Mighty Mule Automatic Gate Opener for Heavy Duty Dual Swing Gates for 18 Feet Long or 850 Pounds per Leaf (FM502)

do not waste any of your money on anything else. get this brand. Trust me. that other junk stressed me out! hand to send back with all of that stress. when you get this take the laptop to the gate , bring up youtube and watch, pause watch pause take your time get a beer, coffee, soda, take a break go play the dog a little. next thing you know you are done, and it works great noting worse than re doing instructions, or not being able to understand because you are in a hurry. I have a upscale kinda a house, man it looks great, I got this because we now have the grand kids a few days of the week, this along with the fence, they and the dong are in LOCK DOWN! and it looks like (the housewife show) YEA hit the remote...open gate, I feel rich! no stress , take your time , it feels so good when it comes together- ps I did have one q about a push button I added, she answered the phone, I told her my issue she said< 'honey it will not work if you are using a lighted door bell" I thought that was funny,in a good way... but correct. Got one no light, bada bing bada boom , taking out the trash? push the button!

Reviews of the GTO and Mighty Mule (MM) Do-It-Yourself (DITY) gates kits are mixed and many folks sustaining lightning strikes are unhappy with GTO/MM warranty coverage of their failed main boards or controller arm circuit boards. Other have has issues with the long term durability of swing gate operator mechanisms. We have had a GTO SL3000 12-volt DC solar slide gate operator in service for ~12 years with few problems other than an out-of-warranty failed main controller board at the 5 year point. Our most recent acquisition and installation was a solar powered Mighty Mule FM502 Heavy Duty Dual Swing gate system purchased via from Amazon. Between the two we prefer the sliding gate design and operator function to that of the relatively slow swing gates operation for both security and strength, but both suffice to control access to your property which is the main point of automatic gates. The installation of the FM502 is straight forward the the operators have worked well in light use. The GTO SL3000 unit s a much heavier duty unit but is for slide (rolling) gates. Some folks have complained the MM FM series swing openers are noisy in operation and we can only assume that complaint relates to the alarm beep option when the gates are either opening or closing. This in-operation alarm can be turned off with an on-board dip switch setting change. Factory default is for alarm sound during operation. The gates otherwise just have a mechanical gear noise that is not obtrusive and is basically a "background" type noise only when in operation. .

i have a heavy duty gate, probably weighs well over 600 pounds each and it opens like a champ. Add another battery to make it open and close faster. One battery won't cut it. Buy the extra as it holds 2 inside the case. Also buy solar option, it hooks up easily to the computer panel. This is my 2nd buy for another house. My 1st one was bought 10 years ago and still works like a champ. You just have to becareful to make sure the cotter pins don't fall off or else the arm and fall down and crack the metal because when the sun beats down on it year after year, all it takes is a stump to crack it. I welded it back and works like a champ.

The FM500/502 series opener supposed to be more heavy-duty than the other Mighty Mule openers. That's the reason why I purchased this one instead of the other opener units from the local home improvement store. The only thing better would be if it had an option of an extended warranty. This unit comes complete with all of the hardware needed to do a proper installation. You should read the instructions fully, as well as watch the install videos on the included DVD. ***March 29, 2016 Update*** The unit is starting to fail more often. What is happening is, the Electronic Gate Lock does not unlock before the gate opens, thus causing the gate to stall. Here is the catch, when using the keypad or the pushbutton (in the house, which both of these are hard wired), the gate always opens properly. It's something to do with the control board and the RF remotes that causes the control board to not unlock the electronic gate lock prior to opening. But it doesn't happen all the time, maybe once every 5 times. I am clearly out of the warranty period. I will contact GTO and see if a control board replacement is worth purchasing, or just buying a whole new kit. ****Update April 18, 2017 Control board no longer works. The second gate was opening very slowly. Then the unit would not open or close anymore. Went to troubleshoot it and noticed that whenever you try to open or close the gates, the control board will beep code 4 every time. This is for the Shadow input. There is nothing connected to the Shadow input.

I bought the model 502 some 12 months ago. I never managed to make it work. It may work a day or two but then start the problems: the beeper does not stop to beep; at any time, day and night (the neighbors love it!); means: the device is out of control and will neither open nor close; just beep. The whole is a complete misconception; the electronic part is fully out of control and will constantly signal whatever problem and/or simply not work. Sure is: you will open your door manually 4 out of 5 days! The charger that comes delivered is actually a transformer without any function. I also bought the 5 W solar panel: forget about; it will charge the battery on an extremely sunny day up to one cycle; from then on, you open your gate by hand (I live near the equator) for the next 24 hours. If you like to sit in your car and to realize that you have to leave it in order to open your gate: Buy the FM502; it'll keep you fit! A complete waste of money and time for a perfect dissatisfyer.

This is my second set of openers from GTO. The first ones lasted nearly 9 years without any problem but then just quit one day and would not open. After an hour of diagnostic testing while on the phone with GTO in Florida it was determined that the circuit board was no longer working correctly. I decided to buy a new set from Amazon.ca which were identical to my first set other than the name had changed to Mighty Mule. I felt that this way I would have some spare parts if ever needed. I installed the new set with all the same brackets etc. and everything is working well. No more opening gates in bad weather. I am going to send my old circuit board to GTO in Fla. to have it analyzed and repaired so my old set will work again and I may install it on another gate. The delivery was faster than expected and everything went smoothly. I hope I get another 9 years out of these openers.

Seems well made and installation instruction (DVD and manual) cover the obvious information but could be more helpful when non standard situation occurs ie when retrofitting to older gates.

The system was easy to install and to my amazement, I did it all. Works like a charm. I feel like a rich guy now, to be able to open our gates with a push of a button.

Have been using these openers for several years on our gates and overall they have worked fairly well. Unfortunately, winds of over 120kms damaged one of the openers (certainly not the fault of the opener) and when I tried to get a replacement through the manufacturer (based in Florida) I ran into all kinds of problems. They have no warranty/service centers in Canada and they have no serious interest in providing any kind of service to Canadian customers. The cost they quoted me over the phone for a replacement arm (including expected shipping costs) was nearly as much as what this complete package cost! In addition, they wouldn't even give me a shipment date, other than to say they found doing export shipments to be waste of time and they would try to get around to the order once they had some spare time. Please note - the service and delivery of this replacement package from Amazon was excellent. It was promptly shipped and I received the item well within the expected delivery timeframe. One thing to be aware of in using these openers is that the manufacturer is still very much behind the times in not supporting HomeLink and they do not seem interested in updating their product.

Stop working after 2 month of use Waste of money