Solar/battery farm gate openers

txdon · Jul 24, 2011

I have a solar charged battery operated Patriot gate opener. No problems for 3 years so far - same battery! We have had a week of no sun in the winter and this summer we are now on our 41st day of triple digits.

Builder · Jul 25, 2011

txdon said:
I have a solar charged battery operated Patriot gate opener. No problems for 3 years so far - same battery! We have had a week of no sun in the winter and this summer we are now on our 41st day of triple digits.

Thanks TXDon, are you using a marine battery or the little battery?

Builder · Jul 25, 2011

joeyd said:
We used a heavy plastic storage container for a battery box, we had two deep cycle batteries if I remember right. You can find them with metal latches. A hole drilled a few inches from the bottom and sealed to keep moisture and critters out for the cable to run. If you wanted to you could screw it down to some 4x4's to raise it up off the ground even.

If you can fabricate some brackets you could mount it to a pole if you wanted. I am wondering if a tool box or something similar would hold your battery?

That's what I have been thinking for the "farm" gate. The other 2 gates are at the ends of driveways that need to look nicer. I'm going to need something that looks good until we can get the area landscaped to soften the area around the battery box.

Soundguy · Jul 25, 2011

a 2nd or 3rd solar panel wouldn't have kept up with it?

150-300$ and 10 minutes of work might have solved that.

soundguy

joeyd said:
Builder - You don't mention where you are located or how many cycles a day you think the opener will get. We had a solar panel/battery operated gate on our community road but during the cold overcast winters the solar wouldn't keep up with demand so we had to leave it open. Not what we had installed the gate for.

We had to run power to it, set a transformer and meter which meant $$$. The gate and security light that activates while the gate is open draws about $2.00/mo. worth of electricity. We have 7 full time and 2 part time families on the road.

txdon · Jul 25, 2011

Builder said:
Thanks TXDon, are you using a marine battery or the little battery?

Universal Battery UB12750 (12V, 75AH) Battery
Harvey brought it when we installed the gate.

Notice the keypad on the the top fence rail and the solar panel install on an extended last post.

joeyd · Jul 28, 2011

Soundguy said:
a 2nd or 3rd solar panel wouldn't have kept up with it?

150-300$ and 10 minutes of work might have solved that.

soundguy

We had two panels on the system already. This far north, 90 miles from Canada, when there is no sun there is no sun. We can go weeks without any significant sunshine to help the batteries out. But, on the grid now so come snow or shine we can use the gate.

Builder · Jul 30, 2011

I have to deal with partial shade in my situation so I'm going to go with 2 panels.

Jimbrown · Jul 30, 2011

I have three solar powerd gates. One MM, one GTO and one Apollo. The Apollo is by far the best made. The new MM appear to be much better made than the old ones. They can all be damaged by wind or people or animals pushing them unless you buy the auto lock.

Soundguy · Jul 30, 2011

mm is made by gto.....

soundguy

Builder · Jul 30, 2011

Jimbrown said:
I have three solar powerd gates. One MM, one GTO and one Apollo. The Apollo is by far the best made. The new MM appear to be much better made than the old ones. They can all be damaged by wind or people or animals pushing them unless you buy the auto lock.

Was it (apollo) far more expensive than MM? Did distributor force you to have him install it? (No DIY?)
I'm 90% sure I'm going with Chamberlain. Reasons are they have road service for when it breaks. Looks like I'm on my own with MM. Chamberlain gets better reviews, too. However, it's probably going to cost me $750 more for the "peace of mind" to own Chamberlain opener. Their remote controls and auto loop detectors are considerably more than MM, too.

I have several customers interested in remote control farm gates and I'm looking to do my gate on my property as a "demo" for customers. The other 2 gates will be added later. I think if I'm going to put my name behind them, it might be better to go with Chamberlain to get the better opener and more importantly a service tech they can call instead of me.