Extreme Dog Fence Max Grade Electric Dog Fence - 1 Dog Kit - 1000 Feet of Heavy Duty -Plus Maximum Duty Wire for Ultimate Performance and Reliability

Great product for keeping your dogs safe while out in the yard!

Two stars for "easy to install"; no fault of this system, it's just the nature of running a wire around an acre of wooded land. As a plus, I believe that there is more than the 1000' of wire they say is on the spool.Five stars for "thickness" because the 14 gauge wire held up to being pulled/pushed through thick woods (verified no breaks in the cable with multi meter and test run)Two stars for "value for the money" due to the fact that they went CHEAP on the CONNECTIONS for the SURGE PROTECTOR. This seems to be a recurring theme in the reviews.They used spring loaded plastic clips that (IMO) are not designed to handle the 14 gauge wire. The control panel uses SCREW-TYPE TERMINALS that WORK WELL. If we are paying extra for the "Max Grade", they can at least ensure that the "max grade" is applied across all components involved. I completed the installation of the system and did a temporary hookup of the connections (panel not wall-mounted) to verify that everything worked properly (it did). I noticed then that the connections to the surge protector were weak and any wiggling of the wires caused them to lose the metal-to-metal connection and the plastic clip was deforming. The next weekend, upon mounting the control panel to the wall, I could not get the clips to hold the wires tightly and kept getting a constant beeping "error signal". Troubleshooting by removing the surge protector fixed the problem.I'm sure that if I contact the company they will offer to send me a new SP, but unless it's a new and improved version, what's the point?So now I have spent NEARLY 500 DOLLARS (not to mention my time over two weekends) for a bright yellow wire tediously pulled along the ground. I can add the ground lead from the control panel to offer some protection, but that's not what I paid for.It's all very frustrating. Just get a shock collar and train your dog with that, you'll lose less money.

Just finished installing and using the Max Grade 1000 Ft. system. The system itself is nice, the cable is quality, and it is all made in the USA. I docked one star for the lack of directions in the box (Had to go to the website) and the crappy "power surge protector". Keep reading for my complete review.I purchased the Extreme Dog Fence Max Grade Ultimate, which is just fancy for saying it came with the 14 AWG fence wire with a 60 mil jacket, and 50 feet of 18 AWG twisted wire. All products shown in the picture came without any issues or defects. What the box was lacking was complete instructions on how to use the product. Thank goodness for Youtube in some cases. If you go to the manufacturer's website they have a nice "manual" with tons of info. Would of been great to have that in the box. The few pieces of paper that were in the box had spelling issues to, which I found funny. (That is how you know they are from the USA, too lazy to proof read) The collar I got was "Active" which was perfect. If you are buying, be sure you are getting the system with the correct collar; there are three different types with "Active" being the best for 88% of dogs.The 1000 ft of wire I got was on a spool and of great quality. The jacket (60 mil in my case) was free of any defects and tough. Great manufactured wire overall.The panel is nice and small and the cover is easily removed (no instructions, but easy to figure out). Again, no instructions on how to connect it up, but if you look online or at their silly drawing, you can figure it out. No ground wire, but not needed if you are using their surge protector that comes with the Ultimate system.This brings me to the surge protector, this is one of the biggest reasons I took away a gold star. Compared to the rest of the product, it is a joke. They could of spent a few more pennies to put much better wire connectors on this thing. Wires fall out if anyone breaths on them, including any gravity so be sure to use wire ties and other stuff to remove ALL pressure or you will find some of your wires out. I mean, these things are worse than bad, they want to come out rather than to stay in. The size of this unit is also way to big for its own good. Anyway, it is what it is.The collar is.. well a collar with an electronic shocker thingy. It is "OK" not great, not bad. It takes a 6v Lithium Ion battery that is not rechargeable. They were sure to include documentation about how they make special ones for it, so do not try to buy another brand, rather buy theirs so they can jack the price up. Again, it is what it is, just know this. They do not tell you which direction to install it in the collar (collar is not marked), but if you follow "normal" battery methods, the negative goes in first with the positive on the cap side. The battery comes in the box, not preinstalled. No directions on how to install, but hey, at least it isn't hard to figure out. It works or it does not. (Flat head screwdriver, undo the port, install battery negative side first).After you get everything hooked up, you will find they lose the other half of the gold star for again, no instructions on how to program the collar. The good part of his system is that you can program an unlimited amount of collars all with different settings for different pets. If the battery dies, I am not sure if it retains this info, because mine hasn't died yet, so I can not weigh in on that. To program a collar, you must have the collar in hand and be next to the panel, hold both buttons for ~4 seconds to get in collor program mode, choose your level (depending on your collar type, again mine is active, the levels mean something different), then hit set with the collar right next to the panel to set it. Know that your collar most likely ships with it on the highest shock level.. strange. I would of thought it would come on beep only, but who knows...Lastly, install time. I see other posts saying it takes half a day. I will say it greatly depends on how long your run is, the terrain you are going across, and just how good of job you want to do. It took me 3 days, 7 hours a day. I chose to burry ~750 feet with a shovel (going through mostly woods, so could not use a machine). I knocked a hole in my foundation to get the twisted wire to my basement where I installed the panel and power. It would of been a lot quicker though if I had just thrown the cable on the ground and came out my kitchen window, then again, I am OCD and things need to be right or not at all. You know what is best for you. This was hard work, and I am glad it is over, but it works very well.Would I recommend this to a friend? Yes, but I would like to see the manufacture correct their spelling errors on the few papers they give you and include the real manual rather than making people go online for it. At the VERY least, include a paper that says, go online here 'URL' to see the manual. Lastly, spend a few more pennies to give us a surge protector with real wire connectors... please. (Directed at the supplier, not the consumer).

Instructions are clear (downloaded them from the web site before buying it, just to understand what I was getting into), the main thing is to plan your layout and where the control center will be as there will be some wiring that you need to hide and a hole you need to drill. The 50 feet twisted wire seems short, but your perimeter wire can be twisted (in order to extend the "neutral zone" if needed ... the manual says how many twists per feet depending on the gauge). I read the instructions twice before installing it. Planned the perimeter , laid out the 14 gauge wire. Installed the control, and hooked all up. Fortunately, it worked on the first try. The first layout took me about 3 hours (close to 900 feet) plus mounting the control and drilling a hole in my garage for the twisted wire. After all was tested, I secured the perimeter wire with staples as well as the twisted wire, that took me another 2 hours. Overall, for me laying out the wire was the most time consuming part as I needed to do it through wooded uneven terrain. I am happy with the product. I am not sure how long will the collar battery will last.

I installed the wire above ground with earth staples (you don't get enough of those with the set, but they are cheap. The instructions are very good, and there is additional useful information on-line (like how to take your dog out of the yard for a walk without confusing him.) The battery in the collar lasted about 4 months, which included the training period when it did a fair amount of beeping. I recommend taking your time with training, like a couple of weeks. Once he was trained, he stayed in his yards despite deer, squirrels, the neighbor's dog, etc. And he really enjoys having the run of the yard.