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Planning Guides > Product Selection Guide > Electric Fence Testers Guide
10. Electric Fence Voltage Testers Guide 
Ordinary volt-meters are not designed to cope with the high-voltage pulses produced by low impedance electric fence chargers, and so they cannot determine the voltages these chargers place on electric fence lines. Instead one must use a voltage reader designed specifically for this purpose. Such electric fence testers are not expensive, and some are dirt cheap. The cheapest that we stock (in the catalog see Simple Positive Voltage Reader, product 04-01) costs very little, but it can only tell when a voltage is present and tells nothing about whether the voltage is sufficient to shock deer. A five-light electric fence tester (in the catalog see Five-Light Voltage Reader, product 04-02) does considerably better, indicating whether there are 1, 2, 3, 4 , or 5 kv on the line. If one wishes to test for higher voltages, or to find out whether the desired 2.5 kv are present, or to determine how much the grounding system or other factors have affected the voltage on an electric fence line, this can be done readily with the sort of digital electric fence tester (in the catalog see Digital Voltage Reader, products 04-03, 04-05, 04-06, and 04-07) used by practically everyone who is seriously involved in maintaining electric fence. All of the electric fence chargers that we stock have lights or digital displays that indicate whether the electric fence charger and electric fence system are working. However, that's all they indicate. They say nothing about faulty connections along the fence line, so they cannot tell whether all sections of the fence are working. For this reason, anyone with a marginal need to tell how the fence is working should obtain a five-light elecric fence tester, and anyone who wishes to take accurate measurements should get a digital electric fence tester. |