PetSafe Stay + Play Wireless Dog Fence

The PetSafe Stay + Play is an update on the older PetSafe Wireless PIF-300 model. It adds a smaller rechargeable collar, and has a smaller more modern base station with a slightly improved range. Unfortunately, in our review of the system it did not perform as well as the older model.

The PetSafe Stay + Play (PIF00-12917) comes as an update to the decade old PetSafe Wireless. The system comes with a much more modern looking base station, and is around half the size of the older model. The base station has a slightly improved range, allowing an adjustable circular boundary radius up to 105 feet, up from 90 feet on the PetSafe Wireless. The base station and collars are backwards compatbile with legacy PetSafe Wireless system.

The new system includes a rechargeable collar using a lithium ion battery that lasts around 2-3 weeks between charges. This is a significant improvement over the previous PetSafe Wireless that use a proprietary disposable collar. The collar is also smaller and better designed allowing use with any regular ¾ inch collar.

With these significant improvements we were surprised to find that the new PetSafe Stay + Play Wireless Fence performed worse in testing that the older PetSafe Wireless model and was much worse than the next generation wifi based Havahart Wireless and Havahart Custom fences. The fence displays high boundary wobbly, with the boundary line often moving 10+ feet from minute to minute. This inconsistency makes it difficult to train dogs on the fence, because their boundary line is constantly moving large distances.

Summary: A disappointment. The new PetSafe Stay + Play is worse than the older PetSafe Wireless PIF-300 that it is meant to replace. The system has a lot of problems creating a stable boundary line.

The PetSafe Stay + Play is meant to be the new and improved version of the PetSafe Wireless. It is improved in many ways, but in doing the basics better it fails.

For nearly a decade, PetSafe made the only wireless transmitter in town, the PetSafe Wireless PIF-300. The transmitter worked ok. You could only have circular boundaries, you were stuck using a proprietary disposable PetSafe battery, and the boundary radius was limited to 90 feet, (1/2 an acres), but if you wanted wireless it was your only choice.

Since 2010, there are two new WiFi based competitors, Perimeter Technologies Wifi Fence and the Havahart Radial Fence. Perimeter and Havahart both came in with massively increased ranges, where you can have a boundary radius over 200 feet. Both systems use rechargeable collars. Havahart, then came out with the Havahart Custom in 2012 that let you have custom shapes, not just a circle. Havahart also made fences that were much more stable, and not subject to the large boundary movement you see in other wireless fences where the boundary line changes minute to minute.

The PetSafe Stay + Play Transmitter seems like an attempt to catch up. The collar is now rechargeable. The maximum boundary radius was increased, albeit marginally from 90 feet to 105 feet. But, with the improvement the fence performance seems to have fallen behind. In our tests we found the average boundary movement was 6.6 feet, significantly worse than the old PetSafe wireless (4.8 feet) and much worse than the industry leading Havahart Wireless Radial (1.3 feet). We also experienced a few instances where the collar did not trigger at all.

With this fall in performance, we find the cheaper old PetSafe Wireless or the comparably priced Havahart Radial to be better choices.

PetSafe Stay + Play Transmitter

The New PetSafe Stay and Play transmitter is noticeably shrunk from the previous version at around the size of a half-gallon bucket of ice-cream. It has a new sleeker exterior. You take the unit and either wall mount it or place it on a tabletop, away from large metal object.

The transmitter has an improved range of 105 feet. Like the previous PetSafe Wireless multiple base stations can be combined and overlapped to create larger containment areas. This is something that cannot be done with the new wifi fences made by Havahart and Perimeter Technologies. The transmitter is also backwards compatible with the old PetSafe wireless.

The transmitter includes a new alarm to alert you when there is a power failure. We find this marginally useful, because most times there is a power failure we (a) already know about it, and (b) cannot do anything about it.

The transmitter includes the following controls:

• Boundary Switch - set to high if the boundary is to exceed 45 feet in radius, and low if the boundary is to be less than 45 feet of radius
• Boundary Dial - used to increase or decrease the boundary radius
• Alarm Overide - used to switch off the low power alarm

PetSafe Stay + Play Receiver Collar

Rechargeable - the biggest improvement to the collar is that it is now rechargeable. The collar incorporates a lithium ion battery that is recharged by opening a port under the collar strap. A charge takes about 3 hours and lasts around 2 weeks. This battery life is significantly more than the wifi based Havahart and Perimeter systems which only last around 3 days. The battery is integrated into the collar, so you cannot swap out the spent battery for a new one, but given the long charge time we did not find this a significant inconvenience

Long & Short Prongs - the collar includes both long and short prongs that can be unscrewed and replaced for long and short hair dogs respectively.

Mode Button - the control button sits between the two prongs and lets you switch the system on and off. You can also select one of five correction levels or a no-correction tone only level. The status of the collar is shown via a light integrated into he collar face

Replaceable Collar Strap - the Collar strap can be removed and replaced with pretty much any 3/4 inch collar which is a nice feature for people that want to replace the standard nylon cloth strap with something nicer.

Waterproof - the collar is fully waterproof, unlike the competing Havahart collars which are only water resistant

Flags & Tester

Flags - the PetSafe Stay and Play includes 50 boundary flags that are used to mark the circular boundary perimeter during the training phase when your dog is learning the layout.

Tester - a small boundary tester tool is included. The tool is held against the collar probes and lights up when the collar crosses the dog fence boundary. You can use the tester to make sure the boundary is correctly set when you are first setting up your system.

Flags - the PetSafe Stay and Play includes 50 boundary flags that are used to mark the circular boundary perimeter during the training phase when your dog is learning the layout.

Warranty

PetSafe includes a one year full warranty with it’s systems. After that time, repairs are made a fixed charge depending on the broken part. We generally find their charges to be reasonable.