Strange electrical problem

[dr sportster]

Have two electric fence controllers Plug into cord do not work Cord is hot on wiggy or other appliances . Plug fence controller into kitchen receptacle works fine. { bought the electric fence tester] Plug into ext. cord by wires no power output. The only thing I can think it to possibly be is too much voltage drop in the cords to let the controllers work ? Fence controller also worked in porch outlet. Just not the two extension cords I ran ?

 

[used red MN]

Kind of a long shot but sometimes cord plugs only have contacts on one side of the female plug. Maybe the male prongs are unusually thin or short. Try bending the male prongs apart to where you have to slightly force them together to plug them in. If no joy try bending them together.

 

[Steve@Advance]

I doubt voltage drop unless you're several hundred feet out and very light gauge wire.

I would try plugging in a known good appliance, like a drill or drop light, preferably something with a similar watt draw as the fence charger. Get it working, then you can test voltage under load.

 

[DoubleO7]

I am assuming you have tried more than one extension cord?
Could be the male and/or female contacts are really corroded, have gotten too hot, have arced and pitted the contact surfaces.

Made the fence charger needs all three wires connected.

I have had several extension cords where there is a ground prong sticking out. And after a a year or two the prong falls out as it was only molded into the plastic male end and there was no ground wire in the cord at all.
Maybe check your extention cord terminals for continuity just in case you got one too.

 

[Mule Meat]

Have you thought about using an electrical tester to check for voltage on the female end of the cords?

 

[Janicholson]

Poke one of those 3 to 2 prong adapters in the extension and see if that makes it operate.
Replacing the cord cap with a quality strain relief plug might also be an Idea. Jim

 

[wrenchere85]

Where I used to work, we had an extension cord in the parking lot going to a charger for a scissor lift. Customers were always running over it and cutting a wire inside the covering, but not cutting the outer covering. I repaired that cord so many times. I would plug the cord and put a test light on the other end. Than wiggle the cord by hand from one end to the other. Till the test light would turn on, than repair the break at that spot. The tough ones were if it had more than one break. This was a heavy duty, expensive cord.

 

[Jerry/MT]

I have a small air compressor hat works on 129V and I tried using it with a 100 ft 12gauge extension and it would not run. I hooked it to a 25-foot extension cord, also 12 gauge and it ran. I concluded there was too much voltage drop.

 

[paul]

How long and what gauge are the extension cords? You are using 2 cords, so there can be 4 ends that cause problems. Actually 6 connectors, 4 on the cords one on the fencer and one on the wall.

I dont know what a wiggy is, so that didnt help.

You say the cord is hot, I think you mean live, working? Or is it literally hot to the touch, that would be your issue! Electrical is confusing enough, dont say hot when you mean its working. Hot is typically a big problem when dealing with electrical stuff.....

Normally a fencer doesnt use all that much power so voltafpge drop would be a big concern, but how long a run are you making with the cords. And more so, how are the 4 ends, it is common for a plug end to get roughed up and work intermittently, or bent spades that dont contact right, and so forth. Resistance in the plug ends would be a bigger concern creating resistance, or the heat you might have felt?

A good tester would get you a long ways.

Paul

 

[Tony in SD]

A volt meter would tell you a lot. Rather than guessing.

 

[dr sportster]

Cords have good blade contact. Wiggy or Wiggins is an electricians voltage tester. which could give false reading on blade contact which is why I used an appliance to test as well. 80 foot ext.cord. Serious case of VD

 

[miangus]

Here is you answer. Put a new end on the cord.

 

[dr sportster]

Not the problem tried several cords.

 

[Ralph, Ohio]

I haven't dealt with fence chargers for a long time but the ones I am familiar with always had a terminal that needed to be connected to a good ground like a ground stake. Is it possible that newer fence chargers with a 3 wire plug use the third prong safety ground connection for their ground? If that's the case & somehow your cords are not completing the safety ground circuit, probably a drill or other electric device would work at the end of the extension cords but the fence charger would not. Just pure speculation on my part.

 

[paul]

You are way ahead of me then.

We have run 3 different fencers over the past 60 or so years on two different 50 foot long extension cords. Only trouble weve ever had is when raccoons climb the crib walls and unplug the cord.

Paul

 

[miangus]

Maybe low voltage fails to charge the capacitor in the fencer and you need a heaver cord. I know over voltage will toast a fencer, there is a varistar soldered across the L1/L2 and when it sees a voltage higher then normal it closes blowing the fuse. It can be replaced.

 

[JMOR]

E-fence chargers draw so little power that a line voltage drop is not likely to be a problem with even an 18GA wire a hundred feet long, , assuming all connections are good