BFT Stoppy B 500 Review

At Bollard Security, we have, in stock, and experience with installing and maintaining, a huge selection of driveway bollards. We have driveway bollards that’ll raise and lower automatically, thanks to the magic of electricity. We even have simpler, cheaper, yet effective telescopic options, too. Or, for commercial clients, we’ve spent time around high-security, anti-ram bollards, as well. But, if you were to ask me, ‘What’s the best driveway bollard for securing my home and car’, my answer would probably be the BFT Stoppy B 500. There are plenty of positive review articles and comments about the BFT Stoppy B 500, and it’s not a huge surprise.

In our many years of installing and maintaining the BFT Stoppy B 500 for our customers throughout the UK, it stands out as the best driveway bollard for the money. Sure, it’s a more premium option compared to a lot of the telescopic or lift-out bollards in our catalogue, but if you’re looking for maximal protection, there are few equals. With that in mind, if you aim to best guarantee theft protection and deterrence for your car, or even to make sure unwanted guests don’t park on your driveway, BFT’s Stoppy B series is one of the better options out there. So, let’s take a closer look at why our clients like the BFT Stoppy B 500 so much.

An Unstoppable Force Meets An Immovable Object

One of the stand-out features of the BFT Stoppy B 500 is its electro-mechanical mechanism, which enables you to raise or lower it automatically, with the push of a button. Most of the cheaper, entry-level driveway bollards that we often deal with are manually operated. In other words, every single time you need to raise or lower the driveway bollard, you’ll have to bend down, turn a key, and then push them into the ground or pull them out to secure your driveway, by hand. Then, you’ll need to use that key once again to lock them in place.

To be clear, driveway bollards have come a long way. These days, most driveway bollards aren’t that tough or physically demanding to lower and raise by hand. Nonetheless, having to step outside and lean down to get to your driveway bollards will get rather tiring. And, once the heavens open and it’s raining cats and dogs, it’s especially annoying. This is particularly difficult for our customers with any physical ailments, not to mention the elderly. Even for young, fit folks, most of our clients require at least 2 to 3 or more bollards if they want to properly secure their entire driveway. So, imagine just how tedious and tiresome this will get over time.

The BFT Stoppy B 500 bypasses this hardship by including an electro-mechanical, automated system that’ll allow you to easily lower or raise your driveway bollards using a provided key fob. This transmitter remote takes just 7 seconds to raise or lower all your driveway bollards, all at once. That added ease and convenience, though it’ll cost you more upfront, might make up for its price tag over time. Plus, the transmitters in those included key fobs are quite secure, too. They use a rolling code system, which generates a new code every time you interact with the BFT Stoppy B 500, which is incredibly secure and it’s hard to crack the encryption.

As Secure And As Robust As Your Driveway Deserves

These rolling codes matter way more than it seems, they communicate between the key fob and transmitter, to the receiver and control unit in your home. A lot of simpler, cheaper driveway bollards use a singular security code for authentication. As you can imagine, a thief could more than readily crack this, even using a fairly basic scanning tool. But, the BFT Stoppy B 500 doesn’t suffer from these same flaws, courtesy of its electronic security measures. In addition to the impressive security credentials of the transmitter unit, the actual bollards themselves are built to take any punishment.

It should be worth noting that the BFT Stoppy B 500 is a residential-grade driveway bollard. As such, it doesn’t feature some of the heavy-duty selling points that make it more appealing for securing commercial or high-security property, for instance. Nevertheless, the BFT Stoppy B 500 is way tougher than it might appear on paper, and it’s robust enough to survive anything your home might need to endure. For our customers who worry about having their cars stolen and being driven off their driveway, the BFT Stoppy B 500 is more than adequate for your typical British residential neighbourhood.

The two specs that matter here are the ‘breaking force’, which is the amount of force you’d need to break the bollard. And, there’s the ‘impact resistance’, which describes how much force the bollards can take without causing any serious, terminal damage internally. The BFT Stoppy B 500 excels in both regards. With its high 60,000 joules ‘breaking force’, it’s more than enough to prevent a thief from ramming through them with a stolen car. Meanwhile, its 7,000 joules ‘impact resistance’ is still high enough that it could offer pretty good protection to the internal structure and that 230V electro-mechanical mechanism.

There Are Bigger, Stronger Options, Too

For most of our clients looking to buy and install a rock-solid, do-it-all automated driveway bollard, the BFT Stoppy B 500 remains our top choice. Still, if you need more, BFT’s Stoppy B series has bigger options. That ‘500’ in the name denotes its height at its peak when you’ve raised it fully – 500mm. As we mentioned earlier, this is more than sufficient for most residential applications. But, if you intend on installing the BFT Stoppy B 500 for your commercial property, or if you need to secure vehicles with a higher ground clearance, such as a lorry, it might be prudent to consider BFT’s other, taller driveway bollards.

The BFT Stoppy B 700 comes to mind, with its 700mm height. And while you’re there, make sure you take into account just how many bollards you’d need to properly secure your driveway. In addition, consider the many other variables to bear in mind, like the spacing between your driveway bollards, proper installation, and so on. It’s not enough to rely on the BFT Stoppy B 500 and its robust construction if it’s not installed or fitted properly. When done right, I reckon it’ll perform way better at securing your driveway and your cars when compared to a wall and gate. You can pull a gate down pretty easily, but you’d be hard-pressed trying to run down and ram into a driveway bollard, and get away with it!

The only thing about the BFT Stoppy B 500 is that you’d have to be wary of the installation process, which is a tad more complicated than manually operated telescopic driveway bollards. Since there’s an electrical element to it, additional work needs to be done around your home to wire up the BFT Stoppy B 500 to a power source. You’ll need 240V for a single BFT Stoppy B 500, and all those wires need to go through a controller and receiver, too. But, once everything is in place, expect nothing less of the BFT Stoppy B 500, one of the best driveway bollards you can get for the money, to help secure your car and driveway.

What Do Our Clients Have To Say About The BFT Stoppy B 500?

We’ve installed the BFT Stoppy B 500 umpteen different times for our clients, and it remains a hugely popular option among our vast catalogue of driveway bollards. We have made it a habit to speak to and catch up with our clients after the installation is done, making sure they’re happy and seeing what they think of the bollards and our work. One such happy customer is Paul Hadley from the motoring publication Motor Verso, and he’s been pretty happy with the BFT Stoppy B 500’s ease of use, intuitiveness, and the peace of mind it offers. As a motoring journalist, his driveway is home to a constant rotation of many project cars and loaner press cars, as well as his own vehicles.

For folks like Paul Hadley to trust us and the BFT Stoppy B 500 speaks volumes. And hey, if you’re to secure your driveway as well, with the BFT Stoppy B 500 or the many other driveway bollards we have in stock, please don’t hesitate to contact us at 01535 920362. We’re happy to provide any advice or recommendations, built on over 15 years of experience in installing and maintaining security solutions across the UK. At Bollard Security, we’ve worked with commercial, industrial, and residential clients, as we take pride in offering you only the best quality products and ensuring maximal peace of mind for our customers.