Fence Energiser, making loud clicks. Help please.

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lelly

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My Gallagher electric fence energiser is making loud clicks now and again. It's a battery run one and is well earthed. The fencing is still working but I have had the neighbour next to the paddock commenting about it. Its about three years old and has had nothing changed. It doesn't do it constantly and is definitely coming from the energiser not the tape. Any help would be gratefully received.
 
A click is normally the energizer earthing. Do you have anything nearby that could be intermittently touching the tape/energiser/battery terminals? Could be as simple as a weed blowing in the wind and touching a live point.
 
HaffiesRock said:
A click is normally the energizer earthing. Do you have anything nearby that could be intermittently touching the tape/energiser/battery terminals? Could be as simple as a weed blowing in the wind and touching a live point.
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I agree, its probably vegetation blowing in the wind, that would explain the fact that it isn't constant
 
Ditto…but depends on the voltage. I think the more powerful ones are meant to have enough joules to work through all but severe vegetation leakage. I'd be looking for a short onto a standard non-electric fence first. Or maybe a piece of wire left over from an old partially buried stock fence? Apparently, walking around your fences with a carefully tuned portable radio is one way of finding a short. Or I could lend you a deaf aid!
 
Could also be a partial break in your tape. Ours is getting a bit ancient and as it breaks down the energiser clicks until we replace it.
 
Thanks for replying everyone. I have just been all the way round the field trimming trees back, there's absolutely nothing that can touch the tape now. Switched it back on but it's still doing it. It was all new three years ago so still quite tidy but could be a break somewhere. The current does still carry all the way round though. Dry rot I was thinking of giving the neighbour some ear plugs!
 
lelly said:
Thanks for replying everyone. I have just been all the way round the field trimming trees back, there's absolutely nothing that can touch the tape now. Switched it back on but it's still doing it. It was all new three years ago so still quite tidy but could be a break somewhere. The current does still carry all the way round though. Dry rot I was thinking of giving the neighbour some ear plugs!
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Could you use the neighbour as a short detectorist??:D
 
I have two Gallaghers, and I hate to be a harbinger of doom, but both of mine were doing this before they packed up. I suspect it may have been a short somewhere within the unit, but as yet I haven't got the funds to have them looked at with a view to repair, so can't be sure.
 
Have you got a voltage tester, if you go round the fence you might pick up a bad bit. also if you walk round the fence when it is dark you can sometimes see where there is a problem as it sparks.
 
sounds as if it is shorting somewhere. check the line to see if there are any spots in the wire/tape where a strand of the wire may have snappe. loop or replace any such areas (replace is best)
 
Thanks people. Where do you actually take these things to be repaired? Or can you have them tested to see if all is well? Gallagher are not in the UK and don't seem to have a service centre or anything here.
Dryrot, that's an excellent idea! I've got to admit she's not happy if she's not moaning about something. She even complained the other day that there was some horse hair on her lawn. Bearing in mind theres a six foot hedge between us and I make a point of raking it up after grooming but she still managed to find some!
 
Hubby (mechanic) says it could be the transponder inside going wrong. Is there a local electrician one even a garage you could ask to check it?
 
Honey08 said:
Hubby (mechanic) says it could be the transponder inside going wrong. Is there a local electrician one even a garage you could ask to check it?
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Probably right - with mine it was definitely something inside the units, not along the fence line. Mine carried on making extra loud ticks very now and then for about a month before stopping completely.
There is a company on Ebay that repairs them, quite expensive but not nearly as much as the cost of a new unit.
 
LittleBlackMule said:
Probably right - with mine it was definitely something inside the units, not along the fence line. Mine carried on making extra loud ticks very now and then for about a month before stopping completely.
There is a company on Ebay that repairs them, quite expensive but not nearly as much as the cost of a new unit.
Click to expand...

They also click louder if the fence line is disconnected, so even though the click is louder at the unit, the cause could be elsewhere.

No electronics engineers on here?? I'm intrigued now!
 
lelly said:
Thanks people. Where do you actually take these things to be repaired? Or can you have them tested to see if all is well? Gallagher are not in the UK and don't seem to have a service centre or anything here.
Dryrot, that's an excellent idea! I've got to admit she's not happy if she's not moaning about something. She even complained the other day that there was some horse hair on her lawn. Bearing in mind theres a six foot hedge between us and I make a point of raking it up after grooming but she still managed to find some!
Click to expand...

Some people have just got too much time on their hands to moan!!!
 
Haha, that's not half. She can hear my horses whinnying and galloping around when she's in her house. She complains about other peoples trees dropping leaves on her garden even though hers drop on everyone else's. She moaned about wanting a post and rail fence put up so horses couldn't eat her hedge, it was done. Six years later she wants it taking down because no one can get up the side to cut the hedge. That's because her hedge has got wider!!! Needless to say the fence is stopping where it is. She shouts me every day for something. I'm starting to pretend I haven't heard her. Give me strength!
 
Well we've found out what it was eventually. 10 out of 10 to everyone who said shorting. There was a break on only one strand of the wire in the tape. Through elimination we checked everything and found it was where the the clip from the energiser clips to the tape. We realised when we moved it along to see if it made a difference. I'm pleased to say the energiser is now working well after replacing a stretch of tape. Thank you all!
 
Just wanted to update. My husband decided to take the energiser apart and it was full of dead creatures. After giving it a good clean up it is working well now. Its that quiet I have a job telling its running. Its got a pulse light thankfully.
 
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