Solar Fence Chargers, What We Use and What We Won't Buy Again.
Vložit
- čas přidán 3. 04. 2022
- It seems like we use more and more solar electric fencing every year. Its a vital part of what we do and how we grow. This video is our opinion of the solar chargers that we own and have used for extended periods of time.
www.premier1supplies.com/
www.gallagher.com/
starklinenet.com/collections/...
Gallagher energizers are always our 1st choice!
It took us some trial and error but Gallagher is our choice as well!
Thanks for watching!
Your video answered like 3 questions i have with my new solar fence charger. Appreciate it man. New pig a poultry farmer here. New subscriber now.
This is very informative, thanks for clarifying your opinion on the chargers. As well as the different fencing you use.
You’re welcome! I try to be as honest as possible. We are pretty rough on things around here so the better stuff shows it’s worth pretty fast. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for sharing up front experience. That's all people want. When you need a new roof or a paint job on the house, you like people to tell who they have used and would use again and who they would not and why. It's simple.
Appreciate you taking time out of busy day or week to film this and put it up for us. Jesus bless.
You’re welcome!! Thanks for watching and giving feed back!
Very well done video. I appreciate honest no-nonsense reviews. I purchased an American Farmer 10 mile solar unit. Thought it was an oversight that the clips weren't with the unit. Now I will have to do another 30 mile trip to get what should have been included. Not a good start. If I have the problems you have had with the 5 mile unit I may solve it by burying the unit in a landfill or use it as a brush pile
fire starter.
🤣🤣 let’s hope not!! Maybe you got a good one! Thanks for watching!
Thanks so much for the informative, to the point video. Also, thanks for showing your whole set up with grounds for us visual learners!
Your welcome! Thanks for watching!
I’m an electrician as well and could not get my new 10mile American farm works to ground properly. 3 8ft rods 10 ft apart, could not get it to spit out a charge. Took it back, bought the Gallagher S40 and it worked instantly. You also don’t have to charge the Gallagher for 3 days first like the American farm works. Gallagher all the way.
Thank you very much bro
You answered a bunch of my questions in this video
Darn, wish I had seen this video before buying my starkline kit. I guess my next investment will be a Gallagher S40 for my potable goat fence. Thanks for the heads up
Starkline says they’ve made improvements! But you can’t go wrong with Gallagher! If you order anything else from Starkline use our discount code! Enter Tillmanfamily at checkout for 10% off.
Hey man, I really appreciated your video. I feel like reviews have turned purely into marketing tool and the many minutes wasted on unrelated clips in reviews seem to have my finger on constant readiness to skip ahead.
That was not the case with your video here direct to the point and informative aimed at helping me decide which steps I need to take going forward. Thanks again. (Subscribed / shared) peace.
Awesome! I’m glad it helped. Thanks for watching! Happy farming!
Since DC travels on the outside of a wire, the slightest corrosion can impede the flow/connection.
Just like my vehicle batteries - ALL of my DC connections get a gel - like -
Super Lube Anti Corrosion and Connector Gel | 82003. Or any gel from the auto parts that is made for your battery terminals.
Particularly important when mixing 2 types of metal at the connection. (copper to aluminum)
Some people use Vaseline but I find it drips off when our GA temps start to rise.
I'm a big fan of Gallagher. - The charger and the comedian (Sledge-O-Matic) .. -KJ
I’m 25 years in the electrical trade. We use No-loks on Aluminum wire as an anti corrosion measure. You are absolutely correct on DC current. The poly wire we use for our fencing isn’t to prone to corrosion because the the steel strands are twisted with the poly and don’t touch. But I am going to check my older connections now!
Thanks for watching!!
Awesome info. Thanks Chris
Thank you for this review! We have been so unsure what way to go, new sub and looking dorward to the other videos
Hey! Glad it helped! Thanks for watching!
Great discussion! Im going to check out starkline fencing. Need to expand my roll collection
The netting is great! No issues at all. The charger is lack luster at best.
