Electric Fence Failure

[bob19]

I have a Zareba 3-Mile Solar Powered electric fence charger. It was working last fall and early this Spring. Then, I had no power. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it so I took it back and they gave me a new one.

I let it charge in the sun for two and a half days, then hooked it up. But- again, no power with the new one.

Has anyone had an experience like this? If you have, or can give me some help as to what to do, I would appreciate it.

Bob

 

[stevenf]

bob19, not sure how much you know about electric fences and I've never used solar but take the fence line off and check your ground if its been real dry there water around your ground stake, then test the output before hooking to the fence line. If your storage device is fully charged I'd expect one of two things are wrong either you've got another bad fencer or your fence line is grounded out somewhere, check all your insulators and make sure nothing contacts the fence line anywhere.
Steve

 

[stevenf]

bob19, I had another thought, most battery backed up equipment is shipped with the battery disconnected so that it doesn't fully discharge while its on the shelf, if a solar fencer is the same, you did hook up the leads on the new one right?
Steve

 

[bob19]

Steve, I watered heavily around the ground rods for a couple days hoping that would make a difference. (Only problem is I have three ground rods that are only in the ground two feet each because of the hard/rocky ground.)

I have bare wire about three inches above the ground for the ground wire. But, all this worked well last year. There is some grass touching the ground wire. Should I trim the grass. I don't think anything is touching the electric tape, but I will go out and check again.

Thanks,

Bob

 

[mathey]

I'd bet you have a short somewhere...

we have a similar setup (solar charger) and use some wooden posts and some T-posts and braided rope fencing to border and divide the pastures up. My wife has great fun in constantly moving lines and installing wired gates everywhere and then can't figure out why the fence doesn't work.

Make sure the charger is fully charged (sounds like it already is) and turn it on...then walk aroung the fence and stop at every place where the fencing touches some other object (grass, posts, gates etc...) -most- of the time you can hear a snap sound, which is the current shorting out.

good luck!

 

[stevenf]

mathey, thats a great idea, I'm not sure how much zip a 3 mile solar unit has but I've gotten a bit hard of hearing working in a print shop the last 30 something years and I never use less then a 20 mile AC fence charger but what works for me is go out at night when its good and dark, I don't have to rely on hearing the pop I can see it arc wherever its grounding at. As far as the fellow from NY I wouldn't worry about anything touching the ground wire maybe even the more the merrier since it would just give you a better ground, its only the charge wire that you are concerned with grounding out, which is how the charger works so the less touching the hot wire the more jolt you have in reserve for the beasties that your trying to keep in or out. I rewired my wifes garden last weekend its rather large so I can plow and disk it with a 90hp tractor. I had used tpost for post and the chargers I use were powerful enough to arc across the plastic insulators into the tpost, I changed to the ceramic insulators and cedar post, I'd expect if you leaned on the fence now it'd leave a welt, with a insulated handle big screw driver grounded it will arc over a 1/4" and leave a dark spot where it arc'd. After warning my honey of this she was out working on her garden a few nights ago and stepped back into it and got zapped on the butt, did you know a 45 year old woman can stand flat footed and jump a 4+foot fence. I learned another lesson to boot you shouldn't laugh if you see her do it or you end up in a foot race.
Steve

 

[bob19]

Mathey and Steve, I could not find anything obstructing the electric tape. I turned the solar power on had a small jolt at the terminal going to the fence. But, now power on the tape. Then, after trying it again, there was no jolt at the terminal.

If I disconnected both the ground and the wire going to the tape, should I get a jolt by touching the terminal that goes to the fence?

By the way, who won the foot race?

Bob

 

[Soundguy]

Get a fence tester.. which isn't much more than a neon bulb and insulated leads. Hook up ground to charge, but not load.. turn on.. should get a pulsed output on the load stud. Now hook up the tape.. check load stud.. if no output, then you have a fault on the fence. Doesn't take too many blades of grass to fault a solar fencer..

