Fence chargers

I've been through 3 $200 Holdem's in 2 years. No, I don't keep buying them, they keep getting exchanged. My Third one quit working and I bought a Paramak and haven't had any problems at all.

Each failure has been the transformer inside arcing through the enamel insulator on the XFormer windings.

The Service Center told me they build low cost units for Tractor Supply, and for $100 I could upgrade mine with a new board and Xformer. It's wasn't worth it, so Paramak ended up in the pasture!

Regular high impedance -- if grass touches the wire it will short out.

Weed chopper high impedance -- This type shocks hard enough to cut grass off to keep it from touching wire.

Low impedance -- has the ability to increase its energy output as load increases from grass touching which gives it the ability to still shock.

A 2 joule I would call a medium to medium low charger. I have seen 0.5 joule to 15 joule. This would make yours a very good short hair charger in my mind used for cows and horses but a lot has to do with the lenght of fence and how good a ground you have. If you have sheep or a long hair dog ect. and a long fence you may need a little higher joule. To correct this problem I have found it best to release animals into a new area for the first time during or just after a rain. The wet hair plus wet ground aid in shocking and gaining respect for the fence.

Regular fence chargers of old do a good job with regular or barbed wire.

The low impedence fencers of today are needed when using the vinyl tape or rope type fence. The small wires imbedded in the vinyl will act like a toaster wire when used with a regular fencer. They will get hot and melt. But the low impedence can be used on regular wire.

Can't comment on the brand, but a 2 joule is a medium powered fencer and unless you are really stretching the footage of fencing will do nicely to hold your livestock.

Biggest factor you need to pay attention to is your grounding system for the fence. With that unit I would drop 2 8' grounding rods spaced about 8' apart. Grounding is the most common cause of poor electric fence performance.