Yup, I've got electric fence issues!

Hi all,

Newbie to ALL of this so be gentle.

I bought and erected an electric fence recently from an Italian, an Italian because my wife and I have moved to Italy to start a small holding.

Now our language is improving every day but there are limits, however I managed to go into the agricultural shop and walk out with a power cube, 9v battery, solar panel, earth stake, ropes and evertyhing else needed to get started, a huge achievement.

Now the fence is erected an looks great but all i can get is 1000V from it, i mild tingle at most.

After doing some digging on the internet and opening up the cube it seems the solar panel isn't charging the battery, the battery is saline not rechargeable, so solar is only for day use but that's definitely kicking out much less than the battery does, i get a much bigger buzz from the battery when the sun goes down but still my tester only registers 1000v and last might we lost all of our potato crop thanks to badger or porcupine, so would desperately like to resolve this soon so any help greatly appreciated.

Welcome!
Sorry to hear about your potatoes Stuart

Solar set ups are a bit more involved than plug-in electric systems. I'm no expert, but I do use a lot of electric fencing here at my place.

Is the solar panel connected to the energizer as a single unit? Or are they separate.... Do you have a controller? Or is everything in that cube?
You don't mention what is the output of your energizer/cube is..... How much fence line are you covering with this equipment?

A 12 volt, deep cycle battery would be much better. And the zap you get from the battery means little when troubleshooting a fence set up.


Assuming your equipment is working correctly - AND - is potent enough.

#1 fence issue is improper grounding. The most important issue here is enough metal in the ground with proper moisture in the soil for an effective ground. So what have you set up for grounding?

And can you provide us some pictures? The brand names of the equipment you bought?

I'll try and help if I can ~

Hi Jami,

Thanks for then reply!

The cube/energizer is called a Kube Argus 250, manufactured by Horizont, a German company.

The cube is made to have this solar panel clipped to the top with the batter inside, inside the lid it has two sets of connection terminals, one marked solar the other battery.

I've been struggling to find any info about it other than that as it's no longer listed on the manufacturers website, seems they've been upgraded maybe.

I have contacted customer support also so we'll see if i hear anything back from them.

The earth spike is a galvanised steel post of about five foot although i thinknonly three and a half are in the soil, i kept hitting rock, our village name translates into 'good stone' i know why now!

The fence is 100 metres in length, not very high as it's to stop boar, the lower line is uncharged the second and third are, I've done this by running a 200m length around twice without a break in it.

Will get some pics for you.

Thanks again.