Mighty Mule Gate Opener, Solar and Smart Ready, Heavy Duty Automatic Gate Opener, Gates up to 18ft or 850lb, Single Gate Opener, MM571W

Some 15 years ago I fitted my marine environment gates with MM 502 dual heavy duty openers. These lasted for over 10 years. The only recurring problem was replacing the rev counter boards inside the openers as these had a tendency to getting corroded and shorted out after heavy rains. This happened every 5 years or so. See photo on right.The MM502’s died during the pandemic. Mighty mule had came out with the MM562 replacement product. The arms in this installation were very noisy on day one and they lasted less than 3 years (see photo of red circuit board) as the opener housing leaked and flooded inside and the rev counter kept failing. So I replaced it last week with the MM 572 being reviewed here.The primary opener arm of the MM572 failed after half an hour of operation. It somehow unscrewed and detached itself from the driver motor. The techs at the factory in Carlsbad California replaced the opener using a "virtual exchange". The new one was shipped UPS from the warehouse near Memphis and arrived the second business day despite storms and Mardi Grass. Great customer service.The opener now works great and it opens and closes a lot faster than the previous versions. Also the closing position seems to be more precise.Some general observations about this upgrade product as follows:The primary arm is shipped with a cable that is about a foot shorter than previous versions. You may have to move your boxes. See photo 2.The arms no longer have the troublesome rev counters inside. This is good news. However the control cables have eliminated the brown and blue wires. This means your old arms cannot be used with this control board. Antenna wire connections have been eliminated. You now just screw in a little antenna provided to the outside of the control box.In addition to the elimination of the rev counter, the overall design is much better than the legacy version. Apparently Mighty Mule has been acquired by a large Italian conglomerate and they are investing more money in product mechanical design and electronics. Fewer cables means fewer connections.Old remotes have more range. Receiver seems to be more sensitive. Will write a follow up review after the rainy season.

Tech support has been pretty good, but I have some concerns. My gate arm stopped working and made a grinding noise inside. I’m not happy that they require a video call to assess the issue because my installation went smoothly, but it's on a panel gate, which they said would void the warranty. Once they realized it was a panel gate, it felt like they gave up on helping me.The gate is located between two houses and down a hill; it does get some wind, but not as much as in an open field. Since they seemed to be done with my case, I decided to take the gate apart. I discovered that the nut on the end of the screw shaft had come off, which appears to be a workmanship issue. Just a heads-up: if the outer shaft that connects to the gate slides out and takes the inner shaft with it, the nut has come off. It's an easy fix.The only reason I gave them two stars is that they abandoned customers over what seems like a simple fix, which points to a lack of quality control. This is my third arm for two different gates since around 2010.

Bought this when my old one died. Had to have man install and program it with lock.Works great most of time. Have trouble at times opening and closing with cars so use call box or button I put in to close it.That's the only problem.

I'm updating this review on January 2021, one year from my original purchase. My rating of this item went from 5 stars, to 1 star, and now is at 4 stars. Originally, I was very pleased with the functioning of this gate opener. Nine months later, The opener stopped working. Mighty Mule instructed me in testing the circuit board and concluded that the circuit board was not operative and needed to be returned.I was sent a return authorization form. After mailing back the circuit board I heard nothing, and had to call them which entailed being on hold for a long time and getting transferred. But, Mighty Mule ended up being willing to send me a replacement board. The problem was that the board was not available and might not be for 4 months.After 2 months, and one more call to them, Mighty Mule bent over backwards to ensure that I received the parts I needed (& even some I didn't need.) So, while the gate opener is now working fine, and I love it, I'm subtracting one star for the very disorganized process of customer service, including: long hold times, Emails being sent which can't be responded to, and confusing forms with wrong contact information. But, because, in all likelihood, Covid affected their supply chain and they really tried to provide what I needed I am again a satisfied customer. Here's my original review written in February 2020.I installed this 6 weeks ago. This is a brand new model, so there are very few reviews. I wanted a heavy duty opener, because I've seen a number of inoperable light duty openers hanging uselessly on neighbor's gates. I've been very happy with it. Having electricity at my gate already, this was perfect because it isn't bundled with a solar panel, and has a small 12 volt battery supplied. (There is room in the control box to add a second small 12 volt battery.) Customer support is ok, but, I believe the support person is reading from a script. The support for the separately purchased remote controls was excellent. I bought two key panels (FM 137) and 2 extra remote buttons (FM 135). Because the remote buttons (FM 135) are older technology with switches, and Mighty Mule doesn't explain the details in their manuals, I needed guidance. The technical support guided me through programming the buttons so that the gate can't be opened by just anyone with a mighty mule remote. I will try to remember to revisit this review in a year and update if it is still working perfectly. But, at this point, it is 100% reliable.