Comments on: Twisted Wire

By: Ron Parks

Ron Parks — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:55:02 +0000

Most of the instructions show adding a splice on each wire separating the twisted portion going to the box inside from the non-twisted wire that forms the boundary loop. What is the purpose in using a splice at this point? Why not just twist the wire and use a non-conducting piece of material to keep the twist in place. Thanks for your help.

ADMIN – Hi Ron,

You don’t need to add a splice when you transition to the twisted section. As you suggest, you can just get the two regular boundary wires and start twisting them at the point where they come together. (You usually don’t need anything to hold the twist in place, the stiffness of the wire usually does the job – although it would not hurt).

The reason we show a splice is that most people purchase the twisted wire separately. And where they twist the wire themselves, it is easier to twist the wire in your home or workshop than to twist it on site. But, your way will work identically.

By: Jen

Jen — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:01:30 +0000

We have a small city lot with a six foot tall wood fence. I would guess 20 x 30 feet We would like to get a invisible fence to contain an English pointer foster dog that could be a fence climber or jumper. Is there a way to arrange the wire so there is no correction until the dog is right at the fence?

ADMIN – Hi Jen,

You can run the wire along the top of the fence, then adjust the boundary width control dial so the correction does not reach all the way down the fence. That way the dog will only get the correction when they are climbing the fence and not while they are still on the ground.

I would however encourage you to have a few feet of buffer between the dog and the fence, particularly when you do the training. Once the dog has a full head of steam and is sailing over the fence, even if they get the correction there is nothing that they can do to change course. It is better if they get the correction a few feet before the fence.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:08:53 +0000

Hi, I have the IUC-5100. I have one big loop, covering about 2 acres, with my house (and the transmitter) in the middle. My twisted wire runs out from the transmitter about 70 feet before it connects to the loop. Recently, I noticed that the twisted wire is activating the collar when it gets within a couple of feet! So my poor dog is getting shocked when she goes across one part of the yard. I played with my transmitter, and changed the containment area from “large” to “small” and that seemed to fix it.
However, I’m not good at leaving well enough alone. I wanted to add a second loop to go around a flowerbed, so I ran all that wire and hooked it in. After I did that, my twisted wire was activating the collar again. I tried adjusting containment area and field size, but it still did it. So I took the new loop out and put it back like it was before, and now it still activates the collar. I replaced part of the twisted wire that I suspected might be damaged, but to no avail. My twisted wire is a combination of Innotek wire and twisted wire from Lowe’s that I twisted tighter with my drill. It’s all pretty twisted, more than 1 twist/inch.
Any ideas why my twisted wire might be activating the collar?

ADMIN – Hi Mathew,

Email use a diagram of the wiring layout. If the twisted wire is triggering the collar, most likely it is to do with the wiring being incorrect.

By: Joanna Grant

Joanna Grant — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:04:19 +0000

My question is about twisted wire. Instead of splicing in twisted wire, I ran the boundary wire into the location where I am housing the transmitter. I then twisted the same wire around itsel back out to the boundary placement and continued on. This was rather cumbersome to do. My now twisted wire has some kinks and spots where the twist frequency isn’t as dense as the video recommended. Also, I went around sharp corners when I attached the twisted wire. When I hooked up the system, the alarm sounded (I did a short loop test and the transmitter is working fine). Could the kinks and gaps be causing the alarm to go off?

ADMIN – Hi Joanna,

The kinks and gaps in the twisting will not cause the transmitter to register a break. Gaps and kinds may stop the twisted wire cancelling out the signal in the area of the gaps – but will not cause a wire break alarm. The only thing that will cause the transmitter to register a break is a discontinuity in the loop (a wire break or non-continuous layout).

I couldn’t quite picture your layout, but I presume you have a big loop (if you have something else, email me a diagram) with the two wires coming in twisted together and going into the transmitter box). You could also be getting the wire break alarm if there is something funky going on with your layout (i.e. if it does not form a continuous circuit starting and ending at the control box).