Thanks for watch!!
This was a great video. Thank you!!!
You’re welcome! Thanks for watching!
This is very informative, Thanks for sharing the video
You’re welcome! Thanks for watching!
excellent reviews, Thank you for sharing
Your welcome! Thanks for watching!
Great info!
Glad you got something from it! Thanks for watching!
Thanks for the info
Thank you for the guidance. Much appreciated. Subscribed.
You’re welcome! Thanks for watching!
You can ground the premier 1 to the metal “stake” that the unit slides on to. That’s its purpose. The ground wire clamp goes on one of the forks of the stake under the unit.
Thanks for the great information
You’re welcome! Glad it was helpful!
Your channel always deliver. All farm vids...10 20 30 minutes.. big investment clicking. your videos briefer, actual life experience, or teach stuff beyond normal regurgitated yt junk. hope family well. much love to yall.
Ya might know, raw eggs best healing food, contain everything needed for life in perfect packaging, with simplest non-oxidized aminos non-oxidized cholesterol to make proteins hormones and cells to clean house. really fast real food.
Thanks for watching!!
Thank you great information
You’re welcome! Glad it helped!!
Great video
Thank you and thanks for watching!
Thanks for the video. My only complaint with the solar systems that I use, is that when it rains a lot, I get water trapped in my solar boxes and it's ruined some of my chargers.
Kinfolk sent me over to check your channel out. Said you were around Columbus, I’m in Upson Co. myself.
Yes sir! We are north of Columbus in Harris co. Thanks for stopping by!
Where’s the best price you’ve found for the Gallagher s20? Probably gonna start with that and the starkline netting. I’m finding the charger for around $264 today. Thanks again, no pressure on response, I subscribed and will continue to watch and learn man
Right on point with Starkline. I used your code to buy one complete 164 ft complete kit and then an additional 164 ft of fencing only. I here trying to figure out which energizer to buy to replace that terrible s400. I have night time Bear issues here and need to get this figured out right quick. I don’t think that .25 joules is gonna cut it. Any suggestions? I’d like to keep it solar but I could do DC off a battery or run an extension cord. (Not my preferd method. Thanks for the code….love the fence…hate the energizer. They wont call me back either.
We are having great results with with the Gallagher S40. It has two settings. One for livestock and one for wildlife. The one for wildlife pulses faster, once a second I’d say. The setting for live stock is a little slower. If you want to stay solar check that one out. Good luck hope this helps!
I surely will. Thanks for getting back to me so fast!
Great
Thanks for watching!
You should have your charger on a 4x4 off the ground, it's filthy. Also in the electric fence controller manuals they call the fencing you have as "temporary" and shouldn't be used for an electric fence.
Thanks for the advice. These sets get moved all the time most of the time they are on a t post as the slot on the bottom s designed. The blue and black charger that looks like it on the ground is designed with spikes on the bottom the go directly in the ground. I only have one charger that says do not use with poly wire. It’s a 120 volt plug in charger. Some of these chargers came with the temporary poly wire netting that they energize. I’ve had one of these chargers running poly wire for going on 6 years without any trouble yet.
You are correct about American farmworks and zebra.
I knew it!! They look identical besides the labels. Thanks for watching!
I'm very curious about the grounding clips for the Gallagher S20. Do the clips perform as well or better than using multiple grounding rods?
This is a great question!! I’ve been in the electrical trade for almost 27 years and I thought there is no way that was enough ground. But!! To my surprise I’ve had zero problems with grounding on the s20’s or s40’s that we use. We use an s40 on 1/4” polyrope for cows and it will knock your socks off 900’ away from the charger. Seems to have no voltage drop. In most cases I clip them right to a rusty t post
We love our solar chargers.
They are a life saver! I went over and subscribed to your channel!
Thanks for watching!
