After wrestling with a competitor's opener for months I decided to give Ghost a try. Did quite a bit of research and was not ready to spend $1,200.00 on an opener, at less than half of that I think this is a great purchase. I have only had it for a short while but it is quiet and the remotes seem to work from twice a far away. I wish it was a bit faster but not going to complain about that. Installation was a breeze, instructions were very clear and dead on step by step. Will update if needed but so far very happy with this decision.

The Ghost Controls gate operator is a nice piece of kit with plenty of options and "farkles" to add to it as needed or wow-factor dictates. The extra stuff I needed for my installation was the battery box, two batteries and two additional remotes. Because I was installing a "push to open" setup, I needed two pair of additional operator brackets.

The basic installation is fairly simple if your installation is covered by the instructions; mine required some modifications in connecting the openers to my gates. It is also critical you understand how the limit switches work, especially on a push open installation like mine. Running the conduit pipe under my 12 foot wide driveway was a big challenge (plenty of YouTube vids on using water power and a sledge to "drill" under the driveway). While the instructions indicate the cabling is rated "direct bury", I chose to encase it in some PVC conduit to help protect the cable from the errant shovel blade and the heavy clay soils I deal with. These openers are designed for "open" type fence gates; they are specifically *NOT* for use with solid panel gates. According to the instructions no more than 30% of the gate can be of solid material (like pickets). My openers are working cedar picket gates mounted on 6 x 6 wood posts ...which are the minimum recommended. You will need to drill four holes through the posts. For this I suggest you get a drill guide to allow some semblance of accurate drilling. You will also need a rather obscure sized drill bit, 13/32", at least 8" long, to drill the mounting holes through the post. You'll be back here on Amazon getting that drill bit. For some reason the installation hardware (bolts, washers, nuts) is all metric. You can download the installation guides from the Ghost Controls website ...I would strongly suggest you do this prior to ordering this or any gate kit from Ghost Controls; lots of good heads up info to be had.

If you plan to install a double gate system, you need to do some pre-planning to make sure the cable for the far side opener is sufficient to make the run under the driveway and connect to the control panel. Far side cable length will determine where you mount the control and battery boxes. In addition, the control and battery boxes need to be within 4 feet of the near side opener. The directions are very specific about not adding additional length to either of opener's factory cable length; stickers on the cables indicate the warranty will be voided if you add any additional cable to the factory cable. For my 12' wide driveway I had plenty of cable.

I opted for a solar panel/battery setup and used two, sealed, lead-acid batteries for power. For our use, we typically open the gate in the morning and leave it open during the day. At night, or if we leave the house, we close it. So the number of daily cycles is fairly low. The control box can be programmed with a delay so you can get through the gate and have it close automatically behind you. We have ours on full manual mode were you have to push the remote button to open and close the gate.

Speaking of remotes; they are simple 3-button units that can control up to two separate Ghost Control gates. The "deluxe" 5-button opener has the added feature of accessing the gate controller's "Party" mode. You can only access the "Party" mode using a deluxe opener. So what is "Party" mode? When engaged, it negates any automatic closure of the gate and also negates any other controller from closing the gate. The better and easier all the hordes of guests will have as they cruise through your open gates. In reality, you probably can live without it, especially if you don't have automatic gate closure set up.

Dinks on ratings for a non-response on the Tech Help line. Tried three times and got to speak with nobody. The remotes can be a booger to program ...mostly because the instruction sheet is crammed with all the variations of programming options and is difficult to follow. Installation can be challenging especially if you need to adapt to your particular gates. The closed position for push open installations is based on mounting the gate opener with the gates in the closed position. If you screw it up, you have to readjust the gate connection. There are adjustable electronic limit selections for full open positions.

I've had our system up and running for about a month now and everything works great. It took me the better part of a week to fully install the gate. The big deal was the under driveway conduit installation and the PVC conduit installation on the rest the buried cable. Toss in a couple of rain days and the installation took longer than anticipated. I will probably add a wireless key pad so the gate can operate without a remote ...at least in opening it. Overall the components seem well built and rugged for the task at hand; time will tell.

The media could not be loaded. First snd foremost, I am a novice at using power tools or being handy. So installing this system seemed like it was going to be tough for me. Secondly, note that I tried a few different gate openers prior to going with Ghost Controls and I wish I would had just spent the extra $100 on the first go around and had gone with Ghost Controls.

Installation

I watched the videos a few times then started mentally preparing for the install. Having tried installing two other gate opener systems I wasn't as nervous about ghost due to the installation videos and testimonials alone but I was prepared for a challenge.

I first mounted the controller box and battery box to my stone posts, followed by the solar panel. See attached image.

Once the boxes were installed I hooked up my batteries to the controller following the simple installation and the provided connection cable.

I then connected the first gate opener, closest to the control box, and began testing the open/close functionality setting the stopping angle.

Note - I fumbled around with figuring out the right placement for the mounts and actually had to move them due to the angle not giving the opener enough space to open fully. This was really the only tricky part of the install which was only tricky because my mind couldn't wrap my head around how it was supposed to laid out. However, after seeing my mistake it was easy to just readjust and redrill the stone post holes and refasten to my stone posts.

