyes to minimize the issue. If the concept of heated photo eyes intrigues you, we might just have some good news for you yet.

  • Photo eye covers or hoods – In most cases we like to use a hollow 4” x 4” x 12”long piece of PVC or vinyl fencing and place it over the photo eye. For this solution, you will need two of these, one for the transmitter or reflector and one for the receiver.
Photo eye lens and receiver covered by a piece of vinyl to protect them from frost
  • Rain X- In some cases, Rain X has worked well to keep the frost from building up on the photo eye lens. You can apply Rain X to your photo eye before you anticipate frost when the lens is dry and temperatures are warmer. According to the Rain X instructions, you can apply Rain X to the dry lens and/or the reflector of the photo eye.

CAUTION: Do NOT move the photo eyes out of alignment. These items need to be aligned to work properly.

If you are having any issues with your access control system or are thinking of getting one installed, you’ve come to the right place.American Access Control would be more than happy to work with you and find out exactly what you need. To get in contact with one of our sales people, you can leave an online request or give us a call today!