I am sick of looking at my ugly white electric tape that sags more and more every year. I am interested in getting Horseguard Fencing. I am really interested in the Bipolar since I live on ledge and my fence barely zaps. I have read in the past that people have had issues with the Bipolar fencing arcing/shorting…maybe this was just an issue in the past and has since been remedied? Any words of wisdom or warnings would be much appreciated!
I’ve had biopolar tape up for about 1 1/2yrs now, mostly in areas where there is also a line of wood rail. Never any issues. I’ve only had to tighten one stretch that seems to catch the wind (& a rogue horse who doesn’t end her rolling stops in time) maybe twice since it’s been up. I went with the bipolar tape because too many ground rods got bent and broken when we tried driving them into the clay & rock around here- short of using an auger to set the ground rods, going with bipolar tape was an easier option.
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Great! I was hoping to hear from some happy customers
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I reinforced a five acre pasture with bipolar horseguard tape and loved it. I think it’s superior to the thin white stuff or metal wire. It was easy to install, stayed really hot, and when a horse ran into it, he bounced off of it. It’s my favorite electric fence.
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I use the bipolar (worst. product. name. ever.) Horseguard tape – I also love it. I’ve had it up for 4.5 years, which have included at least 3 hurricanes and several major (for us, meaning 12+") snow storms.
I love:
-it’s modular, meaning as one person, easy for me to add or repair individual components and customize to my needs.
-it’s wide tape, so great visibility. I use the white tape.
-no ground rods!!! We have rocky soil, I wasn’t looking forward to driving 3 10’ rods, now I don’t have to
-it’s extremely durable & flexible. I have had a 4’ tack shed fall on it (didn’t break the tape, posts flexed), horses bounced off of it, tree branches have fallen on it. The only time it has broken was when a certain idiot (uh, me) wasn’t paying attention and got the edge of the bushhog caught on it. Oops. But…
-it’s so easy to fix with splicing buckles and just a few minutes.
I have not found it to be any more prone to shorts than any other type of electric fence. You do need a charger that puts out sufficient joules to make the fence hot (they have the specs on the HG website) – my old charger was a Parmak, I currently use a Stafix unit that I love (I power mine with DC batteries kept charged with solar panel). There are sometimes connection shorts in some of the tensioners but if you do a search of this forum, you’ll find some clever fixes; I just weave a couple extra pieces of wire between tape & tensioner loops when that happens (which is rarely, I think I have done that in maybe 3 places).
The only thing I don’t like is their stretchy tape for gates — it breaks down within a year due to UV exposure & disintegrates. But they have released a new spring-type solution that looks much better and I think it will solve this problem.
The HG website is not great, but I have always had a great experience with very helpful reps, just drop them an email. I sent them pasture diagrams and they were able to help me compile a list of components I needed.
Overall, I have found it a very affordable system (I’m on a tight budget) that works very well for me in a variety of challenging conditions. My original insulators are all still fine after 4.5 years, the tape is in good shape. I use the TSC fibreglass black/grey step in posts to stabilize the tape since my permanent fenceposts are way farther apart than their recommended 12’ (perimeter fence which came with property is high-tensile wire). I occasionally re-tension stretches that loosen due to wind (maybe 1x per year?) – this wouldn’t be necessary as often if my posts were closer together, but it’s very easy so no biggie.
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@wildlifer …thanks for the input! I had read that the shorts occur at the tensioners and this was my big concern, but if it’s an easy fix, then I have no problem jerry-rigging it a little 
You can pull tape fencing tighter when it sags.
Love it. I’ve had this stretch up for about ten years and it looks as good now as when I first put it up. I think I have hand stretched it a couple of times. But not because it was problematic. Just to make it a bit tighter over the years.
As others have said, it is extremely easy to work with. I use a big solar Parmak – no use under powering when its easy to overpower. I ended up connecting this stretch to more fencing, and putting the top tape on one charger and the bottom tape on another. That way I don’t have to worry about wet tall grass reaching the bottom tape.
Mine is on wood posts. I used the box type tensioners. No electrical problems whatsoever.
The tape is brown/green. It does not look very visible here, but it actually is easy to see. This is a wildlife property with deer, hogs, whatever, and I’ve never had a problem with animals getting caught up in it.
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I have new bipolar from redoing some last year. I also have bipolar up from 2013. Defintely still arcs. It is installed correctly. Yes, you can wrap the metal with the wire, but that’s a pita when you have a lot of tensioners. I think HG should address this problem. I vote use the all-plastic tensioner/box tensioner on a large-enough wood post and you won’t even have to worry about it. The arcing is from the metal parts on the other types of tensioners. I have tried them all.
It works great for my pasture, but I wish I had done my dry lots with something different. Too many corners and multiple gate terminations. That said, I like my coated wire fencing (centaur, Ramm, Kencove) even more. My least favorite is my wood board and my no-climb (because of weed maintenance).
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I posted above about loving the Horsegaurd, and here’s a better picture of how it’s installed. I used big round wood posts, the HG plastic line tensioners, and the HG black plastic termination boxes. It’s been perfect for me, set up this way for about 10 years.
I use monopolar HG tape for cross-fencing and often wish I had gotten bipolar. My ground rods couldn’t go very deep because of bedrock and when the ground is frozen, the fence doesn’t shock at all.
The main reason I didn’t was that I thought you could only use bipolar tensioners etc, which I thought would increase cost and reduce flexibility. Maybe I misunderstood something?
I use those step-in posts too. Didn’t realize I could have used them with bipolar!
Another happy customer of the bipolar Horseguard tape!
Mine’s been installed about 2 years. It was relatively easy to put up. I tighten it every once in awhile (mostly b/c of falling oak limbs)… I have both gate types, and prefer the non-stretchy gate.
It’s easy to hear where it’s arcing - then you can just turn off the juice, and address that one spot.
Mine’s turned a bit green, but that’s Florida. 
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You definitely can use them (or any plastic or fibreglass post) with bipolar. I freaking love those fiberglass posts, I have accidentally run them over with chain harrow & they didn’t break, they are amazing. I just grab a few every time I’m at TSC because you can never have too many!
I have only used the bipolar tape, so I haven’t run the numbers, but I don’t think it’s a huge cost difference and I definitely don’t think it reduces flexibility, HG has done a really good job of making the whole system very versatile. It was worth it to me to not have to deal with the grounding issue. You only need special tensioners for gate connections, tape ends, or splices. For all your line posts/insulators you can use the plain plastic things, it’s just holding the tape in place. Because I have some big fields, I do have tensioners in most corners as well, but for shorter stretches/smaller fields, you can use the plain brown plastic block insulators.
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Thank you everyone for your input! Ordering the bipolar tape for my drylot this week! Excited to give it a try, thanks for your help!
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Feel free to shoot a pm if you have questions, I’m happy to share what I have learned. Nothing is perfect, but I have found this to be a dang good product at a reasonable price point. (I am not affiliated with HG, lol)
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Well you have probably already ordered yours, but I am also a bipolar HG fan. Have had it for 6 years. A couple times I have had to tighten due to less than athletic deer! We have SO many deer. Most times they clear it but occasionally they catch a leg. I have witnessed it, that’s how I know who to blame!
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