@@tillmanfamilyfarm7759 Thanks! We read your description ad it sounds a lot like what we want to do. Our long-term goal is to get more land and hopefully get into beef cattle.
We love the cows! We only have 40 acres and cows are slow. But we keep trying to get there!
@@tillmanfamilyfarm7759 we only have 4.5 acres so for us its a very long term goal. Keep trying and I'm sure you will get there!
That stake mounted to the box goes in the ground just like your pipe, in the manual it tells you to use the box bracket to ground to. Altho it may be better with deeper ground
Right, it goes in the ground but it’s a terrible ground for electricity. We have had so many problems with that charger we no longer use it.
Which is better in terms of durability & mending if there's a break in the line & delivery of shock the Polywire or the Tape line?
My premier one charger stopped working in the second year…I had so much trouble with their customer support that I gave up…
WOW!! That’s not good customer service! I hate to hear that. I’m willing to bet you end up with a rare bad unit. I’ve never heard of anyone having problems with them. I will say that moving forward we will only buy Gallagher chargers. We have been impressed with them.
Thanks for watching!
Our premier one poultry netting flops over at the bottom and the lower hot line, the 2nd from the bottom, it lays on the ground or on the grass. we have 10 ft pole to pole distance which is the norm. Even pulling the fence tight or mowing low makes no difference. Do I get a more powerful charger due to all the ground contact, or will that hurt the small animals.
A better charger will help for sure. Also you can get extra post to go in between each section. That will help keep it off the ground too. Hope this helps! Thanks for watching!
We're getting into pigs, we have 2 kunekune piglets & another breeding pair we will pick up in few weeks. I'm looking into electric fencing. I'm wanting something I can move around to keep them on good grass because the kunekune's are mostly grazers. What brand would you recommend for for my situation wanting to move them around fence & charger
Use a Gallagher charger. Either an S20 or an S40. We use the Starkline sheep and goat netting for our pigs. We have another video that would be great for you to watch. It’s titled Pastured pig set up start to finish. I hope this helps! Thanks for watching!
I'm curious about the Zareba brand? Gallagher sold out for size I need and I'm tired of our ancient d/c power one!
We have two of the chargers that I believe are just rebranded Zagrebs. We have had one about 5 years. Only thing we’ve done is replace the batteries. I would buy them again. Ours came from Tractor Supply.
Any up dates on the best Solar charger. Am wanting to put up a deer fence. Thanks
We still feel like the Gallagher solar chargers have done the best job. Just remember deer can jump a 6 to 7ft fence.
Watched a video where a guy ran a ground from box to ground rod & ran a wire from rod to fence. This was a plug in charger…he said it helped the fence not ground out when the grass or something got on the fence. Is that something we can do with solar also?
Let me check on that. I’ve been in the electrical trade for 25 years so should be able to Gifu it out! Thanks for watching.
That's called an earth ground return. If you have alot of rocks or trouble getting good ground it's the next best thing. It requires the animal to touch both a live and grounded line, but works just as well
Hey man, so I have a red sizzle Solar charger hooked up to 3 lengths of rent a coop poultry netting fence and everything was working just fine. Then all the sudden it stopped working… nothing changed about the fence set up. I use 4x 1.5ft ground rods that are pounded all the way in the ground and wired together with good clamps and wire. My charger is in the middle of the fence run. I know the charger is working because I redid all my ground rod connections today and got shocked. I’m at a loss as to why the fence no longer works. There are no breaks, there are no wires under the spikes(which have insulators anyways) and ther is very very little sagging onto the ground, just in one uneven spot. Like I said it was working now it’s not… it has been raining very heavily hear tho, but I thought wet ground only helps an electric fence… my ground is very sandy and decomposed granite…but it was working fine before… I dunno
I had this problem a while back with a charger. Everything seemed to be exactly how it should be. I’d test the charger and I was getting 7,000 to 8,000 volts DC. Hook it back to the fence and it would drop to 2,000 volts DC which is nothing, can hardly feel that. I searched and searched. Changed stuff re did the grounds. I finally grabbed a second charger. Everything worked perfect! I ended up changing the battery out on that charger. Fixed it. 2.5 years old and the battery was bad. There is also a channel that the guy does nothing but fence charger repairs. Lots of videos. Can’t remember the name. Search fence charger repair. Hope this helps.
