I was disappointed when I finally installed an automatic gate controller on the compound’s main gate. I hadn’t thought through that the gate would have too much play to keep Luna the Big Dog™ safe inside. A person — or a Big Dog — can easily push the gate open far enough to squeeze through.
I investigated automatic latches for the gate. The official latch that matched the gate actuator I had installed by Ghost Controls was by far the most expensive: about three times the price of the third-party solutions. I struggled with that. It feels abusive when companies price add-ons far above the market and rely on FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) about compatibility to drive folks to the official option.
At the end of the day, I let the FUD win. I’ve been working on the gate a while now, and I wanted something that would go in quickly that wouldn’t require more hacking to get to work right. The Ghost product also has a feature the others lack: a sensor so that the gate motor won’t start until the latch is actually retracted, which should save some wear and tear on the motor. I should also point out that the Ghost opener seemed to be well built and the instructions were very good, so I didn’t worry about giving the company more of my money — though I won’t be getting the $120 plastic box for the battery.
Ghost calls their latch the ZombieLock. We can rest easy, now, knowing that our gate will be secure against the shambling hordes after the zombie apocalypse.
—2p
addendum 2025-05-17
I should talk about another feature that (at least partially) mitigates the higher price of the ZombieLock. The third-party locks all seem to rely on a strike-plate mechanism: when the gate closes, the lock striking the latch on the gate physically pushes the locking bolt out of the way. I’ve often found such mechanisms to be finicky, and I could see them failing when rust, changes in gate alignment, dirt, wind, or age change the dynamics. That can both prevent the gate from latching when it closes or (because of load againt the bolt) prevent the bolt from opening when you’re trying to open the gate. The ZombieLock activly retracts the lock bolt as the gate approaches the closed position. I think that will be much more reliable in the long term.