Simtech Swing Gate Opener

Confusing at first, but came good in the end – After initial confusion about the kit inclusions, and the instructions not being absolutely clear for the lay person to follow, I managed to get the gate working well and as expected. For anyone wanting a no fuss, no bells-and-whistles solar gate, you can't beat this one on price.

Warranty is non existent! – I purchased the gates from myEutopia off of eBay and installed the gates quite easily and was working a treat for the first fortnight. Had a patch of bad weather and the circuit board some how managed to get fried. I contacted Europia which sent me links to purchase a new one. After several exchanges and informing them of the incident they said that unfortunately they will not fix the cboard because it was weather related even though it's still under warranty!!! Look elsewhere!

Hopeless instructions! – I purchased an Ahouse double solar swing gate opener from Mytopia store on Ebay and fitted it last week. Delivered quickly by Australia Post and mostly well packed- although several of the parts come packed inside the control box and could potentially have damaged the circuit board. The build quality is fair with the rams showing some scuff marks on the brushed stainless. Very unhappy with the Chinglish instructions but I managed to get it working. There is no "step-by-step" installation and I'm still not sure if the rams are mounted at the correct extension/contraction points. I was also unable to get it to automatically setup using the "self-learning" program. (I am a qualified avionics engineer.) I ended up manually programming the open and close using the clunky on-board switches. The programmer only allows the run times to be set. Not the actual end-stop points. I am using the system running only on the solar powered batteries successfully, so far. You will need extra wiring if either of the rams are mounted more than 90cm from the controller box and for the solar panel.

Ahouse Gate Openers ought to be good but the distributers and manufacturers are lacking – Purchased solar powered unit from DreamRiderOnline via Ebay in 2013. Quality of equipment seemed very good and inspired me to think that it ought to be a very good system. Fitting instructions were adequate but programing instructions were terrible. DreamRiderOnline very difficult to contact and immediately assumed I must have done something wrong. I hate been treated like that. Contacted A-House in Malaysia by e-mail, photos and video and they were extremely helpful but due to the very poor instructions it took a long time to get it going. But it kept reverting to the same problem where it would work flawlessly a dozen times then stop half way and only move in short bursts. Eventually we determined that the controller must be faulty. DreamRiderOnLine stalled me for a long time so I purchased one from China. Unfortunately the same problem re-occurred and then DreamRiderOnline came good with their replacement which also did not fix the problem. After many, many hours I worked out that the motor unit was intermittently being jammed by the piston seal where the piston slides in and out of it's outer tube. The controller was simply doing its job and sensing that the motor was straining and so stopping the motor. This would happen seemingly at random. I contacted A-house in China and they confirmed that this was a known problem and that they had recently improved the design. They advised me to remove the rubber o ring seals. Easier said than done but I did and in the process managed to break the shear pin between motor and worm screw. A-house offered to send me another pin at my cost but I made one out of a nail and re-assembled it. This is a big job. The motor unit and piston now worked very smoothly but with no seal it was destined to get dirt in it sooner or later. I pleaded for Ahouse to send me another motor unit for free but they declined. The gate then worked flawlessly for about 3 weeks until a friend assumed that the gate was not working still and forced the gate with a horse which completely wrecked it all and my patience finally cracked. I have spent a year or more with this gate. I now have 3 controllers and I now know the reason why the programming instructions are so lean. Its because it programs itself with just a few quick commands and its not necessary to go into all the fine detail unless you have a complicated situation. So it ought to work but the factory and DreamRiderOnline provide very poor customer service and I am at least $500 out of pocket. In hindsight I should have driven the unit to Queensland and thrown it through their window. A much better use of my time in hindsight.

So much promise – Ahouse swing gate openers are sold under many names, eg. Simtech, Ahouse and Gateguard. They have a great stainless steel ram and plastic enclosure. Unfortunately I bought two of these openers, one solar and one mains power. One of the units came with instructions that were missing so much info that it was impossible to set up the unit. I contacted both Australian vendors and they had no idea, I then contacted the manufacturer in China but their English did not extend to technical English. Setting up on battery and running on mains means that he gate runs very badly. The plastic enclosure warped on the sunny side and let in water and damaging the transformer, the seller OzAuctions on eBay or Crazy Sales on the web said hat the problem 'happened on my side' so was not covered. I don't have advice on what to buy instead but please be aware that he vendors don't know their product - the same seller sells women's stockings, and the product is a little bit all show and not all go. Great looking Poor instructions, no tech backup, very cheap materials on important components.