No Audio On Intercom?

When an intercom has power but no sound - or you can hear the visitor and they cannot hear you - the fault is in the audio path, not the whole system. And which way the audio has failed points straight to the part. If you can't hear the visitor, the suspect is the gate-station microphone or the incoming pair. If the visitor can't hear you, it is the gate-station speaker or the outgoing pair. If neither direction works but the unit has power, it is usually corroded connectors, a broken audio cable, or a failed gate station.

The gate station - the outdoor unit visitors press - is exposed to sun, dust and rain, so it fails before the protected indoor handset in most cases. That is the first place we look.

Below we go through the causes, how to tell which direction has failed, and what a repair costs - so you can describe the symptom precisely and know roughly what to expect before we arrive.

If there is a single rule of thumb for audio faults, it is this: suspect the outdoor gate station before the indoor handset. The reason is simply exposure. The gate station sits outside, all year, taking direct sun that bakes its plastics and degrades its seals, dust that works into its grilles and contacts, and rain that finds any perished seal. Its microphone and speaker - delicate components by nature - weather far faster than the handset sitting safely indoors.

This matters because it tells you where to look and saves money on the repair. When audio fails, replacing the indoor handset first is a common and expensive mistake, because the handset is usually the one part that is fine. The fault is almost always at the gate: a perished speaker, a corroded microphone contact, or moisture across the audio terminals.

It also explains the one-way symptom so many people describe. The gate-station speaker and microphone are separate components, and they do not fail at the same moment - so the unit will often lose one direction first (the visitor can't hear you, or you can't hear them) before losing both. That single piece of information - which direction went first - is exactly what lets us bring the right part and fix it in one visit.

A couple of checks are safe and will either restore sound or tell us precisely where the fault sits.

Get Your Audio Back

Tell us whether it's no sound or one-way - and which direction - and we'll bring the right gate-station part or cable. Usually same-day, usually fixed on the first visit.

The audio path differs slightly by system, which changes what fails and what we check first.

Because so many no-audio faults are really cable or connector faults, it helps to know what is actually running between your gate and your handset.

Before you call, two minutes of structured listening tells you - and us - almost everything about a no-audio fault. The whole trick is to test the two directions of audio separately, because each runs through different components.

Get someone to stand at the gate station while you hold the indoor handset (or your phone, on a GSM unit). First, have them speak: can you hear them clearly, faintly, or not at all? That tests the incoming direction - the gate-station microphone and the pair carrying their voice in. Then you speak: can they hear you? That tests the outgoing direction - the gate-station speaker and the pair carrying your voice out. Finally, note whether the unit otherwise has power and lights.

The result maps straight to the fault. Incoming dead, outgoing fine means the gate-station microphone or the incoming pair. Outgoing dead, incoming fine means the gate-station speaker or the outgoing pair. Both dead with power present means corroded connectors, a broken cable, or a failed gate station affecting both. Faint in one or both directions points to a corroded connection or a supply that cannot drive the audio. Each of those is a different part - so telling us the result of this test is what lets us arrive with the right one and finish in a single visit.

It also saves you money directly, because it is the single best defence against the most common no-audio mistake: replacing the indoor handset when the fault was always at the gate. The handset is the one part this test almost always exonerates.

As with any intercom fault, the default answer to no audio is repair - a connector, a cable, a handset or a gate-station module is far cheaper than a new system, and the rest of the unit is usually perfectly good. But occasionally replacement is the honest recommendation, and it is worth knowing when.

The clearest case is obsolescence. If the gate station's audio module or the handset has failed and that model is old enough that genuine parts are no longer made, there may be nothing to repair it with - and a generic substitute, where one even fits, often gives poor or one-way audio of its own. The second case is extensive water damage: when moisture has been getting into a gate station for a long time, the corrosion may have spread through the microphone, speaker, connectors and board together, so replacing the gate station is more reliable - and often cheaper - than repairing each corroded part in turn.

Even then, the choice is yours and we will show you the reasoning rather than simply quoting a new unit. Where a repair will give you years more reliable service, that is what we recommend; where it would be throwing good money after a failing part, we say so. The aim is the cheapest sound outcome over time, not the biggest invoice today.