Electric fence question

jamo · #1 03/13/15, 01:23 PM

I hope that you can maybe give me some basic ideas because I've never had to deal with this before and I don't know anyone that I can ask for help other than to call a fencing company. DH just had transplant surgery so money is tight.

I have electric fencing down two sides of my pasture. (PS I asked DH to handle this before his surgery and he refused to help me) My 2 horses walked thru the fence in the middle of the night so obviously there's a problem. This is when I bought a new charger. I let it charge for 2 weeks due to many days being overcast. The ground looks fine. All of the rope looks fine. So do the insulators. But, the jolt is not very strong. So something isn't right and I don't know where to start.

Can anyone give me some tips or starting points? I have my horses in another pasture but they would love the extra room.

Thanks in advance,

Jan

BlackFeather · #2 03/13/15, 02:47 PM

The only things I can think of is make sure the ground post is deep enough and make sure no weeds are touching the wire. "you said all of the rope looks fine" I think you must mean "wire looks fine." Listen at each insulator, if you hear snapping then the insulator isn't working correctly. You should not hear anything if the fence is installed correctly.

wr · #3 03/13/15, 02:55 PM

Is your charger suitable for the distance you're using it for? If so, I'd take a look at the ground rod first and I have found that if your ground is exceptionally dry, adding a bit of moisture can help.

jamo · #4 03/13/15, 03:47 PM

OK, I did not know that weeds/grass should not be touching the ground wire. I thought it only applied to the fencing itself. I'll try that. The ground is 10 ft deep and plenty wet. I'll double check the insulators too.
I'm only fencing about an acre, it's square, and only on 2 sides. I kind of started at the beginning, went to the end and then dropped down to a new row kinda thing. There are 3 rows. It's a 3 mile charger.
Thanks you

Astrid · #5 03/13/15, 06:06 PM

Your charger may not be strong enough.

mink · #6 03/13/15, 06:29 PM

Your supposed to have 3 ground rods 10 feet apartall connected in a series. A good ground is most important. Run the hose by your ground rod if it dry.walk around it in the dark looking and listening for snaps or sparks

RJMAcres · #7 03/14/15, 07:42 AM

More info needed.
What brand & model of charger ?
Type of wire ?
Distance of wires ?
How many strands ?
What kind of grounding set up to you have ?

Doesn't matter if weeds or grass touch the grounding wire.

ET1 SS · #8 03/14/15, 12:11 PM

Spend $10 and get a tester.

Disconnect the charger from the fence, and test there.

Once you know the charger is working good, then connect the top wire/rope of your fence and test it.

If there is a problem, you need to find where the problem is happening.

Sometimes when you connect one length of wire to another length, over time the connection rusts. At night you may see it sparking, or when you walk by you may hear it. That is how you can detect where the bad connections are. In a properly working electric-fence, you should never see or hear any sparking.

Every time it sparks somewhere, you are losing some of it's power.

Callieslamb · #9 03/14/15, 12:47 PM

we had trouble with ours over and over until we installed the 3 ( count them THREE) ground rods. No more trouble.

jamo · #10 03/14/15, 01:01 PM

I don't think that there are three grounds out there only one. Maybe that's the problem.

zareba electric fence
3 mile charger
type of fencing is the poly with the wire
3 strands
not sure how the grounding is set up, I'll have to check

secuono · #11 03/14/15, 01:19 PM

Doesn't matter what touches the ground wire. You can touch he ground wire, it should never shock you.

It's the hot wires that should not touch anything at all.

You need 4-8ft long grounding rods, 3 of them, 10ft apart, in a nice wet spot (if available).

Something is shorting it out, ground rods aren't done properly and/or the hot wire you are using is not connected properly.

arabian knight · #12 03/14/15, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by secuono

Doesn't matter what touches the ground wire. You can touch he ground wire, it should never shock you.

It's the hot wires that should not touch anything at all.

You need 4-8ft long grounding rods, 3 of them, 10ft apart, in a nice wet spot (if available).

Something is shorting it out, ground rods aren't done properly and/or the hot wire you are using is not connected properly.

I just wonder at a small distance of 3 miles for a fence charger that is really small amount. My goodness, mine is at least 25 miles. But 3 miles wow.
I wonder if that is a Solar Powered one? That right there could be why.

steve_n_eve · #13 03/14/15, 04:01 PM

A 3 mile solar powered Zareba fence controller is not very powerful. Joules are important with fence chargers and this one is likely less than one joule. Companies like Premier1 will tell you to use 6 feet of ground rod with a 2 joule charger and 18 feet of ground rod (3 six foot ground rods) for a 6 joule charger. I would think if you have 3 or 6 feet of ground rod, you are ok from a ground rod standpoint, but the limiting factor will be the charger. If you have some sort of electric fencing voltmeter (not generic voltmeter) you should be able to measure 3 kilovolt or more (hopefully more) on the terminals of the charger with the fence disconnected. If you cannot measure that with the fence disconnected from the charger then the ground rod system or the charger have an issue. If you do get more than 3kV and then you hook the fence up and measure the voltage on the fence and get much less than 3kV, your fence has an issue. Just touching the fence with your hand is not a valid test of how useful the fence will be. Really need to get an idea of the amount of volts present. If you are wearing rubber boots it will limit what you feel in the fence. Also, do you know why the horses went thru the fence? Are they hungry? Is the fence visible enough for them to notice it? But hopefully you can check the fence and charger with a fencing voltmeter.

