This should last me forever in my application. It's rated for way more than my usage, chicken coop doors aren't heavy but necessary and I'm not going to open any close it manually every day. There is a very good YouTube how to video running this to a digital timer and a battery for this purpose. You'll know the correct video because the timer is white and round and the actuator looks like this. I have power in my coop, yes this is 12v, all I did was look through old chargers until I found one with a 12v rating. Instead of attaching this directly to the door and risk crushing a bit I used strong contractors string so if a bird gets between the string will give. Like I said it should last forever only operating twice a day on a 2lb door. If it fails I will update