Swing Gate Motors in Oman, supplied and installed

Swing gate motors in Oman

A swing gate opens on hinges, like a door. Automating one is a different problem from a sliding gate, because instead of pulling a leaf along a track you are pushing a heavy hinged panel through an arc, and doing it twice if the gate is a double.

Three types of operator do that job. Choosing between them is almost entirely decided by the pillar your gate hangs from, which is the part most people do not know to measure.

The three types

Linear rams

A long arm that extends to push the leaf open and retracts to pull it closed. The most common choice in Oman and usually the cheapest. Straightforward to fit to a gate that is already hanging, and easy to service because everything is visible.

They need a reasonable amount of clear space behind the hinge. On a narrow pillar there is room. On a wide one there is not.

Articulated arms

A jointed arm, with the motor bolted to the pillar and the elbow taking up the geometry. This is the answer when the pillar is deep, which in Oman it very often is, because a rendered block pillar 400 mm or more front to back leaves a linear ram nowhere to sit.

Slightly more expensive than a ram and worth every rial when the alternative is a gate that will not open fully.

Underground operators

The motor sits in a sealed box in the ground beneath the hinge. Nothing is visible except a lid, so the gate looks exactly as it did before it was automated. This is what heavy ornamental gates get, and it is what we fit on the coastal villas where exposed steel linkage would not survive the salt air.

More expensive, because the pits have to be excavated, waterproofed and drained. That last point matters more than anything else here. An underground box that fills with water in the one rain of the year destroys the operator inside it, and a great many are installed in Oman with no drainage at all.

Which one suits your gate

Measure the depth of your pillar, front to back, and tell us that along with the leaf width and what the gate is made of.

• Slim pillar, ordinary gate. A linear ram, and you have saved money for no compromise
• Deep or wide pillar. An articulated arm. A ram will either not fit or will limit how far the gate opens
• Heavy ornamental gate, or you want nothing visible. Underground, with a drained pit
• Very wide leaf, above about two and a half metres. Talk to us before buying anything. Long leaves put enormous leverage on hinges and pillars, and the operator is often not the limiting factor

What it costs

Supplied and fitted, a swing gate installation runs from OMR 250 to OMR 800. A pair of linear rams on a light double gate sits at the lower end. Underground operators reach the upper one, because the pit work is real labour before any equipment is fitted.

Full detail on our gate automation installation page.

Double leaf gates

Two leaves need two operators and a control board that sequences them, so that on closing the first leaf lands before the second arrives on top of it. Any board worth fitting does this. A cheap one does not, and you find out the first time the leaves clash.

An exposed double gate also usually wants an electric lock. Without one, wind and a determined shove can push the leaves apart even with the motors holding.

Wind, which nobody mentions

A solid sheet swing gate is a sail. A six metre double gate in solid steel presents twelve square metres to the wind, and during a shamal that load goes straight into the operators and the hinges.

This is the reason we ask what the gate is made of before we specify. An open bar gate of the same size behaves completely differently, and a motor sized for one is not sized for the other. If your gate is solid and exposed, expect us to recommend a class above what the width alone suggests.

Before you automate an existing swing gate

Push each leaf by hand through its full arc. It should move freely and stay where you leave it.

If a leaf drops at the far end, drags on the ground, or the hinges have worn oval, correct that first. Hanging a motor on a gate that does not swing freely means the operator does the work the hinges should be doing, and it will fail early. We check this at the survey and say so plainly.

Brands and delivery

CAME, BFT, Beninca, FAAC, Nice, Life and Roger, genuine and with the manufacturer warranty intact. Held at our shop in Al Khuwair, Muscat, delivered to all eleven governorates and installed anywhere in Oman.

Send us the leaf width, the pillar depth and a photograph of the gate, and we will tell you which type it needs and what it costs, at no charge.