Soundguy

 

[bob19]

Soundguy- I have a fence tester, it has a wire with a tip on it that is supposed to be put in the ground, then touch the metal clip on the top of it and if there is current, one of the 4 or 5 little lights will be illuminated. That is how it worked before when I tested it.

In conjunction to your suggestion, how would I use that tester? I just don't understand what you mean. As you can tell, I am not knowledgeable about solar chargers.

 

[primetime1]

I also purchased the 3 mile Solar Powered Fence charger from Zareba last spring. Mine worked until about 3 months ago. I contacted Zareba and spoke with Jerry in Tech Support. Even the light on the box was not flashing. I checked the voltage and the battery was fully charged, so he said the board was probably bad. I sent it in and Zareba repaired it. The fence is working again. I too suspected grounding problems but in this case it was the unit. You might try contacting Zareba at (507) 684-3721 and ask for Jerry. The repair was covered under the warranty.

 

[bob19]

Primetime1- Thanks for your help. I called Zareba and talked to Jerry. He went through an extensive series of questions and finally determined my unit had to be sent in to be repaired or replaced. Up til now it had been very reliable.

Thanks again for your and others suggestions.

 

[stevenf]

bob your killing me "if I touch the terminal for the fence should I get a jolt" I was working on my first electric charger years ago I had it mounted on top of a cabinet in our utility room above a washer and dryer. I had been having trouble with it and was standing barefooted on top of the washer and decided to test my terminal to see if it was putting out it knocked me out the utility room window and into the yard and it was just a 20 mile one. NO I don't think you should touch the terminal if you must touch something touch the fence wire with a insulated tool to a ground such as a tpost driven into the dirt it should arc across just before touching together. Our Great Dane was watching my wife work in the garden yesterday and touched the new fence with the 50 mile charger on it and didn't stop yelping for a 1/4 mile.
You know who won the foot race and on a side note them little shovels they use for gardening hurt when they hit you in the back as your running away laughing.
Steve

 

[primetime1]

Bob-Glad I could help. Your problem sounded very similar to mine. Zabera had my unit back to me within a couple of weeks. Good luck!

 

[rambler]

I'm not real impressed with a '3 mile' rated unit. Fencers are rated at what they stop having any effect on. Not worth getting anything less than 20-50 mile units. Those 3-mile units just aren't much.

Ground is very important. Bare ground wire, or grass on the ground wire, is _not_ a problem. You want it grounded. Only 2 foot ground rods is not good. I understand, you gotta work with what conditions you have, but burrying 6 or 8 foot grounds at an angle, or even flat as deep as possible, will give _much_ more surface for the ground to connect with the earth. With a weak 3-mile unit, ground is even more important.

You always want the ground connected to a good ground when using or testing the unit; with the ground unconnected, nothing will happen.

Touching the hot lead is up to you. I wouldn't. But then, I have the higher powered fencers. One time mom & I were walking the fence, pulling weeds. With a wooden handle, mom held the barbed wire electric away so I could reach the weed.... The handle slipped, a barb stuck me in the arm through the skin.

WOW. That tingled for a while. Skin is a pretty good insulator. Peircing the skin like that - wow.

With your test light, put the ground end on any good metal ground - like a metal T post. And touch the wire with the other end of the tester.

--->Paul

 

[CharlieTR]

I would like to suggest you try and get that ground rod in deeper. It really needs to be in perminent moisture. Even though perm moisture is only less than 5 feet here in North Texas (really compact clay here) we like to use an 8 foot gound rod hammered in with t-post driver. Even by adding a lot of water to the ground rod, you might have to wait quite a long time before that water soaked deep enough before doing the tests.

 

[CharlieTR]

I would like to suggest you try and get that ground rod in deeper. It really needs to be in perminent moisture. Even though perm moisture is only less than 5 feet here in North Texas (really compact clay here) we like to use an 8 foot gound rod hammered in with t-post driver. Even by adding a lot of water to the ground rod, you might have to wait quite a long time before that water soaked deep enough before doing the tests.