comparing fences

amacca

sorry, sort of a messy post but bear with me please

I'm in the process of buying a new mains fencer here and I have a couple of brands with not much to choose between them as its one of the more powerful and therefore expensive ones I'm in the market for I'm anxious not to make a mistake and end up with a lemon

problem is theres not much to choose between them in terms of the published specs at least.....

Is there any way short of contacting manufacturers and hoping for a truthful answer to compare the quality of the components each brand use like they way I would compare and decide when purchasing a brand of computer or hard drive etc

I mean at the end of the day I presume the two main bits are a transformer to ramp up the voltage and a capacitor to store and discharge the current periodically ..... do fencer manufacturers buy these components from another volume manufacturer and then assemble and package or make their own and do the winding and core lamination etc themselves in house meaning we the users would have to rely solely on other users feedback?

Also as an aside has anyone any experience with the new ultra low impedance fencers

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Seems like a good idea but I'm just wondering with all the bells and whistles (does the added complexity (cyclic wave/ changing between capacitors when load on fence changes etc also mean they are more likely to break down + not as easy to get repaired?)........

would a good old fashioned simple powerful fencer of the cheetah ilk be a better bet than the above?

patsy_mccabe

Have a read through this. It explains the circuitry of the fencer. Its a 120V mains fencer. One interesting thing is the mains voltage goes right into the circuit board so be careful messing around with them.

You have to click through the 11 steps, located under the title.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Reverse-Engineering-an-Electric-Fence-Charger/

amacca

Tks for that patsy...I've already seen the main components are connected up slightly differently to how I imagined they would be.

Timmaay

I need a new Mains Electric fencer here. https://www.agridirect.ie/product/forcefield-mains-fencer--mx9 the built in fence tester, and audible alarm sound very useful, the liked of cheetah/elephant don't seem to have them as standard. Anyone have that forcefield make, what are they like? Obviously reliably and a decent shock are the utterly most critical things for me.

satstheway

Timmaay wrote: »

I need a new Mains Electric fencer here. https://www.agridirect.ie/product/forcefield-mains-fencer--mx9 the built in fence tester, and audible alarm sound very useful, the liked of cheetah/elephant don't seem to have them as standard. Anyone have that forcefield make, what are they like? Obviously reliably and a decent shock are the utterly most critical things for me.

Forcefield used to be made in Ireland
But now I'm not eveneed sure if they are assembled here. We had mains one and it was repaired twice in about 10 years.
We replaced it with a German one can't remember name but it's green.
If going again I would chance the cheetah one as I have their biggest battery one on a solar system here and there is a serious shock from it.
They are simple with not much circuitry which often goes wrong in a fencer.
Just go as big as u can.

White Clover

Timmaay wrote: »

I need a new Mains Electric fencer here. https://www.agridirect.ie/product/forcefield-mains-fencer--mx9 the built in fence tester, and audible alarm sound very useful, the liked of cheetah/elephant don't seem to have them as standard. Anyone have that forcefield make, what are they like? Obviously reliably and a decent shock are the utterly most critical things for me.

Run a mile from forcefield Timmaay! Plenty good fencers to choose from, Pel, Gallagher, cheetah and elephant are all very good. Other makes possibly too but don't get a forcefield is my advice!

Dozer1

I have a forcefield one for 6 years now and no issues with it thankfully.
its doing 50 acres the pure finest and is on all year round

Signpost

Did you end up buying a fencer yet? Need one too before cows go out.

mycro2013

Cheetahs g303 fencer nothing comes close. The father use to do contract fencing and we would recommend the cheetah brand for finished jobs. Offer great value we have our one over 15 years.

A lot of farmers had Gallagher and converted to cheetahs for outside blocks. Adequate earth rods are a must.