By: sharon

sharon — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:41:39 +0000

With regards to the 2 adjoining properties: I’ve been doing more thinking imagine two pies with a slice out of each. the missing slice parts are facing each other, 6 ft apart. Is it possible to run 2 twisted wires sets from each transmitter out in a V and have the loop start from the end of one twist and end at the other. does that constitue a continuous loop?

ADMIN – Hi Sharon,

I’m not sure I follow your layout. One way to understand the twisted wire is think of the boundary loop like a rubber band. It is in a complete loop. If you stretch it flat and twist it halfway up, you’ll see that the untwisted section of the rubber band makes a loop. However, the rubber band is still in one loop. This is how twisted wire in the boundary loop works.

By: sharon

sharon — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 22:02:15 +0000

my neighbor and I each have Invisable Fence transmitters and I have the wire already run. We are trying to figure out a way to connect our 2 yards so that our dogs can have free range between the 2 properties without having to do a double back on the loops. (2 acre lots, thats alot of expensive wire!) Can we run twisted wire from each house to a point close to each other then start the 2 individual loops from that point? Also, what would the minimum width of a no-correction pathway have to be? 15-20 ft? Thank you

ADMIN – Hi Sharon,

The only way you can accomplish this is with one loop that encloses both properties.

By: Thomas Epting

Thomas Epting — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 18:56:49 +0000

My dog jumps our fence like it is nothing. We are looking at using a invisible fence not only to keep him in a particular part of the yard, because we would like to use our carport (having a baby), but also to keep him from scaling the fence. Do these systems work for that?

Thanks for all the useful information.

ADMIN – Hi Thomas,

Yes. These systems work very well and they work extremely well when combining them with a natural fence. The wire is simply an antenna transmitting a radio frequency in a radius around the wire. If you attach the wire halfway up the fence, your dog will not be able to jump over or dig under it. Also, you will be able to keep them back from the fence several feet.

By: Diane

Diane — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 21:00:45 +0000

Is it absolutely necessary to use twisted wire? The way we want to do it there is no need to for the dog to cross where the wire will connect to the receiver so is the twisted wire used just so the dog can cross the wire safely or is it necessary for the system to work properly? We would be going into the basement on the side of the house where our dog would have no access, we are simply going up the side of the house to complete the loop. Our yard is fenced on 3 sides so we need to close off the driveway and hopefully keep the dog from trying to dig under where there is chain link fence. Any advice greatly appreciated…

ADMIN – Hi Diane,

There is no need to use twisted wire. The only reason to use the twisted wire is if it is convenient in creating a layout. The system will work perfectly without the twisted wire.

By: Casey

Casey — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:44:20 +0000

Hi i was wondering how the wire and fence strength holds up in areas where there is a lot of snow.. will that affect the signal for my dog. I’m looking at getting the sport dog system to encircle the entire house and garage and put the control box in a warm area. It would be about 3 to 4 acres total… thanks.

oh and one more question.. .what is the length of twisted wire I can use to get the main loop away from the house… ex… from the power box in the house to the main loop… is there a length limit? Casey

ADMIN – Hi Casey,

As the snow accumulates you need to turn up the boundary width at the base station so that the signal can penetrate the snow. It works fine up to about 1 foot of snow, then gets patchy depending on the strength of the transmitter and the type of snow (packed vs. loose). The SportDog is a good choice, with a 100 acre capacity, it has plenty of power in reserve so you can turn it up when you need to in order to get through the snow.

There is no limit on the amount of twisted wire you can use in your containment system layout.

By: Kim

Kim — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 04:37:56 +0000

When you talk about using “twisted wire”, I thought you just meant to twist the wire together. However, I see that you sell another wire that is called “twisted wire”. Do I use a different wire called “twisted wire” or do I simply twist the wires together? Also, do the systems come with this special pre-twisted wire that you sell? Thanks

Admin- Hi Kim,
The twisted wire is the same wire that will be installed in your boundary. It is simply two boundary wires twisted together. Please view our instructional video about twisted wire.
http://www.dogfencediy.com/installation/plan/twisted-wire/