arabian knight · #14 03/14/15, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve_n_eve

A 3 mile solar powered Zareba fence controller is not very powerful. Joules are important with fence chargers and this one is likely less than one joule. Companies like Premier1 will tell you to use 6 feet of ground rod with a 2 joule charger and 18 feet of ground rod (3 six foot ground rods) for a 6 joule charger. I would think if you have 3 or 6 feet of ground rod, you are ok from a ground rod standpoint, but the limiting factor will be the charger. If you have some sort of electric fencing voltmeter (not generic voltmeter) you should be able to measure 3 kilovolt or more (hopefully more) on the terminals of the charger with the fence disconnected. If you cannot measure that with the fence disconnected from the charger then the ground rod system or the charger have an issue. If you do get more than 3kV and then you hook the fence up and measure the voltage on the fence and get much less than 3kV, your fence has an issue. Just touching the fence with your hand is not a valid test of how useful the fence will be. Really need to get an idea of the amount of volts present. If you are wearing rubber boots it will limit what you feel in the fence. Also, do you know why the horses went thru the fence? Are they hungry? Is the fence visible enough for them to notice it? But hopefully you can check the fence and charger with a fencing voltmeter.

I have two small pens and what I thought was a 25 miles electric fencer, was really a 50 Mile one~!. I want that bugger to be just as hot at the start of the run, as it is at the end of the run, with 3 wires going around two pens.
I know when I use my tester this one. it reads pretty close to the 5,000v mark. LOL
Electric fence question - Homesteading Questions

Electric fence question - Homesteading Questions

And for about 10 bucks it is a good tool to have around.

bja105 · #15 03/14/15, 06:57 PM

I had the same charger, the cheapest one Tractor Supply sold. It was just a little pen, my suburban back yard. Once the grass ran out, the horse was always getting out. We got to meet all kinds of neighbors!

I went back to tractor supply and bought one of the most expensive ones they had, maybe a 100 mile charger. As soon as I plugged it in, I could hear the shorts on my fence.
I don't know what that little fence charger is good for. It wasn't enough to keep a good horse in 1/4 acre.

I will second the question of why your horse was getting out. Ours was alone, out of grass, and bored.

Now our horses are on a real farm with more pasture than they need and constant hay when the grass is done for the year. Ours never get out anymore, and we leave the fence turned off for days at a time. Every horse we have ever had was easy to keep in if their needs were met inside the fence.

secuono · #16 03/14/15, 10:06 PM

I have a solar energizer, puts out 14,000+ volts.
Keeps in my horses, sheep, pigs and keeps out fox and coon.

rambler · #17 03/15/15, 11:39 PM

You kinda got took by a too small, too cheap of a fencer.

The ratings on them are not for how good they are, but for when they do nothing any more....

I get a 50 or 100 fencer for my 12 acre pasture, and that just gets by pretty fair.

Not really much to help, hope you can still return the one you bought, waste of money.

Paul

gwithrow · #18 03/16/15, 05:53 AM

the most common shorts I find when the fence is not zapping well enough....are where the polywire touches metal somewhere...you may have to go inch by inch and look....the shocking wire can NOT touch metal at all anywhere...if you are going to depend on a hot wire working it has to be HOT....I guess we have all said the same thing....also when you can, buy that fence tester short identifier thing from Kencove or Stafix..it is expensive and worth every single penny....

DavisHillFarm · #19 03/16/15, 06:05 AM

I'll throw in my 3 cents. Fencer is NOT big enough. The fencers from years ago would knock you on your butt...todays electric fencers are junk (just my opinion). We had an International fencer that would knock you into next week if you accidently touched it! Like Arabian Knight mentioned, and I'll mention get at least a 25 mile fencer...50 is better!

arabian knight · #20 03/16/15, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavisHillFarm

I'll throw in my 3 cents. Fencer is NOT big enough. The fencers from years ago would knock you on your butt...todays electric fencers are junk (just my opinion). We had an International fencer that would knock you into next week if you accidently touched it! Like Arabian Knight mentioned, and I'll mention get at least a 25 mile fencer...50 is better!

Yes I remember those of yesteryear. I had what at that time was called a Weed Zapper. ANY grasses or weeds that grew long enough to touch the wires was killed.
Course that is why they quit making those as it COULD start a grass fire. Never had that happen, by oh my goodness it would shock enough to put you on your knees.
I poured out a bucket of water and the stream hit that fence and I felt it as the bucket was a metal one.
I touched it once going under it and touched by metal frame eye glasses on it I SAW STARS.
I was leading a horse once holding onto his halter, the Horse Touched the Fence went through him and I GOT the shock.

Now THAT was the good old days. LOL
But yes a 3 mile fencer might keep out some critters trying to get into a small garden, but not stop a horse.
My 50 mile one will, even if is one of those made now, with Low Impedance.