OT How much voltage in a fence charger?

[Gobblerforge]

Just for conversations sake, I was looking to find out how much one of those fence zappers charge. The reason is, and this is funny now, years ago, I got hit by one on the head and it turned out the lights for an instant. You see, I was at my buddy John's dad's farm for a visit. John was divorced, broke and living in a tee pee. His dad's farm was pretty good size and said that John could take up residence back in the woods, some 1/4 mile back. At that time I was divorced, broke and had lots of time so hanging at Johns was very cool. I was getting into blacksmithing and he was a great reason to try to learn to make different projects with real applications. It was good for him and me. Well there was a fence that had to be crossed to get to his tee pee. Most times I used the gate but one time, the direction I was coming from meant that I had to walk a little further to get to the gate. No problem. I'll just cross here. It was three strands of barbed wire but the top wire was a little too high to cross over. So pushing down on the second strand I was attempting to cross under the top strand, as I've done many times in my life, when my head, bald, touched the top wire. The next thing I know I'm on the far side of the fence on the ground. No damage or injury but I was out. I mean I do not remember the ride to the ground at all. Fortunate that I continued through instead of falling back. I would have had to cross it again. I got up and dusted myself off and went on my way apparently non the worse for wear. So this brings to mind the question. What is the high pulse on one of those thing anyway? An what is the voltage through the brain that is enough to short circuit someone? Just curious.
Happy fence crossings, Gobbler

[Mescalero]

[BigSky56]

Last time I checked mine it read 7600 volts DC it will burn thru grass or weeds. danny

[Mescalero]

Because I am ignorant of this subject, on the face of it; that sounds like a lot.
Danny, is this normal?

[Old Ironsights]

Because I am ignorant of this subject, on the face of it; that sounds like a lot.
Danny, is this normal?

It ain't the Voltage, it's the Amperage that'll get ya.

Cheap Chinese "stun-guns" run 50,000 to 75000 volts. A measly 7600 will give you a good pop, but it's really not all that much, all things considered...

[BigSky56]

Mescal , most chargers run from 3500 to 7500 volts the further you are from the charger the weaker the spark, some solar chargers can fire up 5 miles of fence takes a pretty good ground system. danny

[Don McDowell]

They measure the "shock" of an electric fence charger in joules. Some chargers have more than others.
They used to make a Clipper "57" charger that plugged into 120 volt household current, It was supposed to be able to charge 57 miles of fence and would burn any weeds that go in the way. The thing would also blow holes thru birds that lit on the wire to close to a steel post. It'll make a believer out of fence crawlers in a hurry.
The old 6 and 12 volt battery chargers you can just about hang on to and not get much of a zap.
Some of the solar chargers have a pretty snappy bite, but I've still not seen anything that'll match that old Clipper "57"

[damienph]

Electric fences are rated in Joules (defined as 1 watt applied for 1 second). As compared to a kilowatt hour (a value 3.6 million times as great) registered by your house electric meter. Most electric chargers for animal control/protection are rated at 0.2 - 2 Joules (usually 0.2 - 0.5), the "weed burners" are rated as high as 18 Joules.

When the charger pulses, it puts out a very high voltage (usually between 5,000 and 10,000 volts) for a very short time, but it produces very little actual electricity.

The chargers that I use for my horses put out about 5,500 volts, enough to keep them off the fence but not enough to panic them.

My Red Heeler, on the other hand, hid in her dog house for an entire day after she got into it.

[JimT]

I had an electric fence around my calf pen .. came out one day and it wasn't working. Rather than walk around, I reached through the woven wire fence to see why the charger wasn't firing .. grounded myself at about the shoulder (the length of my arm was through the fence) and believe I spoke chinese and several other foreign tongues before I could get loose.

I was happy I didn't have the weed burner hooked up there ...

[Bogie35]

I had an electric fence around my calf pen .. came out one day and it wasn't working. Rather than walk around, I reached through the woven wire fence to see why the charger wasn't firing .. grounded myself at about the shoulder (the length of my arm was through the fence) and believe I spoke chinese and several other foreign tongues before I could get loose.

I was happy I didn't have the weed burner hooked up there ...

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

[Bogie35]

I was fixing my dogs' fencing one day. Since it's not very powerful, I always just have to test it. This time...IT ZAPPED me! My scalp was shivering for a few minutes! I soon realized the moral of the story: "Don't test an electric fence before the morning dew has risen, and for Heaven's sake DON'T DO IT BAREFOOTED!" LOL!

bogie

[kimwcook]

Pretty funny stories. I need to actually replace mine as it isn't hot enough to burn through the tumbleweeds around the exterior and when they grow up they ground out my fence line.

