I've had to replace my Beninca BOB50ME gate opener after 6 years of use and not cheap at £342.40, but looking at the controller stats it has opened and closed 28,495 times or 11 times a day in that six years Not bad until you work out that it's about 1.2 pence per open/close cycle on the one component. Opening it up all the gears are pretty badly worn as is the operating screw/nut. By the design it's impossible to grease the gears without total dismantling but the screw/nut can be greased externally.
(BTW this is the main gate to a small farm)
Anyone else got any stats on the life of their opener?
I wonder how much cheaper it could have been if it had only managed the 13 months it seems many things are designed to these days?
We know things are often 'price engineered' these days. The competition sell something for £100, you want to sell similar but make more profit from it so they cut everything down to the minimum. It then fails at 9 months, they send you a bit to fix it and it makes it though to 12 months and then it's over to you. ;-(
But this seems to suit the style of many consumers these days who have got bored with or want the latest version of <whatever> and so want the things to be as consumable (lowest price) as possible.
But I guess it's a doubled edged sword. If the likes of Beninca make something that lasts well (but costs more) they have to hope their products longevity is known and (enough) people (want / choose to) make the decision to pay the premium, or they go out of business. ;-(
At least they were able to sell me the parts to fix the worn out one - double helix screw and nut and the gear cluster for £142, so I will have a working spare on the shelf for next time !
Mind you, I cocked up typing the price in the original post, the replacement Bob50ME was£384.40 not £342.0 as I had typed.
In fairness it's all pretty well made and thought out, and I'd choose the same system again if I were doing another gate.
When my Dad was fitting out his workshop in the late 70s, early 80s, he bought a Colchester Lathe (from Arthur Daleys brother, it seemed).
It weighed a ton - literally, and had a plate saying it was made sometime in the 1930s. Apart from some play in the saddle/bed adjustments (it would never make threads again ...) it was in full working order - just needed a motor.
It's *still* in use. so nearly 100 years old.
That's one lathe sale someone, somewhere lost out on.
Ditto the 3 tonne hydraulic press. *Massively* over engineered.
I think most of us would have taken the ball park figure.
And that's the thing isn't it, some of the stuff out there (and possibly more of the 'older stuff out there') is / was well made *and* made to be serviced / repaired. Things were anyone with a bit of engineering nouse would open it up, take it to bits and smile, considering it both well built and well designed. It's when we (ordinary / d-i-y folk) look at something and say 'why t.f. did they make it like / with / of that' (even if we know in some cases it was
*only* to save a few pence). ;-(
And that's good to hear and probably what Beninca were hoping for when they produced it.
OOI, is there much choice of supplier in that field and if so, how do they compare pricewise do you know?
Can't help directly, but wear of high-duty screw jacks and their gears happens to be one of my specialities over the past forty years.
The preferred material combination is a bronze nut on some sort of hardened steel screw. In my opinion these should always be lubricated with a molybdenum disulphide grease, preferably containing a significant proportion of "moly", ideally 5 to 10%. I used to recommend things like Rocol MTS 1000, Rocol MTLM, Rocol Sapphire Hi Pressure. Irritatingly, they keep revising their product range. Castrol Impervia MDX was another good one, now I think no longer available.
In a review earlier this year some current candidate lubes are Petro Canada Precision XL 5, Castrol Molub Alloy 936 SF Heavy, Shell Gadus S2 V220AC 2.
So, if you are renewing parts or replacing I would strongly recommend using one of these lubricants. They are all mineral oil based and I would *expect* them to be compatible with existing lubricants (you do sometimes get dire warnings about not using the recommended lubricant).
It's not always easy to differentiate between graphited and moly greases from the appearance. But if a grease is the normal beige colour (or red, blue, or green) it *won't* be a moly grease.
Not on an opener but some other things do irritate me, like the cheaper end of electric lawn mowers, had a neighbour who was happy that he got 4 years life out of his, a quick calculation based on the size of his lawn and that he only mowed every couple of weeks he had about 36 hours of use before it failed.
One item I do appreciate is the Kirby vacuum, solid engineering (I think) and built to last and a dream to work on with spares readily available on ebay, there are many 30 or 40 years old still running from original. Although I would never pay full price for a new one.
About 2011 I bought a Honda Izzy mowerfor quite a lot of money. It's still going and, with occasional fettling, does a good job. It did struggle on the grass next door - it's sports-groung grass that grows rapidly and thickly. New neighbour bout a £60 - 70 Macallister electric job; I though 'good luck with that', as the length of grass would have needed at least two cuts with the Honda Bloody toy whizzed through it! Pissed off? me?
Apparently the spares are available for even the oldest ones. I hope tha my new Miele last as well - I'm liking it cleaning well on the ~700W setting - apart from it being reluctant to let go of the carpet!
I have a tiny Flymo, it only cuts 10" wide, but its been doing it for at least 10 years. It has plastic blades and I am still on the ones that came fitted, the spares are in the shed somewhere.
I used to cut the lawn twice a week in summer until last year, now my neighbour does it most of the time. He has replaced his bigger mower a couple of times in the last five years or so.
You just can't predict how long stuff will last these days.
I cannot help but feel though that with just a bit more engineering it could have lasted almost forever. I guess that would not suit them though would it? I used to work where they had one of those lift and lower barriers. It was motor driven, and every few years it either got stuck or fell down on somebodys car. It looked pretty substantial but apparently the breaking was some kind of reversible ratchet and this tended to fail putting strain on the gears until a tooth or two broke off, and then it fell or got jammed. Brian
But that would be 28,495 times I'd have to get out of the Land Rover and climb back in twice, and probably 27K of those times it would have been raining !!!
Few cars can change facial expression so even if they were sad or frustrated we would never know?
Also, why would they need to go though them, unless they were driverless Pizza Delivery cars, needed because we had sent all the foreigners 'back home'?
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