Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Our gate is exactly (okay.. +-10') 600' from our house (I measured it!) and our previous driveway alarm (Optex) would announce maybe 80-95% of the time, then it went on strike and only worked maybe 20% of the time.
Bought this product due to the stated operating range of 2500'. I generally discount manufacturer's stated claims by 50%, but even still, this should easily be within a reliable operating range of our place, and sure enough, this puppy works every time (almost every time - more on that later.) The sensitivity or range isn't impacted if it is on an inside wall or what its orientation is - I was really, really impressed with the range.
I was also really, really impressed with the situation that we have had -zero- false alarms. Our old Optex would go nuts when the wind was blowing (not a tree within 50' of the gate), or would alarm when our antelope got too close to the gate.
A very useful feature of this product is the ball mount of the IR sensor/transmitter which permits you to angle it to the best direction. In our case it is pointed away from the road and down, undoubtedly this is a major factor in the dearth of false alarms.
Mounting mechanics of the transmitter - the ball mount is not very robust and amazingly you cannot tighten the friction lock on the ball with the transmitter in position. (Wow - how inane can you get? The mechanical engineer (or Chinese factory) must have had a very bad day when this was designed.)
The receiver - the announcement musical serenade would sound very distorted if you turned the volume up very much, I suspect due to a very inadequate speaker and/or amplifier circuit. The Optex gets five stars for sound quality, this one gets two stars (out of five.)
Now for the bad:
The stated operating temperature range for the DCMT-2500 transmitter (the transmitter in the DCMA-2500 kit) is -30F to 120F. I can tell you for a fact ours did not work much below freezing. We have had this installed for maybe three weeks and have had ample opportunity to test it in weather from the 10-15 degree range to the low 70s. Above freezing (and maybe above 25 degrees? - we haven't established a low temp cut-off) the unit is extremely reliable and I'm extremely pleased. Below freezing - you have a useless appliance sucking up your energy ;-)
Oh, and the folks at Dakota Alert were nice enough to completely ignore the contact form I filled out asking about specifications for the product - you will NOT find them on their web site - guess it's a secret.
UPDATE 4/19/2011
Re false alarms: once in a while it *will* trigger on our ranch animals (we raise blackbuck antelope) that get in a little corner of the gate area. And of course it usually happens around two or three am when you are in REM sleep :-(
The system started working intermittently, and then completely stopped working. I called Dakota Alert (they were extremely friendly and helpful) and said to send it in and they will check it out. There goes ten bucks for shipping.
UPDATE: 5/13/2011
Dakota Alert replaced the transmitter, apparently the receiver was okay and it is working fine again.
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