Automatic electric gate opener, good or bad and best make?

[Guest AlCapone]

My insurance company gives a 10 % premium reduction for an automatic gate and garage door opener. I of course have the garage door opener so What say ye, are the electric gate openers good or bad and best brand? Thanks Wayne

[Guest]

 It's useful for the body to do some exercise once and a while. On houses that I've bought the first thing that gets disconnected is the garage door opener.  The quickest way for a thief to get into your garage is having a door locked only by the opener. Also what is the point of having one when I have two internal, bolt proof cutter locks and shafts per door, plus the people door to get into the garage has a couple of deadbolts to unlock before you can get in to open them.

[Mark Gregory]

Mighty Mule makes some Gate openers . If you are worried about someone going up your drive way to steal your cars . Mighty Mule sells a Wireless Driveway Sensor that sends you an alarm to warn you .

 

http://www.mightymule.com/driveway-alarm/

Edited October 5, 2015 by Mark Gregory (see edit history)

[Friartuck]

When considering systems for gate and garage operation, mandate Rolling Code controllers.

 

Remote controls send signals in code. When the sending code is the same as the code which is expected by the receiver, then the receiver will actuate the relay, unlock the door, or open the barrier. Remote controls with a fixed code always send the same fixed code. Remote controls with a rolling code (or hopping code) always send out a different code from the one previously sent.

[benjamin j]

Liftmaster is the brand I have on my driveways with ten years of use and no problems. They were upgraded a couple of years ago with battery backup power.

I don’t know of a bad brand but I do know that some are harder to interface with your home security. Liftmaster is fairly straightforward.  

[39BuickEight]

I run into these all the time as an insurance adjuster, both claims for them when they are struck by a vehicle or struck by lightning, and when I am going to someone's house for an unrelated claim inspection of some sort.  I have always just seen the ones that open automatically when a car approaches.  They are not "secure" but do seem to discourage general people from bothering you.  I suppose they do get more complicated with intercoms and cameras and whatnot, I just haven't run into those.

[Guest AlCapone]

I was looking at the remote control / keypad model. Like any lock, it only keeps honest people out. My concerns were power failure, ice and snow, freezing mechanism, vandalism. Wayne

[benjamin j]

I run into these all the time as an insurance adjuster, both claims for them when they are struck by a vehicle or struck by lightning, and when I am going to someone's house for an unrelated claim inspection of some sort.  I have always just seen the ones that open automatically when a car approaches.  They are not "secure" but do seem to discourage general people from bothering you.  I suppose they do get more complicated with intercoms and cameras and whatnot, I just haven't run into those.

Mine have been hit a couple of times, one time by city snow plow and one time by an elderly friend who just drove straight into the gate as if it were not there. I was able to repair both time myself without insurance. Mine are programed into the home link on the rear view mirrors so they don’t open for anyone but me.  

[benjamin j]

I was looking at the remote control / keypad model. Like any lock, it only keeps honest people out. My concerns were power failure, ice and snow, freezing mechanism, vandalism. Wayne

ice will lock them up but they have protection just like a garage door so as to not crush a kid or dog.

[39BuickEight]

Depending on your policy on your home (assuming this is at a home and not a business), claims on the gate either fall under structure coverage as part of the dwelling (since they are wired and therefore connected to the home) or they are considered an "additional structure" depending on how your insurer defines "separated by clear space."

 

Most commonly, they are considered part of the dwelling, but sometimes they need to be scheduled if your policy requires you to list each structure (usually this is only on commercial or farmowner policies as homeowner policies include some additional structure coverage anyway).

 

So, if you have a homeowner policy, you are likely covered anyway.  If you have a commercial or farmowner policy, you likely need to add it as a scheduled structure.

 

Or, you may not care depending on what your deductible is vs. what the gate costs to install.

[Spinneyhill]

When I was seriously ill my wife was coming home from the hospital ED at all hours. We are rural so not much light around. And it rains a bit and is windy in the spring and autumn. So I installed an electric gate with remote and key pad outside opening and sensor and remote opening from the inside. It has auto close with settable delay (we use 15 seconds). I installed a switch so we could turn off the delay and also the sensor to open (and close) it from inside the property. It has the usual stop-on-contact switch as mentioned above. The system is Italian with a  New Zealand marketing name. I installed it.

 

It has battery backup power and is on a swinging gate. It is a farm gate so steel bars and pipe = little windage. We were told by the supplier to not install a nice old-style wooden gate with lots of windage - the "ram" could not handle it. The ram actually works on a worm and rack system. We are very happy with the system which has been in place for about 3.5 years.

 

The only reason we close the gate is to keep the occasional wandering stock out. We had some in here eating our plants at one stage.

 

The other type of course is the rolling gate. You need a level strip wider than the gate on one side and you can have a very heavy gate if you wish.

 

Make sure you put some weather protection around the keypad if you have one. Ours has a carbonate shield.

 

The painful part is telling delivery agents - couriers and the like - the key pad code. We also have a lovely lady who is not techno-savvy who comes by from time to time. She just pushed it open and came in! So we have put labels on the gate and above the keypad to NOT push it but phone us for the code.

 

Some open theirs in the morning and close it in the evening and when they leave. It doesn't take long to work out when they are there. We have ours closed all the time and try to not make it obvious when we are away from the property.

 

If you have a sensor inside and two cars come in, the first one closes the gate on the second one as they come in. Hence if we know more than one vehicle is coming I turn off the sensor and the timer.

[Guest AlCapone]

You guys are great! Thank you fir the very valuable input! Wayne