LiftMaster Swing Gate Operators & Openers
LiftMaster Commercial & Industrial Swing Gate Operators
A pad-mount swing gate operator sits on a concrete pad beside the gate post and drives the leaf through a gear reducer and swing arm. It is the heavy end of gate automation — built for industrial sites, commercial entrances, large gated communities and high-cycle residential estates, where a linear actuator would be working past its duty rating. LiftMaster builds two families: the CSW24UL, a 24 VDC continuous-duty operator with battery backup, and the CSW200UL, an AC operator available in 1/2 HP and 1 HP.
Pad mount or arm type? A pad-mount operator carries more weight, runs more cycles per day, and keeps running through a power cut on batteries. An arm operator mounts on the post, costs considerably less, and suits a normal residential driveway gate.
Lighter gate, ordinary traffic? See LiftMaster swing gate arms — LA400, LA412 and LA500.
Which CSW model do I need?
| Model | Power | Max rating | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| CSW24UL | 115/230 VAC in, 24 VDC operation. Battery backup standard, solar-capable to 60 W. | 18 ft or 1,600 lb — see the table below, they are not simultaneous | The default commercial choice. Continuous duty, opens 90° in about 13–15 seconds, and keeps working through an outage. Choose this unless you need the 1 HP capacity or already have three-phase on site. |
| CSW200UL — 1/2 HP | AC | 18 ft or 1,600 lb | High-traffic AC installations where battery backup is not required. |
| CSW200UL — 1 HP | AC | 22 ft or 2,000 lb | The largest swing leaves LiftMaster rates — long industrial gates and heavy fabricated leaves. |
Gate weight by gate length
This is the specification most often quoted wrongly, including by people who sell these operators. The weight rating and the length rating are not independent. A longer leaf puts more leverage on the swing arm, so the heavier it is, the shorter it must be. "18 ft or 1,600 lb" does not mean an 18 ft gate weighing 1,600 lb — those are opposite ends of the same curve. Measure your leaf and read across.
| Leaf length | CSW24UL max weight | CSW200UL 1/2 HP | CSW200UL 1 HP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 ft | 1,600 lb | VERIFY | VERIFY |
| 12 ft | 1,200 lb | VERIFY | VERIFY |
| 16 ft | 800 lb | VERIFY | VERIFY |
| 18 ft | 600 lb | VERIFY | VERIFY |
| 22 ft | — | — | VERIFY |
Ratings are per leaf, for a level, free-swinging gate in good condition. A dual gate needs one operator per leaf; the two units communicate wirelessly, so no conduit has to be trenched across the driveway.
Which generation do I have?
The CSW24UL replaced the older CSW24U, which replaced the CSW24VDC. The distinction matters because the UL325 revision of August 2018 requires monitored secondary entrapment devices — current units ship with an LMRRU monitored photo eye and will not run without working monitored protection. If you are replacing an operator, the boards and covers are not interchangeable across generations. Read the number printed on the main control board in your e-box rather than going by the label on the cover.
Level swing only. A pad-mount operator drives the gate through a level arc. If your gate has to swing uphill into a slope, the standard answer is to hang it so it swings out toward the road, away from the rise. Where that is not possible, SWG606 uphill swing hinges let the leaf tilt up to 15 degrees as it swings while the operator still drives a level arc. Some push-to-open configurations also need additional brackets — check before you order.
Duty cycle and traffic
This is the real reason to move up from an arm. A residential arm operator is rated in minutes-on; the CSW24UL is continuous duty and engineered for over a million cycles. If the gate serves an apartment entrance, a yard, a business park or anything cycling dozens of times a day, the operator sizing question is not just weight — it is how often. An underrated operator on a heavy-traffic gate fails on duty long before it fails on load.
Common questions
Do I need one operator or two? One per moving leaf. A bi-parting pair takes two, wirelessly synchronised.
How long does the battery backup last? The CSW24UL ships with two 7 Ah batteries, giving on the order of 146 cycles or about 24 days of standby. Upgrading to 33 Ah batteries extends that substantially — around 875 cycles. Cold weather shortens it considerably.
Can it run on solar? The CSW24UL is solar-ready to 60 W. Panel count depends on daily cycles, which accessories draw from the board, and your latitude — it is a calculation, not a single answer. Call us with your cycle count and we will size it.
What power do I need at the pad? The CSW24UL takes 115 or 230 VAC single phase and converts to 24 VDC. A three-phase conversion option is available for 208/230/460/575 VAC sites.
My gate stopped closing after a repair. On UL325 units, check the monitored photo eyes before you suspect the board. A missing, misaligned or unmonitored entrapment device puts the operator into a fault by design.
Parts, boards and accessories
The current UL325 main control board for the DC pad-mount family, including the CSW24UL, is the K1D8389-1CC, with the K1D8387-1CC expansion board for additional monitored inputs. The K204C0211 toroid transformer is shared with the CSL24UL slide operator.
Also see: LiftMaster gate operator parts · LiftMaster slide gate operators · safety sensors and loop systems · LiftMaster remotes
Sizing a commercial gate? Call 866-965-5599 — we have been installing and servicing gate operators since 1993.