What maintenance does an electric rooflight need?

1. Clean the gasket

The most important. Grit, leaves and moss on the compression seal stop the sash seating.

Two consequences: it lets water past, which gets reported as a leak, and the actuator works harder every cycle trying to compress against an obstruction, which shortens its life.

A wipe with a damp cloth. Under trees, twice a year.

2. Lubricate the chain

A light spray where the chain extends from the housing. Dry chains get noisy and stiff, and stiffness is load on the motor.

Light oil or a dry PTFE spray. Not grease, which collects grit.

3. Wipe the rain sensor

A dirty sensor either misses rain or reads permanent moisture from grime and refuses to let the window open. The second is the more common complaint and it looks like a fault.

4. Cycle it

Fully open and close a few times a year, including in winter. Mechanisms that sit unused seize.

What not to do

Force a sash that will not move under power. The chain is rigid and does not want to be back-driven; forcing damages the mechanism and sometimes the frame.

Solar units

Add keeping the panel clean. The battery is a consumable, typically several years, and replaceable.

What we do

Show you all of this at handover, including where the manual override is. It takes five minutes and it is the difference between a mechanism lasting ten years and fifteen.

Four things a year, and the first matters most

A motorised rooflight asks slightly more than a manual one, and the whole routine takes under half an hour.

Cleaning the gasket

The single most useful thing on the list, and on a motorised unit it matters twice over.

Grit, leaves and moss on the compression seal stop the sash seating properly. Water gets past, which is reported as a leak. And the actuator works against an obstruction on every cycle, which shortens its life.

A person closing a window by hand feels that resistance. A motor does not: it simply strains and keeps going, which is why a dirty gasket does more damage on a motorised unit.

Lubricating the chain

Where it extends from the housing. Light oil or a dry PTFE spray, once a year. Not grease, which collects grit and makes matters worse.

Wiping the sensor

A sensor caked in grime either misses rain, which means a wet floor, or reads permanent moisture and refuses to let the window open at all, which looks exactly like a fault and produces a lot of unnecessary callouts.

A damp cloth is all it needs.

4. Cycle it fully

Several times a year, including in winter. Mechanisms that sit unused seize, and a seized actuator is considerably harder to override manually than a well used one.

A full cycle also lets you hear whether the motor is straining, which is the early warning that an actuator is approaching the end of its life.

The rest, same as any rooflight

Clean the filter at the top of the sash. Clean the glass. Check the outside every few years and after storms for lifted flashing edges or slipped tiles. On a flat roof unit, keep the perimeter clear and check the outlet the roof drains to.

What eventually needs replacing

The actuator, at ten to fifteen years, against twenty five for the glazing. It is a serviceable part that unbolts and is swapped, usually from inside the room in under an hour, for a fraction of the cost of a new window.

On a solar unit, the battery as well, good for several years and also replaceable. A failing battery does not stop the window suddenly; it becomes slower and less able to cope with a run of dull days.

What to keep

The model details of the window and the actuator, with the house paperwork. Identifying a fifteen year old actuator from a photograph is possible and it is much quicker if the specification is to hand.

The annual routine

Run it through a full open and close cycle and watch it. A motor that hesitates, labours or sounds different from last year is telling you something before it fails.

Clean the gasket where the sash meets the frame, and check it is not perished or displaced. A compression gasket is what makes a powered unit weathertight, and it does the work every cycle.

Clear debris from the sill and the drainage path. Leaves collecting at the bottom edge hold water against the seal.

Wipe the rain sensor. A sensor coated in dust or pollen will either stop responding or start closing the unit in dry weather.

What needs attention less often

Battery backup, where fitted, has a service life of a few years and will eventually stop holding charge. The symptom is a unit that works normally on mains and does nothing in a power cut, which is precisely when you find out.

Chain or spindle mechanisms benefit from a light lubricant of the type the manufacturer names. Not general purpose oil, which attracts grit.

What to avoid

Do not force a stalled unit by hand. Powered actuators are geared, and driving one manually against the gearbox is how a repairable fault becomes a replacement motor.

Do not pressure wash around the motor housing or the cable entry.

If it stops responding, check the power supply and re-pair the remote before assuming the motor has failed. A surprising proportion of dead rooflights are unpaired remotes.