Is damaged invisible fencing a hazard?

May 2, 2021 2:32 PM

Our house has an invisible fence installed. Neighbors dug up part of it. Do I need to remove the rest of it immediately?

Fencing was still on when the neighbor's landscaper dug up part of it, which resulted in some mysterious beeping. (We'd kind of forgotten it was there. Oops. Bad homeowners.) Wired unit in the house is now disconnected from power.

Can we wait and dig up the rest of it at our leisure, or is thing we should deal with right away?

No plans to actually use the invisible fence in the future.

Thanks!

posted by the primroses were over to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

Best answer: If I understand Invisible Fence correctly, the wire in the ground is just a big antenna that transmits a signal that the collar picks up when it gets too close. Even when it's running, that should be pretty low-current/voltage and no risk to anyone or anything. The beeping is probably just to warn you that the wire loop was damaged and therefore it can't work. I don't think there's any risk from leaving it in place.
posted by Alterscape at 3:09 PM on May 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If it's unplugged, it's no concern. It's just a wire. (We had almost exactly the same thing happen when our road was widened because we didn't use it and forgot it was there.)
posted by tchemgrrl at 4:54 PM on May 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks, I appreciate the reassurance that my gut "this is fine" reaction was ok!
posted by the primroses were over at 7:44 PM on May 2, 2021

Just be aware that your neighbours can now wander onto your place any time they like even if they still have the collars on.
posted by flabdablet at 8:29 AM on May 3, 2021 [14 favorites]

Even if it's still powered, is a very low voltage line, so there's no danger. Of course, the fence itself isn't going to work until you fix it.

That said, speaking as a former invisible fence owner, even splicing it back together at the break may not fix it. My fence was cut in two by an errant shovel and, after careful splicing, it never seemed to operate quite as dependably afterward. YMMV, of course.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:36 AM on May 3, 2021 [1 favorite]