Electric Fence ?'s from Newbie

[Vertigo210]

Hello group, glad I found this place.

Let me start by saying I am a total novice to electric fences so please go easy on me. I have been struggling with a small electric fence I put around my privacy fence to keep my dogs in my property. I have a DARE Enforcer, model DE 80 (low impedance .20 Joules); I am not getting any voltage to my aluminum wire and when I do the voltage seems pretty weak. I think I have an issue with my setup, please see and comment on the below.

Ground: have a 6' brass rod that was divided into three 2' sections buried into the ground, spaced 10' apart. - could my weak charge be due to the short depth (2 feet) I am using? Also it is completely buried into the ground, is that fine?

Unit: standard ground and line connections - I am using insulated copper wire for both leads.

Wiring: I'm running insulated copper wiring from the house to the fence at which point I am using your standard multi-color plastic wire nuts to connect the copper wire to the aluminum wire. The entire aluminum wire is then run on 6" yellow plastic insulators and back to the initial connection (where copper meets aluminum) to create a loop - do I need to loop the end or can I just tie it to one of the plastic insulator posts? Overall I think I only have 3-4 splices each wired together with the same type of wire nuts, are these recommended for an electric fence?

Thank you all for reading through this, please provide any feedback you feel may help my situation. I am running out of places to go for help with this.

 

[Renegade]

Hi Vertigo,

Welcome to BYH!

You don't mention what you're trying to keep in (or out) but I think you have multiple problems going on.

1) DARE Enforcer, model DE 80 (low impedance .20 Joules This charger is way too small to give much of a charge. It's also rated to only do about 200' of fence.

2) Ground: have a 6' brass rod that was divided into three 2' sections buried into the ground Your grounding rods are too short. At the very least I would go get another 6' section and drive that in. Then hook all 4 rods together.

3) Don't use the wire nuts. Just twist the wire together for about 4"-6". You'll get better contact between wires. I would also not use the copper wire.
We use this http://www.zarebasystems.com/store/electric-fence-wire/ugc50.

I do have a couple of questions. How far is the charger from the fence? How much fencing are you trying to charge?

I hope this helps.

Donna

 

[CritterZone]

Go to the Gallagher web site. They make fence chargers and supplies, but they also have a really good information section. I'm not familiar with your charger, but you definitely do not have a proper ground. The ground portion of the fence is a lot more important than people think, and can make or break whether your fence will work properly.

 

[Vertigo210]

Hi Vertigo,

Welcome to BYH!

You don't mention what you're trying to keep in (or out) but I think you have multiple problems going on.

1) DARE Enforcer, model DE 80 (low impedance .20 Joules This charger is way too small to give much of a charge. It's also rated to only do about 200' of fence.

2) Ground: have a 6' brass rod that was divided into three 2' sections buried into the ground Your grounding rods are too short. At the very least I would go get another 6' section and drive that in. Then hook all 4 rods together.

3) Don't use the wire nuts. Just twist the wire together for about 4"-6". You'll get better contact between wires. I would also not use the copper wire.

I do have a couple of questions. How far is the charger from the fence? How much fencing are you trying to charge?

I hope this helps.

Donna

Hi Donna, thank you for replying. Below are some responses.

1) Dare Enforcer DE 80 - I think its rated for up to 5 acres, its currently being used on my privacy fence at home roughly 2 rows of 600' wire for a total of 1200'. It is intended to keep my 80lb German shepherd from chewing through the fence and attacking the neighbor's dog.

2) Ground rod - thank you for confirming, I too think the rod is too short. I've heard the depth of the ground rod is what actually will determine the intensity of the shock, is this correct? I'm heading out to the store tomorrow to purchase another ground rod.

3) Wire nuts - thank you for this tip. based on your input I removed the wire nuts and twisted the wires together a good 4-5" in length.

4) Distance of charger - the charger is about 15-20 feet away from the closest ground rod, and a good 45-50 feet away from the aluminum fence wire (those 45-50 feet I am using insulated wire to carry the charge to the fence).

Thanks for your input so far!

 

[Vertigo210]

Go to the Gallagher web site. They make fence chargers and supplies, but they also have a really good information section. I'm not familiar with your charger, but you definitely do not have a proper ground. The ground portion of the fence is a lot more important than people think, and can make or break whether your fence will work properly.

Thanks, I will definitely check that site. Yeah I've heard having a proper ground is also key. Is it true the depth of the ground is what controls the intensity of the charge? For example too short of a ground will yield too weak of a charge? Thanks.

 

[Renegade]

Hi Vertigo,

Welcome to BYH!

You don't mention what you're trying to keep in (or out) but I think you have multiple problems going on.

1) DARE Enforcer, model DE 80 (low impedance .20 Joules This charger is way too small to give much of a charge. It's also rated to only do about 200' of fence.

2) Ground: have a 6' brass rod that was divided into three 2' sections buried into the ground Your grounding rods are too short. At the very least I would go get another 6' section and drive that in. Then hook all 4 rods together.

3) Don't use the wire nuts. Just twist the wire together for about 4"-6". You'll get better contact between wires. I would also not use the copper wire.

I do have a couple of questions. How far is the charger from the fence? How much fencing are you trying to charge?

I hope this helps.

Donna

Hi Donna, thank you for replying. Below are some responses.

1) Dare Enforcer DE 80 - I think its rated for up to 5 acres, its currently being used on my privacy fence at home roughly 2 rows of 600' wire for a total of 1200'. It is intended to keep my 80lb German shepherd from chewing through the fence and attacking the neighbor's dog.
I have read a few descriptions of this charger and yes they do say rated for 5 acres but more then one of them also said not recommended for more then 200'. When I first saw your post and read the .20 joules my first thought was that won't be enough shock to even notice. It is a very low voltage charger

2) Ground rod - thank you for confirming, I too think the rod is too short. I've heard the depth of the ground rod is what actually will determine the intensity of the shock, is this correct? I'm heading out to the store tomorrow to purchase another ground rod. Your grounding rod is the most important part of the setup. Since you are running 1200' of fence I would consider putting 2 more 6' rods into the ground. Connect all the rods together and pour water on all of them. This should give a really good ground. Any time you think the ground may be too dry make sure you water the grounding rods. Sounds strange but it does help. We have four 8' grounding rods on ours but we run a 9.0 joule unit.

3) Wire nuts - thank you for this tip. based on your input I removed the wire nuts and twisted the wires together a good 4-5" in length.

4) Distance of charger - the charger is about 15-20 feet away from the closest ground rod, and a good 45-50 feet away from the aluminum fence wire (those 45-50 feet I am using insulated wire to carry the charge to the fence).

Thanks for your input so far!

Good luck. If you have any more questions let us know.

Donna

 

[Rocco]

A lot of good answers!

One more question to vertigo. What are you measuring your fence voltage with...a multimeter or a electric fence tester?

On my newest electric fencing (electric netting) I thought something was wrong with my charger sa my tester got no reading (and NO, I didn't touch it myself). I rewired the thing a time or two, added grounding rods, and then replaced the charger with an older, but lower voltage one, that I had that I knew worked. Turns out the issue was that the tester I was using wasn't working! I let the goats out of their pens and used them to test the fencing....and Yes, it was working just fine.

I later tested it with new equipment and was getting over 8000 volts.

Has your dog tested it?

 

[Renegade]

Hey Vertigo,

Just thought I'd check in to see if you were able to get your hotline working.

Donna