After the first opener was installed I followed the same process for the second opener drilling my holes, fastening the mount, then adding the opener. This took about 10 minutes.

I then marked and drilled the opener connector to the gate using the provided mount. A simple two hole per opener, one on each gate. I then fastened the mount to the gate. This took about 10 minutes.

I just left the second opener's long cable on the ground, to be buried later when I was doing cable management.

Once I had both openers installed on each gate, and their open/close positions set on the controller I then got to digging the trench for the second opener. I have 9' gates so a quick 20' trench using a pitch axe took a good 15 minutes due to the crushed concrete driveway.

After the trench was ready I then disconnected the openers from the control panel and fed them through 3/4 conduit. This took about 5 minutes total. Once you everything was fed through I buried my conduit and then drilled the holes in the stone for the pipe connectors. This took about 10 minutes.

Using a bit of liquid nails glue I dipped each screw in it and then fastened it to the stone sealing the hold and screw (see image).

That was it. The install took about a total of 4-5 hours total over a Saturday and Sunday but was extremely easy and sort of fun.

Instructions

The instructions are simple to follow and are probably the best written that I've seen for openers. I tried Mighty Mule and another opener system before going with Ghost. Ghost was soooo easy to install.

Speed

The open and close speed is pretty quick and takes about 25 seconds. See my video for an example. This was much faster than the Mighty Mule and other opener controller I tried. Note, the far side opener will open a few seconds after the short side opener does, and will close first before the short side closes. This is to stagger the open/close functioning and normal.

Options

I ordered the keypad and the touch garage openers which we will secure inside a lockbox to allow easy access for anyone needing to get in while we aren't home. They come in a few days and once everything is ready to go I'll update this review.

Overall

I highly recommend this system for anyone wanting an easy to install am opener whether for a home or property. It not only works amazing, it looks exactly what I wanted and it was extremely easy, even for a novice not-so-handyman like me.

Overall totally satisfied, remote transmitter was supposed to be synched with opener but it wasn't, threw me for a loop, spent a while trying to figure things out but once I manually synched remote to control board I was in the game, everything else proceeded exactly how they explained in the manual, it all works cherry now and I'm happy with end result

After a nightmarish $2000+ repair experience with a gate operator from another company (which came with the house's gate when I bought it four years ago), I was desperate to find a DIY solution. After reading the reviews I went with the "heavy duty" double operator (AC power) kit from Ghost. I'm glad I did.

It quickly became apparent to me that if you already have a tube gate with 6x6" wood posts, the installation is probably a breeze. In my case, I had 4x4 posts made from 1/4" thick steel, which was the single biggest complicating factor, and the reason I'd give this kit 4 stars instead of 5. Everything else about the kit is excellent. The instructions are reasonably clear, and available online before you buy: just Google "ghost controls installation guide" in case you want to look them up for a sanity check. Also, the tech support team spent probably over an hour on the phone with me BEFORE I bought the product so I could be sure to buy the right kit and accessories. This level of support was awesome.

Some tips if you buy this:
- The instructions and product page don't specify minimum gate width but they only list weight limits for gates 5' wide or larger. My gate panels are 49" wide each (exterior frame dimension) and the "heavy duty series" had no problem fitting - with probably 8" to spare. (This means it probably would've worked with a gate as narrow as 41".)
- If you are plugging the included transformer into an outdoor outlet, you need to know its size to ensure fit: it's 2" deep (excluding plug prongs) by 3.25" high by 2.25" wide, which does fit into a the big ole "TayMac 1 gang extra duty in-use outlet cover" (which is what I had and you can get on Amazon or a big box store).
- How to change the force setting is not mentioned in the instructions, though you will see "FORCE" and a turnable mini-knob on the control panel. When I got the unit, the factory setting was at about 75%, which was WAY too hard and knocked me right over when testing. (Keep in mind the operators are designed to work even if the gate weights like 1000 lbs, which may explain this.) Using the supplied micro-screwdriver, I set it to 0% which felt just about right for my gate, meaning at 0% it would probably not injure someone if they got trapped, but still would close the gate in strong wind.
- Their remotes are designed for range, not compactness. Fortunately, I've found that the keychain-size Xihada remotes on Amazon are compatible. I've now programmed four of the Xihadas to operate my Ghost gate, and I use them instead of the supplied remotes.
- If you have 4x4 rectangular steel posts like I did, there are lots of notes for you. First, plan to buy not just a big expensive cobalt bit and cutting oil to drill the posts, but an oversized cobalt bit (e.g. 1/2") to make a hole big enough for a ~1000 lb exterior rated anchor since you probably won't be able to drill through both sides of the steel. And buy said anchors themselves (e.g. Toggler snap toggles with 1/4" bolts). Also you'll need extra washers in case you must angle the pivot bracket from the post; its design allows very coarse 20 degree increments which may prevent you from being able to fully open or close the gate without mods. You will also want extra 1/8" tall 1/2" hole size nylon bushings since the ones they provide to mount the arms are just slightly too short which further exacerbates the angle problem. (Ghost - if you're reading this, let's get in touch and I'll describe these issues in detail to hopefully make future products more robust out of the box.)

Overall, very happy with the purchase and the installation experience. If I had to do it all over again, I would still choose Ghost.