Electric Fence Chargers - Older Types Vs New Types

[ytr45]

Hi Folks,
This is a spinoff from a recent post. Someone wrote:
"How old is the charger? if old it could be a high impedance charger which could even kill small animals… newer chargers are low impedance of “very high voltage and very high amperage, but deliver the electricity in extremely short pulses of about 3 milliseconds, or about 330 pulses per second.”

Our charger is 10-15 years old. How do I know if its the old type or new type? Are the old types too dangerous? Do I need to replace mine? I don’t understand anything electrical, so please keep your answers understandable. Basically electricity is a mystery to me.

[avjudge]

I think by 10 or 15 years ago most were low impedance. My ancient (1970s) old-style charger was prominently labeled “weed burner.“

It worked fine with solid wire fences in its day - we’re not in a fire-prone area which is also a concern with these chargers - and I even pulled it out of retirement to electrify a ring around a birdfeeder post to keep the raccoons off (which worked, and I never found a dead raccoon so it didn’t electricute any). But when I pulled it out of its second retirement to use it temporarily with a new poly rope electric fence, we had an arc to a too-close tree trunk in wet weather, and it melted the poly fibers so the fence broke.