School me on Electric Sliding Gate Openers

[kbuhagiar]

Hello Folks,

We recently purchased a new (to us) house in Escondido, CA. which has an electronically-controlled sliding gate at the end of the driveway. I've never had experience with an electronic gate before, so this is all new to me.

The gate opener is an All-O-Matic and was installed sometime around 2001. It has a separate touch-pad controller box and currently the only way to open the gate is by entering a 4-digit code. The previous owner left notes about how to change the code (which I have already done) but little else. There are no remote controls. The gate action is somewhat erratic (occasionally re-opens upon closing or sometimes stops mid-stream) and will probably require some service, but before I start pouring money into service visits I would like to establish what I have and whether I should consider upgrading to a newer model.

To the garage door/gate experts here on line, I have some questions:
Is the All-O-Matic product considered a quality brand? Should I keep what I have and just bring it up to snuff? Or should I look into upgrading with something more modern?
Are the control pads proprietary, or will they work with any brand of gate controller?
Would I be able to upgrade the control pad to make it Wi/Fi compatible?
Are there any add-ons that would allow me to control the gate through wi-fi or at least with my garage door controllers (Liftmaster using the MyQ app)?

I don't want to replace a perfectly good controller that just needs some adjustments, but if the maintenance/add-ons start adding up I would rather consider upgrading to something newer that has some newer features.

I am a competent mechanic with an IT programming background so I am also perfectly fine with maintaining & programming the gate myself...is there anything about these devices that requires intervention by the professionals?

One more thing...how do you open the gate during a power outage? Power was out yesterday for about twenty minutes and the thought did cross my mind.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and observations!

 

[nadogail]

Regretfully i have no experience with that brand. Google might point you to the manufacturer; the manufacturer should be able to point you to a dealer/service tech.

The few gate openers I have been called on to repair have not been complicated, they were Electro-mechanical, not electronic.

 

[Vintage Veloce]

My Liftmaster has a lot of adjustability. It sounds like you need to find a manual for your opener and read it.
Mine also has a battery backup. Works fine without power.

 

[MatBirch]

When it comes to controls, a few companies have truly proprietary stuff, some include "their own", and some include nothing. There are lots of offerings that are universal. You may need a new stand alone receiver to allow for remote controls to be added. You just need to keep within a particular frequency. I feel the best bang for the buck is Transmitter Solutions. They offer the receiver, remotes, and wired/wireless keypads. Best bang for the buck IMO. Connecting them is a simple matter of locating the correct input terminals in the operator.
As for Wifi, yes, it's available and being improved on all the time. I find the best to be DoorBird. Some models can use a wireless signal, some don't. If you already have Liftmaster garage door opener(s) with MyQ, then you could piggyback the gate to it. You'd need a new MyQ gate operator though. MyQ wont communicate with anything else. Depending on how much time and effort you wanted to put into it, you could "design" your own system from readily available switches and such.

Usually a battery back up system is available to operate the gate when the power is out, but it's usually an add-on. There will be a manual release of some kind though, to allow you to disconnect the drive system and push it open. You'll need to just google the make and model and see if you can find a manual.

As far as what you have- 20 years tells me that All-O-Matic was a good operator. BUT- I'd be leery of putting much money into that operator. I feel you're at or near the lifespan of any operator. Also guides, wheels, chains, etc...
Most new operators would accept your new accessories if you added them to what you have now. Some, such as Liftmaster, have a built-in receiver, so you'd need to either have a redundant receiver, or get new Liftmaster remotes.
FWIW- I'm self-taught in gates. Got thrown into running a company that had personnel issues, and now run a gate division for a fabrication company. I see NO reason that a guy with your background can't handle all of it yourself!

 

[kbuhagiar]

When it comes to controls, a few companies have truly proprietary stuff, some include "their own", and some include nothing. There are lots of offerings that are universal. You may need a new stand alone receiver to allow for remote controls to be added. You just need to keep within a particular frequency. I feel the best bang for the buck is Transmitter Solutions. They offer the receiver, remotes, and wired/wireless keypads. Best bang for the buck IMO. Connecting them is a simple matter of locating the correct input terminals in the operator.
As for Wifi, yes, it's available and being improved on all the time. I find the best to be DoorBird. Some models can use a wireless signal, some don't. If you already have Liftmaster garage door opener(s) with MyQ, then you could piggyback the gate to it. You'd need a new MyQ gate operator though. MyQ wont communicate with anything else. Depending on how much time and effort you wanted to put into it, you could "design" your own system from readily available switches and such.

Usually a battery back up system is available to operate the gate when the power is out, but it's usually an add-on. There will be a manual release of some kind though, to allow you to disconnect the drive system and push it open. You'll need to just google the make and model and see if you can find a manual.

As far as what you have- 20 years tells me that All-O-Matic was a good operator. BUT- I'd be leery of putting much money into that operator. I feel you're at or near the lifespan of any operator. Also guides, wheels, chains, etc...
Most new operators would accept your new accessories if you added them to what you have now. Some, such as Liftmaster, have a built-in receiver, so you'd need to either have a redundant receiver, or get new Liftmaster remotes.
FWIW- I'm self-taught in gates. Got thrown into running a company that had personnel issues, and now run a gate division for a fabrication company. I see NO reason that a guy with your background can't handle all of it yourself!

MatBirch,

Thanks, that is very informative and helpful.

 

[Walkers]

It would be much easier to answer if you post a pic of the guts of your machine.

 

[kbuhagiar]

It would be much easier to answer if you post a pic of the guts of your machine.

Unfortunately I am away from the property and won't be returning for a couple of weeks.

 

[My Old Tools]

You can add a generic remote actuator to just about any gate system.

 

[thunderalley3]

I think All O Matic is what we have at our maintenance yard, I will look this weekend when I am over there. We were having a few issues with ours and contacted who we have for repairs, which by the way is a fence company. They stopped by, determined it was a control board issue causing erratic stops part way opening, reversing part way through the cycle etc. It was about a $250 repair but the tech suggested it is a better opener than they make today and the replacement was pushing 3K with install. As he said use this one until parts are no longer available.

As a hint look for an older fence company in the area as you will need the "old timer" who knows the old operators. It is older than most of the employees today.

By the way my wife and I both have our Chevy trucks garage opener buttons programmed for the gate, it is easy to do.

 

[ericm]

The keypad on our gate is separate from the opener. They're not even the same brand. Our keypad is a DoorKing. There's only a couple signal lines from the keypad to the opener. The smarts are in the keypad. Ours is pretty dumb, but I prefer a non "smart" solution that does not have the security, privacy and reliability issues of an internet connected device.

Our opener has an option to either be locked when the power is out, or to be unlocked so the gate can be pushed open. IIRC it's set by dip switches. The old opener which died after ~20 years of service was locked when the power went out unless you stuck a "key" in it to unlock the clutch. The key was a length of rod with a roll pin at the right place so I made a bunch.