An electric fence tester is essential to anyone that is thinking of building or may have a electric fence on their property.  The maintenance of the fence is just as important as the construction.  Knowing how much voltage is running through your fence at any given time will ensure the safety of the animals that you are trying to detour.

You can easily check the voltage of your fence with an electric fence tester. There are several types of electric fence testers on the market today and buying the right one to meet your needs is critical. In my experience shopping for the perfect electric fence tester for my farm, I came across two different types.  The first one was a tester that checked the voltage by using a lighting system.  The second one was a digital electric fence tester that had a very useful digital readout.  I will give you my thoughts on the two and hopefully you will be able to make a good choice following my reviews.

Not having any electric fence stores in my area I had to go online to shop for a tester.  There are several good retailers online, so don’t worry about not being able to find a source.  Just be sure to check the quality of the sites and read any reviews of the retailer before deciding to make your purchase. If you live in a area where you may have a electric fence shop then you are already ahead of the game and have a great resource for building and maintaining your fence.  A good piece of advice is to ask questions!  The more knowledge you gain the better quality fence your will build and the maintenance portion will become second nature.

The first tester I purchased was a Zareba RSVT8 from Amazon.   I like this retailer because the reviews they have are pretty spot on.  I decided on a Zareba electric fence tester because form what I gathered they are the main player in electric fence testers. I also have heard some great things about the Dare electric fence tester, but decided to stay with Zareba.  This model was an 8 light model that did not have many bells and whistles.  It had eight different voltage readings ranging from 600v – 7000V.  When you attach the alligator clip to the fence (be sure to use the ground wire) it had a light right next to each reading. Depending on what voltage you had going through the fence, the tester would send a signal to the light that next to the correct voltage.  Although it did not give me an exact readout, it was a good basic tester that would give you a very quick estimate on what your voltage. Only weighing one pound, this electric fence tester is light in the hands and easy to carry.  One down side to this tester was the ground wire.  It was really too short for me to correctly ground the tester.  I have a fairly high fence and wanted to test several levels.  At best the ground wire was 3’ which did not give me any slack towards the top of the fence.  You can’t beat the price at $18 if you want a low level tester.

The second one was a digital electric fence tester model number DEFT1 and was purchased from Valleyvet.  This had a digital read out that read voltage from 500 – 9,900 volts. Power source was a standard 9 volt battery that came with the unit.  The LCD display was very easy to read. In order to prolong battery life this unit as a auto shut off, after about a minute of not using this unit it will shut completely off. Also very light weighing just less than 1.5 pounds with the battery installed. The digital tester will work on poly wire or rope, poly tape, or metal wire; self-contained ground probe. Needless to say after about 20 feet of checking our fence…I through the lighted one away (OK not really).  This digital fence tester had all the bells and whistles.  Costing just under $40, you won’t be disappointed!