Gate openers afford many conveniences including alleviating the need to get out of your car and open the gate yourself while navigating your property.

These types of gates and gat attachments are particularly helpful when it rains, or when a farmer is injured, elderly, or disabled.

Farm life requires a lot of heavy lifting, manual labor hours spent in the hot sun, but it can be a sort of therapy for many.

As a child, I spent many hours picking fruits and vegetables and caring for animals. As a teenager, there was no better way to overcome heartbreak than to spend time getting my hands dirty in the field. Remaining in touch with nature is extra difficult in our modern “everything’s done for you” culture.

Children prefer artificial sugar and junk food, to the products that come straight from nature. Very few desire to become farmers, but there’s no denying that farming is incredibly important to our great nation’s survival.

The aging farm community is finding it increasingly hard to navigate such vast terrain, but a little technology can go a long way in keeping up an active lifestyle when you age.

In a farm setting, there are a few key tools that help to increase productivity. One of those is an automatic gate attachment, here’s why:

Solar Gate Opener vs. Bump Gate Opener

These gate attachments ensure that you can better control the movement of livestock and regulate feeding patterns. They prevent you from the exhaustion of manually opening and closing your gate, as to decrease the energy spent doing necessary but unproductive tasks.

While the importance of gate openers are evident, what might not be as clear is which gate opener is the better choice.

That’s why we’ll be looking at two popular varieties as we seek to establish the best gate opener for you. Here goes:

The Pros of using a Solar Gate Opener

1) It can be automated

Automatic gates often require the use of proximity sensors. That means a constant power source is necessary to fuel the accompanying circuitry and the sensors themselves. A solar gate opener provides a free, and eco-friendly system to enable automation. This means they’ll work, rain or shine, and they won’t require much human interference once installed. This makes them a reliable alternative.

2) Energy-saving benefits

Compared to electrically-driven alternatives, solar-powered openers are a joy as they save you a great deal of electricity and thereby money.

However, these often need to be complemented by an electric source to make up for insufficient power during unfavorable weather. In other words, during the rainy season, countless dreary days will render these types of gate openers useless.

Cons of the Solar Gate Opener

1) Limited lifespan

Solar gate openers run on solar-charged batteries. Like all batteries, these typically have a limited lifespan before they require replacement.

This means they’re not an end-all solution and will require upkeep inevitably.

These replacement batteries will require you to spend money on maintenance, which can add up over time. This would not be the case if you get a long-term fix, such as a bump gate opener. 

2) Weather damage

Hailstones and heavy rain can damage even the most protected solar power gate opener.

Like solar paneling, this is a rather sensitive technology. It works best in predictable and consitent climates, such as southern California.

You might have trouble with these in the Midwest, and other states where it rains more frequently.

On the other hand, a bump gate opener is as robust as they come. You won’t need to worry about the system every time the weather starts to act up. 

Cons of using a Bump Gate: The Shortcomings

1) It’s not automated 

Sure the gate doesn’t open by itself, but that causes you no inconveniences whatsoever.

Especially, if you’re driving around heavy farm equipment that has an adequate bumper.

You’ll not need to get out of your car to open the gate; you’ll only need to give it a gentle “bump” and then drive through. 

2) It’s not “cool”

We’ve gotta admit, bump gate attachments provide an old-school, tech-free solution to modern farmers.

If you’re worried about the aesthetics of your property, then a Bump Gate attachment is not for you.

When your desire is to make your gate to look instagrammable, a solar kit might be better suited for the cause. If you’re seeking reliability and utility, this is a pain-free solution. With zero upkeep or maintenance expenses, this is a viable solution that will work no matter the weather conditions.

Pros of using Bump Gates: Why a Bump Gate Proves Appealing for Most

1) It’s an all-weather solution

A solar gate opener is no doubt as effective and ecologically sound as the bump alternative.

However, its power source is at the mercy of the elements.

A powered gate opener can fail you in the middle of a tornado.

It can also fail you when your wife is in labor and you’re rushing to get to the hospital.

In a less dramatic sense, it could fail you at night if it didn’t get enough of a charge during the day. This may require your teenage daughter to exit her vehicle at night and manually open the gate. This is a situation a father never wants his daughter stuck in. Not because we think something is going to happen, but it’s a completely preventable situation altogether.

On a day domineered by cloudy weather, the system might not be able to sustain frequent use. This makes the mechanical, non-electric alternative more reliable by far.

Worse yet, a solar opener may not even be a feasible solution if you live in a colder climate. An area like Seattle, where there are more cloudy than sunny days, won’t go over well with a solar kit. This is something you’ll not need to worry about with a bump gate – this alternative is always up and running, no matter the time of day or the weather. 

2) Little to no maintenance costs

Even the simplest of solar systems, such as a gate opener, are prone to circuitry failures. This is a consequence of technology and is perfectly normal.

Just like every batch of new smartphones will have a few glitchy ones, every batch of solar openers will have a few glitchy ones.  

To resolve this, however, you would need to call a professional to guide you through the repairs, and potentially come out to your property to fix it.

Depending on the company, and the situation at hand, this may not be a service offered by the manufacturer. A bump gate has no such trouble, and in the rare event that repair is necessary, you’ll have a 1-year warranty for all the parts. Further, the parts are much easier to replace and the replacements themselves are much cheaper. Purchasing an entirely new kit could be cheaper than fixing a bad solar kit.

Final verdict

There’s nothing a solar gate opener can do that the bump gate opener can’t, except run on solar power.

This benefits of using a bump gate well outweigh the annoyances that come along with a solar gate.

This makes the bump gate opener the better choice. It comes with zero operational costs, it doesn’t depend on an unpredictable power source and installation is DIY.

Why get a drastically expensive solution when you can find an affordable solution that comes without all the headaches?