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Ghost Controls Gate Motor & Opener in West Hollywood: What to Know First
We repair and install Ghost Controls gate motors and openers throughout West Hollywood, and most jobs are done in a single visit. You’ll get an upfront price before we touch a wire, and every repair carries our 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. Call (323) 677-4063 and a live person answers, day or night.
This page is for West Hollywood homeowners who already own a Ghost Controls opener, or who are trying to decide whether to repair the one they have. If your gate is acting up, doing nothing, or making a sound it never made before, you’re in the right place. Hal Gatewood has been fixing gates in the hillside neighborhoods around Laurel Canyon and the flats below Santa Monica Boulevard since 2001, and Ghost Controls is one of the brands he sees most often.
How Ghost Controls Products Fail - and How We Fix Them
Ghost Controls builds a solid opener for the money. The brand has a reputation for doing the basics well at a price that doesn’t make you wince. But every brand has its patterns, and after two decades of opening Ghost Controls boxes and fixing what’s inside them, here’s what we actually find in West Hollywood driveways:
- AXDP and AXD series: the control board that forgets its limits. The most common Ghost Controls symptom we hear is a gate that starts closing, then reverses for no reason, or stops halfway and sits there. Nine times out of ten it’s not the motor. It’s the limit setting on the control board losing its memory, often after a power bump. We reprogram the limits, check the transformer output for voltage sag, and the gate cycles clean again. Some companies will sell you a new board before they try the free fix.
- The TSS1 and TSS1XP solar models: cloudy-weeks and weak batteries. A lot of West Hollywood homes up in the hills use the solar Ghost Controls kits where running conduit would cost a fortune. The known weak point is the battery. After two or three years, it doesn’t hold enough to swing a heavy gate in winter when the marine layer sits over the canyon. We test the panel output and the battery under load, not just with a voltmeter, and we replace with a quality deep-cycle battery rather than the cheapest thing on the shelf. It makes a difference.
- Heavy gates killing the GTO-era armature. If your gate is a big solid panel welded from plate steel, and someone hung a Ghost Controls opener that was rated for half that weight, the motor armature burns out. We see this more than we should. The fix is either reinforcing the hinge side so the gate moves easier, or sizing the opener to the gate. Bolting another identical motor on is repeating the mistake.
- The receiver that won’t wake up after a storm. Ghost Controls remotes use the same 318 MHz frequency on most older models, and in a dense neighborhood like the flats near Fairfax and Fountain, interference from neighboring openers is a real thing. If your remote worked yesterday and doesn’t today, it’s rarely the remote. We re-learn the receiver, and if the board’s antenna has cracked off at the solder joint, we repair it in place. You don’t need to throw the opener away over a broken antenna.
- Connections that corrode in the canyon fog. West Hollywood isn’t on the coast, but the hills above Sunset still get damp mornings that eat unsealed wire nuts. Older Ghost Controls installations with wire nuts wrapped in tape fail intermittently and test fine when they’re dry. We crimp, heat-shrink, and seal every connection. A gate that works only when it’s sunny isn’t a ghost. It’s water.
Our Ghost Controls Gate Motor & Opener Process
When you call us about a Ghost Controls opener, here’s what happens from start to finish:
- 1
You talk to a person, not a recording. We answer 24 hours a day. You tell us what the gate is doing wrong. We tell you roughly what it usually is, and we schedule a window we actually keep.
- 2
We show up and test, not guess. We check the power supply, the transformer output, the control board, the motor current draw, and the mechanical load of the gate itself. A Ghost Controls problem can be electrical, mechanical, or somewhere in between. We find out before we quote.
- 3
You get a price before work starts. Written, upfront, no surprises at the door. If the repair is over $200, you get $40 off automatically. No haggling required.
- 4
We fix it in your driveway. On-site welding if the bracket or hinge is the culprit. OEM Ghost Controls parts when the warranty matters, quality aftermarket parts when it doesn’t. We tell you which is which and why.
- 5
We test it the way you’ll use it. The gate cycles a half-dozen times in a row, with the obstruction sensor blocked and unblocked. We test the remote from inside your car, not standing next to the receiver.
- 6
You get the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If it’s not done right, one call brings us back. No runaround, no fine print.
What Ghost Controls Gate Motor & Opener Costs in West Hollywood
Most Ghost Controls repairs in West Hollywood fall between $180 and $450, depending on what actually failed. Here’s the honest breakdown:
- Limit reset and reprogramming: $120-$180. This is the fix for the gate that reverses or stops halfway.
- Receiver repair or re-learn with new remote: $140-$220. We can usually avoid replacing the whole board.
- Battery replacement on solar models (TSS1, TSS1XP): $90-$190 installed, depending on the battery spec.
- Control board replacement: $280-$450 with a quality OEM or equivalent board, programmed and tested.
- Full new Ghost Controls opener installation: $850-$1,600, depending on gate weight, solar vs. wired power, and whether we need to weld new mounting plates.
What moves the price is the gate itself. A heavy gate that needs hinge work or reinforcement costs more because the labor and steel add up. Every job is quoted before we start, and estimates are free. Call (323) 677-4063 and we’ll give you a real number.
Why West Hollywood Homeowners Call Gatewood Fence & Gate for Ghost Controls Work
We’ve been at this since 2001, and Hal Gatewood’s name is on the shop and on every invoice. That’s the oldest accountability there is. We don’t replace what we can repair, we weld on site so your gate never leaves your driveway, and we show up when we say we will. If a Ghost Controls opener is beyond saving, we’ll tell you straight - and we also service LiftMaster, Mighty Mule, and DoorKing if you ever switch brands. The 90-Day Done Right Promise is stamped in writing on every job.
FAQs
We’re an independent Ghost Controls service provider, not an authorized factory service center, so warranty claims go through Ghost Controls themselves. But we can diagnose the exact failure for you in writing, which often speeds up the warranty process. After the warranty period, we’re the ones who actually fix it.
We answer live 24 hours a day, and most Ghost Controls repair calls in West Hollywood get a same-week appointment. If your gate is stuck shut and you can’t get your car out, we treat that as a priority call. Call (323) 677-4063 and we’ll give you a straight answer on timing.
If the motor armature is burned out and the gate is too heavy for the opener you have, replacing with the right size is the honest answer. If it’s a board, a battery, or a receiver problem, repair usually beats replacement. We’ll tell you which one you have and why.
OEM Ghost Controls boards and remotes ship quickly from suppliers, usually two to three days. We stock common batteries and hardware so we can often finish the job in one visit. Aftermarket parts are also available for older GTO-era models, and we’ll explain the trade-off before we use one.
Yes. We integrate Ghost Controls openers with telephone entry systems, intercoms, and vehicle loop detectors regularly in West Hollywood multi-unit properties. The wiring is straightforward if you know the relay configuration, and we do.
Tell me what it’s doing wrong and I’ll tell you what it actually needs - give me your number and I’ll call you back myself. That’s not a slogan. That’s how we’ve run this shop since 2001, and it’s why West Hollywood keeps calling.
Written by Hal Gatewood, Owner, Gatewood Fence & Gate at Gatewood Fence & Gate, serving West Hollywood and nearby areas.





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