I have five acres fenced with four strand coated wire. Top and second from bottom. Had been working great off a Gallagher S20 solar charger. Yesterday I see mini donk with his head between the first and second strands. Walked the fence, looks completely intact. Charger is blinking green. I ran out and bought a TSC digital tester. It says top strand is off and bottom strand reads 1.28 KV? I called the guys that installed it but haven’t heard back. I’d really like to get it working to use my field. Where do I start? TIA.
ride the fence. Visually inspect the wire. Make sure all connections are tight, nothing is grounded that shouldn’t be, and everything that should is well connected.
Ok, embarrassing but I’ll ask. What does “grounded” mean? What am I looking for?
an electric fence is an open electric current. the animal (or you) touching it completes the circuit and ZAP. you or the animal are the switch that closes to turn the light on.
To accomplish this the power unit has to have a connection to the ground. I only ever had a small parcel fenced, so one rod by the charger was enough. A larger length of fence might need help as the distance o the charger increases.
Does that make sense?
Also, how well the setup works depends on the soil under your feet: sandy soil that does not retain moisture well is not a good conductor. On the other hand, a nice wet loamy soil will make for a nice oompf…
ETA
https://www.zarebasystems.com/learning-center/how-electric-fencing-works
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Has it been dry where you live ? Your grounding rod might need moisture.
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Plenty wet, soil is clay not sand so I think Im good there. Sounds like I need to get brave and disconnect it and check the charger as step 1, otherwise I may be on a wild goose chase as the fence looks intact.
Check your fence line too to make sure there aren’t any branches or debris laying on the hot part breaking the circuit.
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As you walk your line, listen carefully. Often you can hear where a line is shorting out.
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Rudimentary trouble shooting should involve using a volt meter to check the output of the solar charger. Disconnect the fence wire connections and place the leads directly on the posts. These solar chargers use pretty small batteries, and they do weaken or fail with time, so make sure you are seeing decent voltage spikes at the S20. I have 2 of them and the batteries might last two years, tops. I keep a new spare battery on hand and hooked up to a Battery Tender so that I can swap in a fully charged one in a hurry.
Then as said, check all the wire connections. Make sure the fence wire is not disconnected somewhere, and that no shrubs, limbs, or weeds are touching the fence wires. Since one wire has some current, the wire connection to the ground rod should.be OK, but a weed whacker can catch the wire and break it sometimes. If you have a mutimeter with a continuity tester, you could also check for continuity across any wire connectors. Power off, of course, while doing this part.
And as also said, the Achilles heel of electric fences is the grounding rod… Many folks just sink a single 8 foot ground rod where convenient and assume it will be enough. Depending upon soil properties some setups might require more than a several ground rods , or even ground rods welded together during installation and sunk 16 feet instead of eight. My fences required dual 16 foot ground wires for my sandy soil. An experienced installer will know about conditions in your area, and ground accordingly. The ground rod also needs good contact with the soil. If the soil is dry, try pouring or running water around the ground rod soil, and re-test your wires.
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Great info. Can I buy replacement batteries for the S20? Where? I didn’t even know it had a battery. You could have nailed it. My fence/charger is up just about 2 years. If I disconnect the fence and check the charger and the battery is the issue I won’t get (much) voltage coming off the charger, right? If the charger/battery is “good” what type of volt reading should I get on my digital tester?
Lots of good fence advice above.
One of the problems with Solar chargers is that once they zap they have to build up again to be able to zap well again. I am wondering if your mini donk has simply learned this tidbit about the fence so grazes thru it with out getting zapped most of the time and is willing to take the occasional zap.
Ok, charger has output, about 9V. That is good, right? Looks to me like a frayed wire going from the charger to the “lightening arrester” box? Could that be the issue?
Hmm, I’ve never used a lightening arrester before. Looks like the white wire on the right isn’t wrapped around the little metal screw (terminal).
Eta: I’ve done a lot of electric fencing for cattle and poultry. I prefer not to use solar energizers for poultry applications – solar energizers of sufficient size to maintain enough bite through high-impedence poultry fences in our rocky soil is cost prohibitive. They usually do ok for horse and cattle wire fences, though. This summer I built a 450’ electric fence consisting of 3 strands of electrical tape for my trainer . I was able to get even the electrical tape hot all the way out to the other end with a solar charger. Silly as it sounds, first make sure the panel is facing the sun. Then, look at the ground rods. I like to drive 2 or 3 rods in a line, spaced 6’ apart, and connected with wire (They sell clamps for this purpose.) If the ground is frozen, try pouring hot water over the ground rod to saturate the area. Finally, it’s not unusual for cold air temps and freezing rain or snow to affect electric fence performance.
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Success! Yes, the white wire is faded red and had sheared off the connection at the arrester. I stripped a new connection (brave me!) and reconnected. Testing the entire perimeter but I think I’m good. Testing is reading 5.10ish top and bottom hot wires all along the line.
I am a bit tempted to call out sick tomorrow to watch evil burrito #1 test it out.
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next thing you know, you will build a barn by yourself! 
Congratulations!
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Thank you for your expertise and moral support!
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Just FYI for anyone contemplating installing electric fencing in dry or other areas where grounding might be a problem: Horseguard now sells a Bi-Polar system that does not need ground rods. I’m getting ready to install it for a dry lot.
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It is expensive, but you can get a Gallagher tester thst reads how high the fence is and then you press a button and it tells you which way the short is and how bad it is. A wire can break inside and look perfect but the Gallagher tester will show you that it is not. It is worth every cent.
Glad to read you got it fixed. Solar fence chargers use a 6V rechargeable battery. Gallagher switched batteries in 2018, so you’d need to check which you have. They cost anywhere from $20 to $40 depending on the brand and the store. I have bought them at both Tractor Supply and on line from Amazon. An internal battery is what the solar panel re-charges, and then the battery supplies the zapping power to the fence day and night.
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@LCDR Thank you! After this I’m going to figure it out and buy an extra battery as I have the same S20 for both my dry lot and larger field.
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