Solar fence charger stopped working

[presmudjo]

New to cows. We aquired a 3 week old bull to bottle feed. Well now about 18 months later we have a female for him and have put in very sturdy fences 5 strand Barbwire around property with areas we can cut off, etc. We put in electric near top with solar unit. Has worked great when not grounded out, like the cheap plastic insulators pull off the screws. Been fixing that with washers. Now I noticed A1 The Big Dog, yup the bull, touching the wire with no effects. Seems no current. I can't find anything grounding it out. One weed had grown up, I cut it out, but doesn't seem that would have shorted it out. Anyway, I don't know how long it has not been working, could be almost 2 weeks since I checked it. To many holidays and events keeping us busy. Do you think I fried the battery with too much charging and no discharge? If so, how would I check that? Or do you think I still have a short somewhere I am not seeing. I'm in Central Florida, so lots of sun, but also we've had some nasty lightning storms. Maybe it got fried? Any suggestions would be great. Hope I gave enough information for you all to help diagnose the problem.
Thanks
Jo

 

[dyates]

The solar panel retired on mine so it just runs until the battery is dead. I extended the leads and set an old 6v tractor battery on the ground. It's hotter than the little battery and I only have to recharge once every couple months.

 

[dun]

Depends on the kind and configuration of the charger. Is the battery and the solar panel in one unit with the charger itself? Without a digital tester it's really hard to diagnose problems with electric fence. The causes that I've seen in descending order of frequency are: 1) Lead from the charger to the fence, or battery and/or the solar panel is disconnected, 2) Battery is dead for whatever reason, 3) Charger got a hit from lightening and is toast, 4) Solar panel doesn;t work. If you had an effective ground, unless something is disconnected from it that probably isn;t the porblem

 

[presmudjo]

The battery is inside the unit. So if I open it up, hope I can anyway, I can test the battery? Is it the same as a lawn mower or boat battery to test? I'm only asking this because hubby is out of town on business meetings which I'm sure he is not having a good time during the day and doesn't need to worry about stuff at the house. When he gets back we are going on a well needed vacation to see his family and won't have much time for him to diagnose or fix problems. The lawnmower didn't start yesterday, called the mobile guy down the road. Seems the needle in carb, which is now plastic these days, was having issures. Second one he saw like that today, same mower even. Scratching his head as to why they used plastic needle in first place and why it seems to be sticking when their was no apparent reason. Showed me how to tap the bowl if it happens again hoping it will work, and he is hoping the replacement needles will start being metal, if and when that may happen. He's calling Briggs and Stratten person he knows to report and ask about it. Thanks for the support info.
Jo

 

[dun]

You can check the battery with a volt meter, just like any other. If it doesn;t have much juice it could be the battery or the solar panel that is bad. If it has 12-14 volts or there about, the charger is porbalby TU.

 

[alabama]

New to cows. We aquired a 3 week old bull to bottle feed. Well now about 18 months later we have a female for him and have put in very sturdy fences 5 strand Barbwire around property with areas we can cut off, etc. We put in electric near top with solar unit. Has worked great when not grounded out, like the cheap plastic insulators pull off the screws. Been fixing that with washers. Now I noticed A1 The Big Dog, yup the bull, touching the wire with no effects. Seems no current. I can't find anything grounding it out. One weed had grown up, I cut it out, but doesn't seem that would have shorted it out. Anyway, I don't know how long it has not been working, could be almost 2 weeks since I checked it. To many holidays and events keeping us busy. Do you think I fried the battery with too much charging and no discharge? If so, how would I check that? Or do you think I still have a short somewhere I am not seeing. I'm in Central Florida, so lots of sun, but also we've had some nasty lightning storms. Maybe it got fried? Any suggestions would be great. Hope I gave enough information for you all to help diagnose the problem.
Thanks
Jo

Lightning? Check the fuses in the charger.

 

[presmudjo]

Son is home from school. He can help check things out. 16 and knows everything somedays.... I deal with it. Seems he knows less and less as he is getting older, ha ha. 14 was bad, knew everything! Summer school because homework wasn't important in all classes. Boy is he learning now. Bet the last 2 years of school will be good grades now. Anyway, thanks for all the pointers. Didn't realize may have a fuse. Lightning in Florida is bad. Good grounding doesn't seem to matter here. We have 2 10 ft ground rods, 10 ft apart and heavy copper. The rods are in area where we keep lawn watered so ground doesn't dry out all the way. Thanks again everyone.
Jo

 

[presmudjo]

It's toast. No fuse to be found, battery checks in at .9 and attaching a external battery, no output. Thanks for all the input and heading me in the right direction. No electric there and putting it in may be a pain, will see later this year if we will run outside electric that way or not. Extention cord not feasible.
Jo

 

[dun]

Some chargers (most should have) have pluggable components. Take it to where you bought it and see if they have the parts and knowledge to fix it.
Grounding the charger doesn;t really do anything besides make the circuit from the fence to ground so that it shocks. The hot side of the charger should be connected to a lightening choke to prevent a strike on the fence going back up and blowing the charger. lightening chokes were discussed on here a while back, a search should turn them up.

 

[presmudjo]

Yup, lightning arrestor still in the box. Bought it not long ago after reading about it on these boards. Box doesn't help now does it. Things get shuffled around here like I don't know. Anyway, I think it is toast since another battery hooked up didn't give out juice at the outlet stems. I could buy another battery, that is the only replaceable part. Would have to order it either through were I bought it or internet. I may buy a new solar charger, (quick fix to get it going now) and buy a battery that I will have to wait for. Then I would have 2 if by chance it is only the battery and not internal fried. Otherwise I would have a spare battery in any case. Well anyway the lawn mower is fixed for now. Thanks for all the help, really appreciated.
Jo

 

[Jogeephus]

If its the type solar charger they sell around here, I have found you can buy the batteries at hunting shops cause they use them in fish feeders and deer feeders. You can't buy anything here but you can find that battery here. Just a tip.

 

[dun]

Buy a new solar charger and get one by a major named manufacturer. I prefer the type that uses a deep cycle marine battery (trolling motor battery), they're made to be discharged and recharged without causing problems with them.

 

[presmudjo]

So what I have is a Fi-shock ss440 medium duty, 4 V thing. What other solar options are out there? I've read great reviews on this thing, and it does shock the crap out of you. Hubby was feeding in am, grass wet, leaned over and touched fence. Burn mark on arm. Proud wound I guess after the cuss words. See, A1 is not the average Bull, he has this thing that if he can get out he can. Remember he was or is still a baby. Just to prove he can. A bull does have a mind. They are not dumb animals. At least this one anyways. Put something new in "his" field", it's toast. Grrrr. Like we are trying to help him enjoy life....

 

[dun]

We use Gallagher, a friend of ours has good luck with Stafix.
You might want to check wtih the manufacturer 1-800-800-1819 hours 8-6 EST

 

[presmudjo]

Thanks everyone. Sorry for delay, haven't been on computer much. I did buy a new one, bigger, better and it is working like a charm. This one has a needle to tell me it is putting out, not just a blinking light. I can't think of the name of it, but the feed store owner uses it herself too.