Posted this an a thread or two, but decided it might make a good thread to it's own.
http://www.cyclopselectricfence.com/most-common-electric-fence-grounding-issues/
Don't know a whole lot about Cyclops fencers, but their instructions for setting up a fence and ground rod system are excellent.
So theory on testing the ground rod system..........goal of which is to provide near 100% certain pathway from hot wire fence back to fence charger through an earth ground. Literally the soil you stand on is the conductor that completes the circuit so the animal feels the shock. To use a golf analogy, you want to "leave nothing in the bag". Whatever potential the fence charger has to deliver a shock, you want all of it delivered. An adequate ground rod system is what allows you to achieve that.
So to test the ground system, once you have everything setup, test your fence (my suggestion is to use a digital fence tester, but if you have gullible kids or a spouse, you can try that instead), but once you know fencer is working, time to test the ground. For the test, move off some distance away from the fence charger....in a small setup, move as far away from the fencer as you can get distance wise. At that point, short out the fence using a large metal object.....steel T post, rebar rods, etc, Something you know will conduct nearly all the charge the fencer has to offer. Just one end on the wire, the other end grounded in dirt or a puddle of water, and let the big dog eat.
Then go back to your fence charger, find or install a new temp tester ground rod......say 1' long biece of rebar in wet soil, then with your fence tester, measure between the new ground and your fencer's ground. The voltage shown should be nominal......leass than 200 volts but hopefully none. Zero volts left in the soil. The poor man's tester would be to touch the new test rod ground and permanent ground rod system. You should feel no shock at all. If you feel even a tingle.....what that means is your ground system is not up to snuff. Basically, the ground system is acting like an insulator or restrictor. There is more shock to be had.....and to get that, install more ground rods. And as this literature suggests, the more oomph the fencer has, the more ground rods you need to support it. Galvanized steel ground rods.......NOT copper.
Where this really comes to the forefront is in dry soil conditions........read low conductivity soil conditions. The kicker is the animal is also standing on dry, non-conductive soil, so that almost acts like them standing on flip flops. Solution there might be to alternate hot and ground wires on the fence to short them out direct when they try to crawl through the fence? Literature describes how to do that as well.
http://www.cyclopselectricfence.com/most-common-electric-fence-grounding-issues/
Don't know a whole lot about Cyclops fencers, but their instructions for setting up a fence and ground rod system are excellent.
So theory on testing the ground rod system..........goal of which is to provide near 100% certain pathway from hot wire fence back to fence charger through an earth ground. Literally the soil you stand on is the conductor that completes the circuit so the animal feels the shock. To use a golf analogy, you want to "leave nothing in the bag". Whatever potential the fence charger has to deliver a shock, you want all of it delivered. An adequate ground rod system is what allows you to achieve that.
So to test the ground system, once you have everything setup, test your fence (my suggestion is to use a digital fence tester, but if you have gullible kids or a spouse, you can try that instead), but once you know fencer is working, time to test the ground. For the test, move off some distance away from the fence charger....in a small setup, move as far away from the fencer as you can get distance wise. At that point, short out the fence using a large metal object.....steel T post, rebar rods, etc, Something you know will conduct nearly all the charge the fencer has to offer. Just one end on the wire, the other end grounded in dirt or a puddle of water, and let the big dog eat.
Then go back to your fence charger, find or install a new temp tester ground rod......say 1' long biece of rebar in wet soil, then with your fence tester, measure between the new ground and your fencer's ground. The voltage shown should be nominal......leass than 200 volts but hopefully none. Zero volts left in the soil. The poor man's tester would be to touch the new test rod ground and permanent ground rod system. You should feel no shock at all. If you feel even a tingle.....what that means is your ground system is not up to snuff. Basically, the ground system is acting like an insulator or restrictor. There is more shock to be had.....and to get that, install more ground rods. And as this literature suggests, the more oomph the fencer has, the more ground rods you need to support it. Galvanized steel ground rods.......NOT copper.
Where this really comes to the forefront is in dry soil conditions........read low conductivity soil conditions. The kicker is the animal is also standing on dry, non-conductive soil, so that almost acts like them standing on flip flops. Solution there might be to alternate hot and ground wires on the fence to short them out direct when they try to crawl through the fence? Literature describes how to do that as well.
