Choosing a shutter operator

The most common question about operators has an unhelpful answer: the best one is the one specified with the curtain. Here is what actually separates the four ranges we fit.

Asked which shutter operator is best, the honest answer is the one that was specified against the curtain it will lift. The motor is sized on weighed curtain mass, and the control box, limits and handset are set to that motor. A better motor on the wrong curtain is a worse door.

That said, the four ranges we fit are not interchangeable. Robust and Robust ECO are made in Vietnam across a wide spread of capacities, which is what makes them the default on a domestic opening. Kasankie DC and AC are imported from Japan and sit at the top of the range on refinement. BossRM is built in Taiwan on a German line and covers the widest capacity spread, from 300 kg to a 2,000 kg three-phase unit. YH, also from Taiwan, runs from 300 kg to 1,300 kg.

All four ship the same four parts — motor, two controls, two flanges, receiver — so the decision is not what is in the box. It is capacity, phase, and whether the door has to lift by hand when the power goes.

That last one is worth deciding early. A DC operator with hand lift needs no release mechanism found in the dark; an AC operator on a large curtain needs a battery back-up sized to the motor, which is a second unit and a place to put it.