Electric Fence Chargers

To energize the electric fence you need a fence charger. I prefer very powerful AC-powered energizers. The low wires are constantly shorting out against grass and weeds, and it takes a lot of power to keep their zap going. I think it's better to string thousands of feet of wire along the farm than to use battery-powered chargers, which just aren't powerful enough. I use 2x4's up on end to get the wire ten or twelve feet up in the air when it crosses gates. Otherwise, I just run the wires along the top of the posts of my farm's perimeter fence.

I also prefer energizers with built-in voltmeters, so I can go check things out if the voltage falls into the red zone. In general, this means I buy Parmak units, because most of the others don't have meters. My favorite model is their "Super Engergizer 3" which is very powerful indeed. The "Maxi-Power Mark 6" is also good.

Premier also makes excellent chargers, and may be a better bet for battery-powered ones than Parmak. I'm not convinced that solar chargers are worth the extra cost, since batteries are cheap and solar fence chargers are expensive.

The hardest part of installation is getting the ground connection good. I prefer pounding in ground rods along the drip line of my barn's roof.

It really helps to have the units placed so you can see the meters easily when you wander in and out of the barn.

And that's all I can think of to say about electric fences!

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