texasjohn
Super Member
Just had to tell y'all that the Smartfix fence tester is WAY WONDERFUL!!
Just fixed my fence in record time...15 minutes...and found an almost impossible to locate short using it. My estimate is that it would have taken 5 hours for me to find and fix the old way....walk the fence back and forth until I see it, banging on the fence with a stick looking/listening for a short.
Knew a piece of fence...end of the LONG run...was bad....showed 29 amps flowing on one of 3 wires...it was the bottom wire...other 2 wires were in the couple of amps range.
I got in my RTV and started down the fence, testing bottom wire amp flow every 20 or so metal T posts...it showed 29 amps and arrow pointed forward for several hundred yards then tester showed nothing...backed up about 5 posts....high amp flow....forward 4 posts...nothing showing on meter....back up one post....29 amps flowing....shake fence posts....AH HA... hear and see a spark, insulator is there, but finger is broken and wire is being held against T post....go turn off electricity, replace insulator...turn on electricity...now, only 7 amps total flowing (and it's back up to 8000 volts) on this heavily weeded segment. FENCE FIXED IN RECORD TIME!!!
The Smartfix doesn't cost....it PAYS:cool2:
Thanks, Morelia, for your post and putting me on to the Smartfix tester!!!
Conclusion....if you are running electric fence and don't have a tester of this type, you are working too hard to fix your fence.
Just fixed my fence in record time...15 minutes...and found an almost impossible to locate short using it. My estimate is that it would have taken 5 hours for me to find and fix the old way....walk the fence back and forth until I see it, banging on the fence with a stick looking/listening for a short.
Knew a piece of fence...end of the LONG run...was bad....showed 29 amps flowing on one of 3 wires...it was the bottom wire...other 2 wires were in the couple of amps range.
I got in my RTV and started down the fence, testing bottom wire amp flow every 20 or so metal T posts...it showed 29 amps and arrow pointed forward for several hundred yards then tester showed nothing...backed up about 5 posts....high amp flow....forward 4 posts...nothing showing on meter....back up one post....29 amps flowing....shake fence posts....AH HA... hear and see a spark, insulator is there, but finger is broken and wire is being held against T post....go turn off electricity, replace insulator...turn on electricity...now, only 7 amps total flowing (and it's back up to 8000 volts) on this heavily weeded segment. FENCE FIXED IN RECORD TIME!!!
The Smartfix doesn't cost....it PAYS:cool2:
Thanks, Morelia, for your post and putting me on to the Smartfix tester!!!
Conclusion....if you are running electric fence and don't have a tester of this type, you are working too hard to fix your fence.