True and funny story (depending on whose telling it, the wife or me). The wife didn't grow up around horses so when I finally got her talked into riding one of our horses that were green broke it was a pretty big deal. Well, we were inside one of the smaller pastures and she walked about three quarters of the down the pasture from me and when she turned the horse around she lit the burners. Her eyes were huge and the horses eyes were huge. I'd never seen him run that fast. They're quickly approaching me and I'm trying to get the horse to slow down because they're coming to the end of the pasture and the fence. No go. He just went around me at mach 9 and made it to the fence a nanosecond later. He went left and the wife went right. She hit the ground really hard at the bottom of the fence. Somehow her left arm got under the bottom wire (I only run smooth wire). She was trying to roll out, but kept hitting her arm on the wire and subsequently kept getting shocked. She was rattled and must of hit that wire about five times before she realized she needed to lower her arm to get out. Luckily she wasn't hurt seriously, but she had a bruise on her back side that lasted about three weeks.

[C. Cash]

All I remember was a hot fence + a tied up, spooky Arabian mare= mucho trouble. One arc on a errent piece of barbed wire and that fence was coming down. The ones I was around ran on 110 volt and they would wake you up pretty good, especially if you straddled one, but werent too bad. We used to touch them with the back of our hands just for fun as young kids ....never passed out or saw anyone do so. You quickly learned to use a wooden shovel handle or piece of wood to push a live one out of the way if needed. I imagine the one you hit was a bit more powerful than the one I was used to.

[vancelw]

My uncle used to raise hogs in the pasture behind his house. Used only a single strand of electric fence to keep them in. Us mean youngsters figured out that you could watch the light way up on the barn and, when it was off, grab the wire and then grab a pig by the ear. The big ones would stand there and grunt every time the light came on. When they had had enough and pulled away - you had better let go the wire with the other hand quick! I guess hogs are tough or their hooves didn't ground well on dry ground, cause that charger would sure knock the pee out of us

(no, I'm not a serial killer...I'm better now)

[Rusty]

Well all I know is that you can tell some people one time and they believe you, others have to pee on the fence for themselves.

[firefuzz]

Well all I know is that you can tell some people one time and they believe you, others have to pee on the fence for themselves.

An experience I've yet to see anyone wish to repeat.

Rob

[Chas.]

I was bird hunting one time. We came into a pasture that had an electric fence strand run on steel pegs about 3-4 feet inside the fence row. My setter somehow managed to get under the electric strand, but her tail touched it. She yelped and reflexively hit the fence row itself. She the bounced back into the electric strand. And bounced back to the fence row, and bounced back into the electric strand. This went on for several iterations, her yelping the whole time. She reminded me of a pin ball. Finally she got out and seemed none the worse for wear.

[RIHMFIRE]

saw an episode of "a 1000 ways to die"
dont ever pee on an electric fence!

[awp101]

I had an electric fence around my calf pen .. came out one day and it wasn't working. Rather than walk around, I reached through the woven wire fence to see why the charger wasn't firing .. grounded myself at about the shoulder (the length of my arm was through the fence) and believe I spoke chinese and several other foreign tongues before I could get loose.

Reminds me of the time I was pulling spark plug wires looking for a dead plug. I was leaning over a wet fender (it started drizzling while I had the hood up) and using what to this day I would swear were insulated pliers.

At least it was a Slant Six 225 and not a REAL engine...

[Mescalero]

I learned about magnetos from my cushman scooter, going through the air backwards is a truely " unique " experience.

[retmech]

Spark plug wire and electronic ignition can get you up in the 50K volt range. Usually what happens there is your head hits the hood when you jump BTDT.

[olyinaz]

I've been zapped by mild electric fences and it's no fun but let me assure you guys it aint SQUAT compared to a full on Taser jolt. I'm certain I've never been hit by one of those "weed burners" though. Yeesh, that doesn't sound good at all.

Oly

[piller]

Nope, electric fences aren't much fun. Especially if you are standing in an irrigation ditch in Colorado when you grab one like my older brother was. He was ok, but his cut off jeans were wet where they hadn't been in the ditch.

[Asherdan]

I just ran a hot top wire on an arena for a friend with a 30 year old Sears charger rated for a weed control. It's billed as good for 10 miles but the arena only took up 300' of 14 gauge, so it's good and hot all the way around. I had to trim some brush back to run the wire, so I would do a check-walk the first few days. I got a kick out of watching the little arcs jumping from wire to new shoots in the morning dew. The friend rents out a couple of stalls, I thought the sign I put up on the tack room door would let ever one know but I guess this one gall wasn't much of a reader. Way I heard it, she cut across the arena and went to hop the fence and got herself a handful of the hot wire and did a jitter-dance before unclenching. She was a little hot under the collar. I brushed it once while reseating a section of rail topper and it made the muscles in my shoulder and neck clench up good. I put it in because of a horse who was pushing over posts from being a fence leaner. It cured him in about 2 days.

[Canuck Bob]

My uncle in northern Alberta ran an electric fence years ago to keep the pigs safe from bears. It was a big steel box that gave a solid and ominous clicking sound. A big old black bear boar wandered up one summer night to grab a weiner. He sniffed the wire and then touched it with his wet nose. We were watching from the kitchen. Man, can a black bear move when properly motivated!