Berner GA101 Battery Solar Garage Door Opener Review Practical testing

Practical testing …

We have explained exactly how to install it extensively step by step in several instructions and videos in our Funkyhome YouTube Channel.

Overall, everything is actually well thought out and it would be relatively easy to install even for non-specialist craftsmen. Only the instructions should be revised in our opinion again something, because it is quite cumbersome to pick out the appropriate images on other sites to the texts. But this is certainly a matter of habit and unimportant for the professionals who perform installations on a daily basis. But they certainly don’t look at the manual anymore anyway. In this respect, we think it would make more sense to revise the structure and write the texts for the images for each installation step. Then important notes on the respective work step would also stand out much better.

The workmanship of all components made a very good impression, only the transitions of the guide rail could be solved a bit better. Since these are important transitions where the carriage moves back and forth and thus require precision, reworking with a rubber mallet is rather suboptimal, although it is effective.

The end position switch-off is provided with a force limiter, so it is not done via pushbuttons, but wear-free self-learning and is also secured via a maximum runtime. The garage door survived our test with an obstacle when driving up and an obstacle when driving down without any problems, because it stops immediately and moves away from the obstacle.

We are also very satisfied with the Berner GA101 Battery Solar Garage Door Opener in daily use and have not managed to completely drain the battery unit even with dozens of trips. According to Berner, with the battery unit intact and fully charged, and ambient temperatures of about 20 °C, the battery lasts for about 40 days at 4 driving cycles per day, for a total of 160 times opening and 160 times closing, and that’s even with the 10W bulb originally installed! In combination with the solar panel, we will certainly not succeed in completely draining the battery unit either, because the PV element is powerful enough to continuously recharge the battery even in the winter time.

The application lacks a few small features in terms of technology, but some of them can be retrofitted with common components. A smart home integration including control and feedback on the door position is certainly possible, as is a conversion to LED lighting. We only missed a separately controllable raising and lowering in practice. Even though the pulse sequence control will certainly suffice for most users, it would make sense if the garage door opener control unit stored the signals of the remote controls and not vice versa.

Berner GA101 Battery Solar Garage Door Opener Result and general impression …

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