Maintenance
Module 11: Inspection, Maintenance & Troubleshooting
A fence is not a one-time install — it's a system that degrades continuously from UV exposure, vegetation growth, freeze-thaw movement, and animal contact. A maintenance schedule catches problems before they become injuries or escapes.
| Interval | Check |
|---|---|
| Weekly | Visual walk of the line; look for leaning posts, loose wire, damaged insulators |
| Monthly | Digital voltage test at the far end of every electrified run |
| Seasonal | Vegetation clearance along the base of the fence (the #1 cause of voltage loss); check for frost heave on posts |
| Annual | Full post inspection for rot at the ground line; retighten tensioned wire/tape |
Vegetation is the most common real-world fault: tall grass or brush touching an electrified line continuously drains the pulse to ground, and can silently drop a well-designed 6,000V system down to an ineffective few hundred volts without any visible damage to the fence itself. This is why voltage should always be tested with an actual meter at the far end of the run, not assumed from how the fence looks.
Post rot typically shows first at the ground line as a slight give when pushed, well before it's visible above ground — a simple annual push-test on a sample of posts catches this early, before a corner post fails under tension.
Always disconnect or ground out the energizer before handling wire or tape by hand for repair, even briefly — treat every electrified line as live until confirmed otherwise with a meter.