Updated 11-16-05

This review offers candid and biased opinions of equipment I have serviced and installed. I will not comment on equipment that I have not had firsthand experience with. Most the equipment that we have for sale has proven over the years to be high quality and fairly maintenance free. I have not installed everything that is available so there is a lot that I cannot comment on.

If you are looking for a company to install a gate & automation Check out our buyers guide. The guide can help you make an informed choice in selecting a contractor and avoid some of the pitfalls.

Some basic rules I have when selecting equipment is that the company should have been in business long enough to have developed their product and to assure that they will be here tomorrow. The company should have tech support and advanced replacement parts whenever possible. Having advance replacement parts will cut your service calls in half by allowing you not to have to go back and swap parts. Another criteria is how fast the parts arrive.

I have been contacted by a an Italian company that wanted me to become their distributors. I asked them who would service their goods in the U.S., they did not have any service available. I asked them if I became their distributor would they set up a service center here. They told me they could not. That was the end of the story for me. You can probably find their stuff for sale, but there won't be any service. It may be cheaper, but it is no bargain.

I noticed that the Internet is full of GTO - Mighty Mule operators. I do not recommend their light duty equipment, Their heavier operators appear to be OK. I however feel that you can get much better value for your money.


Linear Actuators:
Ram arms have been in use for many years but have always had limitations. The Primary one has been getting the operator to "soft stop" the gate. This has proven to be more difficult to achieve in a well engineered way until recently. Currently the "Elite Miracle One" is the best selling ram arm on the market. The Doorking 6002 which has been recently introduced is my favorite. Doorking is a company that rarely brings a product to market without first doing extensive testing and debugging. I feel that this is the first "third generation" of operator in this category. The construction is first class all the way through. It uses magnetic limit switches instead of micro switches which I feel is real leap ahead. The electronics use a Motorola Microprocessor and the engineering appears to be impeccable. It runs on 24 VDC and the transformer is large enough to run the unit in case of a battery discharge. The batteries are located on the side of the heavy gauge metal control key locked cabinet. The Batteries in the Miracle are located under the circuit board in a plastic cabinet that uses 4 screws to hold the cover. The Miracle One is a few dollars cheaper than the Doorking 6002, but you will do much better with the Doorking.

Telephone Entry Systems:
Of the most popular residential telephone entry systems, my favorite is the Doorking 1812. The Doorking 1812 is an industry standard and I highly recommend this unit for single homes. I can also highly recommend the Linear RE-1. The Linear RE-1 is a very solid built unit and is economically priced.

The Eagle gate operators are very good and for the most part are a copy of the Elite units for a lot less money. Eagle operators had a badly engineered circuit board when they first were introduced and they received some pretty bad press that still lingers. Since the company has completely re-engineered their circuit board it has become a reliable unit. We are currently installing many of these units and feel that they are a very good deal.

Ramset Operators have just been added to our product line. I feel that they are an exceptional value for the price. These operators are very similar to Elite and built as well as them. The company is offering a 10 year warranty and has some of the best customer support available. This company will send a technician anywhere in the U.S. if your problem cannot be solved with phone support.

Elite is probably the best known and highest rated product line. I feel that the best products they make are the CSW-200 Swing series, SL-3000 Slide, Their Roboslide and the Roboswing. I have avoided their ram arm units (Miracle One) and feel that they have not produced a ram arm worthy of their name yet.

FAAC is the largest and oldest gate operator company in Europe. We like FAAC ram arms and underground operators, but in general avoid the rest of their equipment line since it is so different from what most of America uses. Almost all hydraulic ram arm operators come from Italy and are re-labeled or retrofitted by companies such as Stanley and Sentex.

Most of the rectangular metal box swing gate operators that have a single front cover I stay away from. These units are always hard to service with the exception of a few. A good operator will allow access to all areas for service. I like the units that the entire shroud is one removable piece.

My two favorite gate operators are Doorking and Elite. The Doorking 6000 line of swing gate operators have the swing arm on bottom. This makes for a very cosmetically pleasing installation. The mechanics are extremely simple and have only 3 moving parts. The electronics on the Doorking are superb. The top cover comes off without disengaging the arm and is by far the easiest unit to service in the entire market.

The Elite CSW-200 is an industry standard. It is built stronger than the Doorking and is excellent in high usage applications. The CSW-200 is one of the most service free units on the market. This is the unit we like to use in commercial applications. Although this is got to be the best unit on the market we generally use more Doorking because of the bottom arm design. The Elite has an arm that is about three feet off the ground and usually connects to the center area of the gate. Since you can see through most gates the arm becomes an eyesore. We started installing both Doorking and Elite units fifteen years ago and most of them are still running fine.

Solar gate operators are good if you are very far away from electricity. My rule of thumb is if power is less than 200' away, use a 110 Volt unit. The reason is that solar units need more service and contrary to what most people believe are not as dependable. The Apollo units are pretty good. The supplied 5 Watt solar panel is worthless if you are not in the "sun belt". I recommend a high quality 15 -20 Watt panel with a charging regulator.

The Elite Roboswing can be powered by solar. It requires a 64 Watt panel. The panel is 2'x4' and needs a strong mast to hold it. This is the unit to use if you can afford the very best as far as swing arm operators go.

When installing the Apollo 1500 & 1600 series allow a good length of wire from the ram arm to the post. The wire used by Apollo is not designed for flexing and is the number one problem with these units over time. The wire should have been the type that has a very fine bundle of strands in each wire.

FAAC, Doorking, Elite, Apollo, GTO Mighty-Mule, Ramset, and Sentex are registered trade marks

Ken Martini

I will keep adding to, and organizing this review as time allows