@@tillmanfamilyfarm7759 thanks for the ideas!
I THOUGHT THEY SHORT IF ANY OF IT TOUCHES THE GROUND OR VEGETATION (SOZ, CAPS STUCK)
Need some help. I got a 50w solar panel, a Magnum 12 energizer, a sealed 12V 55Ah battery tied to 1300ft of poly tape. I had 4 loops fenced and I barely get a zap. Any idea on getting to work better? Thanks
I have a few questions.
Do you have a charge controller between the solar panel and battery?
Are you using a new or used battery?
Please explain your ground rod. What kind is it and what’s the ground like. Dry and hard or loose, wet, mud?
Are you use any metal post?
Have you tested the charger without it connected to the wire?
These answers will help narrow do the issues. Sounds like voltage drop. Can be caused by bad ground or bleed off. Wire to close to metal. You should here a popping sound. To much brush or grass touching the wire.
@@tillmanfamilyfarm7759 Thank you for the quick response. I have a Renogy charge controller of which I hook according to the image the controller shows. I think there are two things that you point out that may cause my weak fence. The battery is not new and I use a T-post of which I grind the bottom that goes to ground and also grind the part where I connect the negative terminal to and drive it down to about 3 ft into the ground. My ground is moist and I use plastic step in fence post to run my poly tape. I do plan on getting 3 actual grounding rods and space them 10ft apart as the instruction suggest and hope that helps. One question, if the battery is the culprit too, could I use a regular car battery or a small size battery like the one you would find inside a Gallagher S40?
@@MyDeere3320 Car battery. The small ones from smaller chargers may not last long on a charger like. The ground rods are a good idea unless you are going to be moving your set up. maybe some of the tee handled ground rods if your moving often. try those things. Hopefully that will get you going. Hope this helps.
@@tillmanfamilyfarm7759 Thank you so much for the help!
I got a good zap that made me let go of the negative terminal quickly after trying to attach it to the new 6 ft ground rod.
Do you think the G-S20 will work keeping Cows out of a small area?
I’m sure it will. Make sure it’s grounded well and test the voltage. If they’ve never been on a hot wire it may take a while to learn it. Thanks for watching!
@@tillmanfamilyfarm7759 what in your opinion is a good voltage number? I just got it and I plan to set it up in a couple of days. Thanks for your video
@@mgar61 It should give you up to 7,000 Volts DC. Just remember the charger will pulse. It's not hot 100% of the time. I think it will pulse every second or two. Every time the light flashes its "shocking" Hope this helps.
Any opinion on the Gallagher for black bears?
The S40 has a setting for large animals. It pulses faster. That’s all I know. We have few bears in the area but we have never encountered them. Hope this helps.
Hello what size t post? 3in or 1.5 in? Thank you!
They definitely aren’t 3in. I’ve been using t post for well over 30 years and I’ve never seen a 3in. I’d hate to have to drive any of those. I’d say they are 1.5. Thanks for watching!
@@tillmanfamilyfarm7759 tractor supply have 3 in ones that’s why I asked. I figured they were 1.5in. I just wanted to make sure. I orders my stuff. I’ve never used solar electric fencing. I’ve always had the standard ones and I’ve never used netting. These are for chickens and goats. We don’t have pigs. Thank you!
For starkline 164 ft would the s20 be enough?
It’s worked fine for us. Though the s40 is a great investment. If your raising chickens you’re not using the electric to keep them in but to protect them. So maybe more bang is better to keep the predators out. Hope this helps. Thanks for watching.
@@tillmanfamilyfarm7759 gonna have turkeys inside mine. Thank you so much .
