Zareba ESP5M-Z Solar Powered Low Impedance Electric Fence Charger - 5 Mile Lightning Electric Fence Energizer, Contain Animals and Keep Out Predators,Black

I noticed there were a ton of negative reviews on Zareba products but I didn't have the luxury of time so I took a chance. I'm glad I did.At first I thought I had screwed up because I couldn't get consistent performance out of the fence. Sometimes you could touch it for a moment and nothing would happen. Sometimes you'd get a small shock, sometimes you'd get blasted. I figured something was wrong with the unit. Actually, I have this one and the 2 mile Solar unit and both were doing the same thing. So I thought, "Well, that's what you get for rushing into it without doing the proper research."But I'm a math/science guy and I thought, "I can't honestly say I know for a fact that these units are defective without testing them. So I bought a $29 fence tester. Thank God I did!Turns out these units send a pulse of electricity every one or two seconds. I'm not sure of the timing. But I had figured it would be an open circuit that would blast you the moment you touched it. Not true. You can often times touch the fence for a moment or two and nothing will happen if you're in between pulses. But if you touch it at the right time you'll be blasted.So the tester helped me understand how these units work.The second thing it helped me do was diagnose a bad ground. The tester will tell you how many volts you're getting with each shock. You test it at the unit itself and then test to fence to see how much you are losing. With a clean fence and a pretty good ground I was getting about 9,000 volts out of both units at the fence. I was getting 12,000 volts testing the unit itself. Those were the best numbers I could get. But trust me....9,000 volts is a solid shock. Take your shoes off and stand barefoot on the ground and touch that fence. You'll jump two feet in the air.So if you're working with electric fences for the first time, make sure of two things:1) Get a tester that's built specifically for electric fences. Not only will you use it to diagnose a bad ground during installation, but you can test the fence regularly to see if it's getting grounded out by weeds. You'll see the voltage start to drop. When it gets below 8,000 I clear the fence again and it goes back up around 9,000.2) You need an awesome ground. I don't even know you and I can't see your setup but I can tell you right now the problem is your ground. It's really about the only problem you can have with such a simple setup like this. If the unit works then all you need is a good ground and you're ready to go. Make sure you have a minimum of two (preferably three) long ground rods installed as per the instructions - about 10 feet apart.There are a lot of bad reviews on these fencing units and I know from experience that most of the time the unit is fine. The installation wasn't done properly and the fence wasn't properly tested.

Easy to setup and it works well

These aren’t cheap, but my old one lasted about 5 years. They are powered by a small battery and charged up by solar. I have maybe 500 feet or so of paddock electrified so horses won’t chew on cross rails. After buying the new one I found a YouTube vid explains how to take old one apart to get at the battery. Bought a battery fro something like $35. Took old one apart, charged and installed new battery, put back together and works fine. Not hard to do if your a little bit handy. Installed the new one & have a backup.By the way, this is outside 24/7 in northern Ohio mounted on the barn wall facing south. Not covered and very exposed to elements. Hard to believe that old battery lasted so long (5-6 years) in those extreme conditions. Here it can get below zero and tons of snow in winter & blazing hot in summer. Good product & easy to install.

I forgot to write a positive review about these great fence chargers. The first one I bought was faulty and stopped working shortly after I installed it. Zareba center replacement immediately and the charger has worked so well I bought more of them and have been delighted. This is definitely my go-to brand of chargers now.

set this up for my horses using the 1 1/2 inch tape style fencing. Tired of them laying on fences that I then have to go re-stretch and fix all the time. I'm Kind of particular about how my fences look. Installed easily, (NOTE), unit has to charge for 3 days before you turn it on, so set it outside early. It's already been through one HECK OF A STORM!! Golf ball sized hale for about 20 minutes, dumping rain and 80mph winds for well over an hour, plus a day of pretty steady rain and drizzle a day before that. Was terrified that my new expensive charger was gonna have a busted out solar panel from the hale, NOT A SCRATCH to be found! Volt meter is pulsing between 985 and 1200 VOLTS, not sure why it isn't the same on every pulse, but 985 should be plenty to dissuade my horses from laying on it and 1200 is more than enough. Happy with my product. SIDE NOTE. red and green screw down caps seem a little flimsy and i was scared to tighten them down on the wire too tight for fear of stripping them so I just kind of snugged them. and why in the world anyone would label their electrical output in "joules" is beyond me for anything outside a universal scientific reason. No one has time to convert energy from joules to watts to volts, zebera should just put it in volts and be done with it. This is why it got 4 stars from me, I'm a science major and still had to go refresh myself on joules and how to convert them. The screw down caps and joules measurement is why I gave it 4 stars.