do I have a faulty Zareba® 5 Mile Battery Operated Solid State Charger

[Zwillingsmama]

Today I thought I finish my electric fence around my run, but I can't get enough "juice" to the wire.
I have a solar charged 12v battery that is fully charged and the Zareba 5 mile charger. I ran only 250 ft wire, there is nothing but the insulators touching these wires, ground is 8ft away from charger in wet ground. I have a voltmeter, so I can see how "hot" the wire is. It does not get above 2V and it should be a minimum of 2000V even right at the charger it stays in the 2V range. I can touch and hold the wire - its unpleasant but absolutely doable. Am I doing anything totally wrong or is my charger faulty? I am at a loss.

 

[Zwillingsmama]

We exchanged the zareba and added a ground wire between the 2 hot wires since it is dry here during the summer. We got 7000v now all around and charging the battery with a solar. It works fine on dog and husband (lol he forgets the wire is there) but has no effect on the chickens - they walk unphased through it. Since it is mainly meant to keep raccoons out and it works on my dog we should be good.

 

[Zwillingsmama]

IF you're only getting TWO Volts with a hot battery , you either have a faulty fence charger OR there is a short to ground somewhere you're missing. What is the voltage without the hot wire (fence) hooked up to the charger?

We tested this today and it still shows only 2 v and yes we checked the scale that it isn’t accidentally 2000v. I will contact zariba and hopefully they will exchange it.

 

[123RedBeard]

Today I thought I finish my electric fence around my run, but I can't get enough "juice" to the wire.
I have a solar charged 12v battery that is fully charged and the Zareba 5 mile charger. I ran only 250 ft wire, there is nothing but the insulators touching these wires, ground is 8ft away from charger in wet ground. I have a voltmeter, so I can see how "hot" the wire is. It does not get above 2V and it should be a minimum of 2000V even right at the charger it stays in the 2V range. I can touch and hold the wire - its unpleasant but absolutely doable. Am I doing anything totally wrong or is my charger faulty? I am at a loss.

So ... @Zwillingsmama ... what have you figured out?

 

[cmom]

Curious minds want to know...

 

[aart]

So @Zwillingsmama didja figure it out?

 

[Howard E]

OP.....good you got it worked out.

As for crowd control with the birds, to brood my current flock, I setup this pen within my garden area.



Just one strand of poly tape, about 5" off the deck. Somehow, someway, some of the birds tangled with it (often they step on it to go over) and after that, during the entire time they were in there.......nearly 3 months, none of them ever ventured outside the border. Not sure if they all tangled with it, or just a few, and those few passed the word along to stay away from it. At one point, I turned the fencer off and even no hot wire kept them in for about 10 days. So somehow they figured out it was off, and went over. So I turned it back on and a couple got out, but they also got zapped, so within 24 hours, no more crossings.


This is the quick setup. Battery powered fencer. The only "ground" rod was the steel T post corner, which was the only steel T post in the entire setup. The other corners were just the white step in posts. With poly tape, there is not a lot of strain on the corners. Spacing of the posts were about 20' apart, but the ground is mostly level.

I have a similar tape guarding my patio from the chicken yard. Prior to the tape, birds would hang out on our patio waiting for someone to bring them treats. Once the tape went up, no more crossings. They respect it.

The regular fence....the one I rely on to repel dogs and other large furry beasts, is a 4 wire system.



Bottom wire about 5" off the deck, and the remaining hot wires about 5" apart. Top wire only 20" or so off the deck. Varmints tend to crawl under or through and get zapped doing so. Chickens trained to this wire never get out. Haven't had one cross it in over 2 years.

 

[llombardo]

Same here. I had a faulty light on my zareba charger and they sent me a whole new kit--the whole thing. Great customer service.

Voltage wise, where your at should be good for raccoons. Mine is about the same. I tested it on my dogs and it was enough that they did not go back.

I believe the one you got should be like 7000 volts? Of course of you paid for 7000 you want 7000.

When mine was not working right I took it apart and started over, that helped.

Here is a voltage chart for predators

https://www.stafix.com/en-us/helpful-information/animal-voltage-requirements

 

[123RedBeard]

Disconnect both wires going "out" ... only battery cables to charger hooked up ... turn on charger ... measure voltage between the two "output" terminals (where you hook the "hot" and "earth/ground") how much voltage?

Are you using the same voltage meter for the battery voltage, and charger output?

Most 12 volt batteries should read 12.8 volts actually ... can you measure the tenth's?

If you plug it in, and you put one finger on the "hot" terminal ... and your thumb (from same hand) on the "ground" you should be "SHOCKED" Or, it is defective.

 

[Zwillingsmama]

Will try that tomorrow, and to answer another question, I bought if from amazon.