How Electric Fencing Works – Electric Fence Installation Guide – Dare Products, Inc – 70 Years of Electric Fencing

TEST THE FENCE

Before connecting the fence charger to the fence and ground system, turn it on and check the voltage with your digital voltmeter. It should read 5,000 volts +. Now connect the fence and ground system and check the voltage again. If the voltage drops more than 2,000 volts then you have a problem in the fence or your fence charger isn’t powerful enough. Models DE 20, DE 60 and DE 80 will register only 2,000+ on a clean fence.

Check the fencing problem solver to resolve most trouble areas of your electric fence.

Check your fence at the farthest point from the fence charger. Touch probe on top of the tester to an electrified wire and touch the other lead to the ground. This will tell you how much voltage, which is the speed the energy is being delivered to your animals. A minimum of 2,000 – 3,000 volts is necessary to containg most animals. A properly constructed electric fence will have 5,000 to 8,000 volts, depending on your Fence Charger. That might sound like a lot but electric fences emit an extremely short electric pulse that is harmless for animals and people of all ages, but will get your attention.

Animal
Minimum recomended
voltage on fence line

Horses
2,000 – 3,000 volts

Cows
2,000 – 3,000 volts

Bulls
3,000 – 4,000 volts

Sheep/Goats
4,000 – 5,000 volts

Nuisance Pets
1,000 – 2,000 volts

Pigs
2,000 – 3,000 volts

Wolves/Predators
4,000 – 5,000 volts

Bison/Deer
4,000 – 5,000 volts

Pets
700 – 1,000 volts

NOTE: An electric fence requires regular checks to make sure it is working properly. Check the voltage at least once a day if possible. Walk the fence on a regular basis looking for broken insulators, loose connections and other potential problems.

GROUNDING SYSTEM TEST

1. Create a dead short on the fence line, preferably 300ft. from the ground rods, or as far as possible if the fence is shorter than that. Lean steel posts on a hot wire as shown to short out your fence.
2. Use a Dare #2411 Digital Voltmeter or similar electric fence meter. Place the meter probe on the ground wire or rods. Extend the meter lead wire as far away as possible, attach to a wire probe and insert probe into the soil. (Wire probe supplied with Dare #2411).
3. If the voltage reading exceeds 300 volts, the grounding system is inadequate and more ground rods should be added. Add rods and recheck until voltage reads 300 or less. Generally you will need one ground rod for each Joule of output from your energizer.

Install posts and wires and gates. Space wires according to the type of animal you want to control. * RULE OF THUMB: Hot wires should touch the animals at the chest and/or nose and the back of the neck on grazing animals.

Gates require extra care to run voltage from one side of the gate to the other. We recommend running insulated cable in plastic pipe under the gate (make sure to seal the ends of the pipe to keep out water.) Connect all electrified wires together at gates and corners to increase voltage the length of the fence.

NOTE: Connect the fence charger so it charges the fence from the middle, not the end, if possible.