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ANSWERS TO FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS, PAGE 7
Are Electric Fence Ground Rods Important?
Ground rods or some kind of grounding arrangement is vital to the work of any electric fence. Indeed, grounding problems are reputed to be the most common cause of electric fence failure. For this reason, it is worth focusing attention on this matter and ensuring that your electric fence system is well-grounded.
Any electric fence consists of two systems—an active system including all charged elements connected directly or indirectly to the charger's positive terminal, and an inactive system including all "grounded" elements connected directly or indirectly to the charger's negative terminal. In the classic setup these grounded elements consist of a wire connecting the negative terminal to a ground rod; the ground rod itself; and moisture in the soil leading over from the ground rod to the feet of a target animal. The animal gets a shock when it touches the charged wire because it provides a bridge between the active and grounded systems-allowing the charge to pass from the wire through the animal and its feet, through the soil moisture, up the ground rod, and along the ground rod wire to the charger's negative terminal, thereby completing the circuit.
For this system to work, it is essential that the circuit NOT be completed until the target animal touches the charged conductor on the fence. Therefore, it is necessary that the fence charger's "ground" terminal NOT be connected up to the charged conductor or any wire attached to that conductor. This "ground" terminal must ONLY be connected to a ground rod and/or ground wire that is NOT connected to any charged element.
While on the subject of completing circuits, it's worth noting that it is not necessary for the charged conductor on the fence to come full circle in order to "complete a circuit" because the pulsed charge that travels outward along the fence conductor should register well at the end of the electric fence line whether or not that line goes full circle. It is only important that all sections of this electric fence line be well-connected to the fence charger's output terminal or to some other properly charged portion of the electric fence.
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