Patriot PE5 fence charger (ac)

Details

A step up from the PE2, the PE5 doubles the output to 0.2 joule and Patriot rates it for up to five miles of wire or about twenty acres. That is acreage territory: a couple of horse paddocks, a calving pen, a hobby flock, or a hot wire riding along an existing page-wire fence to stop the pushers. It is a low impedance design, which is the part that matters once grass starts touching the wire in June. Low impedance means the unit can push current through some leakage without the voltage collapsing across the whole line. It still will not beat a fence buried in quack grass, and it will not beat a poor ground field, so plan on a good ground rod driven into soil that stays damp, and walk the line with a tester after every hay season. The PE5 plugs into a standard 110V outlet and has to be mounted somewhere sheltered, with only the lead-out wire heading outdoors. An LED confirms it is pulsing and the control knob is sized for cold hands. Patriot covers it for two years including lightning.