Thoughts on solar vs. electric hook-up for an automatic driveway gate? We've gotten a few quotes and the solar option is significantly cheaper, but I'm worried about the reliabilty. We are DFW area for what it's worth. Thanks in advance!

mel07ag said:

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Thoughts on solar vs. electric hook-up for an automatic driveway gate? We've gotten a few quotes and the solar option is significantly cheaper, but I'm worried about the reliabilty. We are DFW area for what it's worth. Thanks in advance!

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I had a heavy, double-swing gate built in 2010, and I opted for the solar gate charger. I had nothing but problems. I went through a couple of chargers in that time, and it died again this last summer. I tried larger batteries, bigger panels, etc, but nothing worked. Even had an electrician run through the numbers with me, and concluded my given the draw of the opener, the capacity of the battery, the amount of sun I had, the output of the panel, and the time the charger should be running (whenever it was fully powered by the panel), that setup should keep up with the gate opening 10+ times a day; the charger/panel just weren't as efficient as they claimed.

Even with good maintenance, regular cleaning of the panel, etc it seemed to get less and less efficient to where I'd have to supplement charging the battery with my charger whenever it was cloudy for a couple of days.

I finally put a trickle charger in the garage, ran the cables through the wall and through conduit in a hand-dug trench through the yard to the gate. If I did it again I'd pay quite a bit more to start with the electric hook-up from the beginning.

we heard the same thing about solar gate openers so we went w/ the apollo electric gate opener and have not had any problems over the past 9 yrs other than regular maintenance.
https://apollogateopeners.com/store/swing-gate-operators.html

To clarify, I have a US Automatic Patriot Gate opener. They sell it with either a solar or AC charged system. I have no complaints with the opener, board, or receiver; just with the solar charger system.

When I changed to A/C charging, I didn't use US Automatic's system; I went with a 1.25 amp battery tender.

Thanks everyone. That is what I was afraid of. They would install the Liftmaster RSL12U for the solar option. We could always add an electrical connection to it later if we needed, but I would prefer to just do it right the first time.