do fence chargers get weak?

[mikecoen]

my fence charger is 110 volts and perhaps about that many years old. It is the low impedance, should put out one joule. The zap is quite weak as of yesterday and as of today it won't zap me unless I'm near the charger. It is grounded to about 40 feet of iron post fence plus the ground rod. It worked pretty well a week ago. No branches or tall grass could be grounding it and it is standing off from the metal fence wiring. Do they get weak over time? Calf crawled right under it yesterday!

 

[jhm47]

I'd check your ground. In very dry soil, they sometimes get weak, or if your "deep" ground rod is corroded, it could weaken your ground. Try shorting between the fence terminal and the ground terminal with a screwdriver (not any of your body parts), and see if you get a good spark. Also, you might have a poor insulator on one of your posts, and that could be siphoning off some of the charge.

 

[Goatmasta]

during dry weather I always pee on the ground rod when I feed... Just for good measure...lol If it is old I would just replace it. If you still have a problem then you can track it down and have a spare charger....

 

[mikecoen]

took your advice about the ground rod.
when i get home from the urologist I want to see if it worked on the cows as well.

 

[Royd Wood]

took your advice about the ground rod.
when i get home from the urologist I want to see if it worked on the cows as well.

Goatmasta - your a braver person than me

Is it all single flow - in other words not linked in a loop somewhere as this really messes up the zap

 

[mikecoen]

My first fence is a complete loop of one wire around a half acre. Then, I added a second loop, attached to the same ground and hot lead, and this one is two loops. I got a guy on the phone from Zareba fence controllers and he said the chargers will get weaker with age, so that may be the whole problem. I have it zapping everywhere I test it this morning after wetting down the ground area, driving the gound rod 6 inches deeper (to maybe clean it some) and we had a good rain last night as well. Lots of variables but the charger seems to be old and weak. Thanks for the help and I am feeling better, thanks.

 

[patandchickens]

They do slowly deteriorate but if it was a big change in just one week then I would strongly suspect it's something fixable.

Troubleshooting suggestion:

1) put your fence charger across the two terminals of the charger (on some chargers you have to unscrew the thingies that hold the wires in order to do this). What is the voltage? If it is insufficient, then it is indeed your charger that's gone bad and since it is plug-in you will almost certainly just have to replace it.

2) if you get high voltage when testing the terminals directly, take a piece of emery cloth or fine sandpaper and buff up the terminals and the wire ends, and reattach the wires. Test the fence again. If that fixed it, the problem was corrosion.

3) if that still didn't fix it, the problem is almost certainly one or more of the following: corrosion or looseness in connections (e.g. where two pieces of fence wire are joined, or where wire clamps onto ground rods), object/s touching fencewire somewhere grounding it out, and/or insulator problems (wire come off groove in insulator and now touching metal post or fence; insulator come off post so wire touches post or fence; insulator cracked so that wire touches nail in insulator). Walk the fence, inspecting extremely carefully for all these type things everywhere.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[mikecoen]

My fence was a loop and I added a second loop. It was the second loop that had a short in the hotwire. I used polyrope with 6 strands of stainless steel woven into it. When I tied off at a t-post for beginning a gate strand, the polyrope twisted where I had tied and cut it and it was indeed touching the t-post. I'll move mom and 6 month old calf in a few days and with my 2 strands of zapping potential and the nice grass and a bit of alfalfa in that pasture, I think I'll keep them home. I've gotten other input about weaning, like let nature take it's course sometime before the new calf is born, making a herd of 3. I should minimize the motivation to break out of the fence that way also. Thanks all for your supportive comments.

 

[jhm47]

Let nature take it's course? If you're planning on letting the cow wean the calf before she gives birth, you will be disappointed. You should wean the older calf at least 2 months before the new one is due. I've had neighbors who thought their cows would naturally wean, and they wound up with the big calf stealing enough milk to starve the new one to death.