Also besides brands is it better to buy sections of electric fencing then buy a charger separately, or buy a start up kit & add another fence section? I seen your other vid & I definitely want more of the premium style fencing I don't want to deal with adding post's between to prop the sagging fence. It will be mostly for our pigs but we will have some of our Nigerian dwarf goats with them. I have my set of piglets with my male Nigerian goats right now. But I need to get the pigs thier own area soon, exspecialy sense we have another breeding pair we put deposit on. I'm excited about the pigs, we have had good experience with our goats & chickens. We just started our little farm less than a year ago. It's coming together nicely
Always order premium netting. No matter what brand. The premium will always have fiberglass post. Much better than the PVC. I have over a 1000 ft of netting and no matter what we add a post at an angle in the corners. It just help keep the whole line tight. The starter kit is alright from premier one. Do not buy the starter kit from Starkline. Gallagher chargers are the best is our opinion.
@@tillmanfamilyfarm7759 so you would recommend the premium fencing from starkline? Its a 9/35/7 & 164 feet long. What sized solor charger would I need for 2 of those combined? So 328 feet? Definitely appreciate the advice.
Starkline Premium Poultry netting is 12/48/3 164’ long. Love it for the birds! We use Starkline Premium sheep and Goat netting for pigs 9/35/7 164’ long. We use two different Gallagher chargers. The S20 and the S40. Both work great. The S40 pops a little harder so if you have bird way out somewhere it may be best for predators. Hope this helps! By the way we have a discount code with them. On the check out page there is a box for a discount code. Enter TILLMANFAMILY for 10% off.
@@tillmanfamilyfarm7759 awesome thank you I definitely appreciate it!
@@tillmanfamilyfarm7759 couple more questions when you have time. I was talking to a guy about electric fencing. He also has cattle & running a 16 acre pasture. So I'm sure length of fencing changes things. He was not recommending solar power chargers. He said after a night then 1 cloudy day his fever lost charge & all his cattle got out. He was recommended hard wire. We're only going to be running 2 sets of premium goat netting for our goats & pigs I think each section is 168feet something around that length.we Also want to be able to move the fencing around the property. Do you only run dollar charger's? With the Gallagher s20 & s40 have you had issues with them holding charge after couple cloudy days? We just don't want out pigs or goats getting out if the charger could potentially lose a charge. How long have you been using solor & is that all you use is solar chargers? I really appreciate your help and time!
You're not connecting your netting to the charger correctly. This alligator clips go on the metal clip at the first post, that way the power goes directly to all the horizontal wires at once. Clipping onto polyrope doesn't give a good connection.
Correct. But for netting openings when moving animals around you can’t always get your charger in direct sunlight. Which causes a actual problem after a few days. I’ve never had a fence test different no matter where the charger is connected. But when everything is just right I like to connect to the metal clips.
You dont have the ground deep enough on that last fence. Drive that down another foot.
The Gallagher is out of stock. What now?
Everywhere? I know rural king sells them and several on line stores stock them. Sorry your having trouble getting one.
just in case you did not know THE GROUND IS EVERYTHING OK
Yep. 28 years in the electrical trade. I’ve fixed more true grounding problems than anything else.
Your soil may be too dry on that chicken ground rod.
Try pouring water down the rod to see, if that helps. I heard ground rods were best placed on the north side of a building or in a wet/moist area of soil.
It wasn’t the ground in this case. It was the charger. I changed it out and everything was just fine. You are correct and the soil being too dry. You can increase the resistance by pouring water around a ground rod if your in a drought. But that also means that you probably had an insufficient grounding system to begin with. Unfortunately I’ve been in the electrical trade for about 28 years and have dealt with more grounding issues then I care to remember. Thanks for watching!
Might be a good video, but you can't hear what the hell he's saying.
Sorry man. I have had that complaint yet.
The sound is fine. Check your hearing aid. 🙄
I hear him just fine