Progressive Automations 12V Electric Linear Actuator 8" Stroke 100 lb Force

I've used an electric actuator on my snow blower deflector for over ten years, usually trying to get by with a $60-$80 units that would burn out after 2-3 years. Half the time they didn't work at all due to being frozen. I decided to spend more money and get a higher quality unit and I'm glad I did. This unit is reasonably fast and is super smooth. I'm anxious to test it when the snow comes.

works great and doesn't require a lot of power been using it a month to lift a table top that get used at least 3 times a day running off a small 12 7.5 mah battery that cost around 20 bucks haven't recharged it yet. it also moves fast enough to be practical unlike another one a I returned, that was my fault for not paying attention to mm per second speed.

Both slotted articulation ends are round in cross section, making the use of a bolt fastener a problem unless one uses a machined shim that matches the curvature of the ends on one side, and has a flat surface on the other side. The articulation end of the piston has plastic (polyethylene?) bushing inserts that are a joke, these will not stand up to heavy dynamic loading. I popped them out and am using a grade-8 1/2-13 bolt that has a .495" diameter shank that very snugly fits the holes in the piston end. The other end has .402" holes in it, I bored these out to .405" so that I can use some titanium aircraft bolts I have on that end.

The only problem I had with this from the 1st day was, when the actuator went all the way out it still tried to keep going even at the end of its stroke. it was not making the microswitch took in cap off jammed a screw down into the plastic that the microswitch is on and that pushed it slightly down the tube so that the actuator for the microswitch was now hitting the switch and stopping it in the right position

NOT waterproof at all - rain goes right inside and it rusts and then dont work this is false advertising as the pictures show its totally waterproof and I GURANTEE you its not at all!

good

We recently bought one of these linear actuators for work for use on critical infrastructure that is housed outdoors. we tested the unit inside in a controlled environment and it worked flawlessly. After installation of the unit, it failed within the first 48 hours of a rainstorm. the rating on the unit claims is bogus and the customer support rep we talked to claimed that it wasn't meant for the environment we were using it. To be clear an IP rating is 2 parts the first in this one is a 6 which means (No ingress of dust; complete protection against contact.) the second is a 6 which means (Water projected in powerful jets (12.5mm nozzle) against the enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effects.) so with this definition which is off of PROGRESSIVE AUTOMATIONS own website this unit should have performed flawlessly. the day after the rain I had to blow water out of the motor housing do to water ingress from the night before to even get the unit to actuate out of its jammed position and it died shortly after when troubleshooting. After this, we contacted there customer support who stated that it wasn't meant for the outdoor application environment we were using it for. So I am to assume either there IP rating is a lie or the customer service representative lied. second, they insisted our power supply for the unit was the cause of our issues which it is not. We are not running the unit at full load so it does not need the full 12 amps it is capable of pulling and out testing proved that to be the case since it worked fine before the water ingress issue fried the internal motor and chipboard. at this point, after arguing with them for an extended time, they said they would ship us a replacement unit better served for our purpose which was a submersion rated linear actuator. This would have been great as far as customer service goes but instead, they shipped us the same unit again. when we called back they claimed we had installed the actuator wrong and it needs to be motor facing up. This is nowhere in the literature for the actuator in question manual or otherwise and is counter to how the actuator makes any sense to be installed. why would you want your electrical cord to be moving with a chance of binding or getting cut? The whole conclusion to this is done trust this companies IP rating and don't trust its warranty or their customer service reps. they have no interest in supporting there products or claims. If this issue is somehow resolved promptly, which at this point I doubt, or their customer service department makes good on their statement to us I will update this review but until then I say stay the hell away from this company

Bought this to replace and actuator for my boat windshield, so far it works well at 1/4 the price of the original.