What is an invisible fence, and when should it be used?
The Instant Fence system was originally designed to be used in RVs. The idea was to give pet owners who already had pets being contained by an wired fence system a portable system to take with them when camping or on vacation. It was never originally intended to be a replacement for the 'underground' (wired) fences. However, because of its 'Plug & Play' functionality, the Instant Fence quickly became a favorite item of pet owners.
Recently the Instant Fence received a significant upgrade. In the past, it only came with a rather large, 1 level receiver collar that was best suited for medium to larger dogs due to its size and strength. PetSafe wisely changed the receiver to an adjustable 6 level collar and reduced its size by 20%. This made this
system much more beneficial, as now pets as small as 8 lbs and as large as 100 lbs or more can be contained by this system.
The Instant Fence and its receiver collar - the PIF-275 are the only PetSafe Invisible Fence items that are not interchangeable with any other PetSafe system. The reason for this is that they work in exactly the opposite way from an 'underground' (wired) system. When activated, the PIF-300 emits a radio signal up to 90 feet in every direction in a perfect circle.
The PIF-275 receiver worn by the pet is always hearing this signal and therefore it does not activate. However once the dog walks out of the zone and the collar loses this signal, that is when the receiver wakes up and begins to correct the pet via stimulation through 2 contact points on the Receiver Collar that touch your pet's neck.
With an underground fence, the only place that the signal exists is around the buried boundary wire. Once the pet walks up to that wire and the receiver hears the signal, it then wakes up and activates.
So with our Instant Fence, the receiver collar needs to always hear the signal; otherwise it activates.
With our 'underground' (wired) systems, the receiver collar never wants to hear the signal; if it does, then it activates.
The two main drawbacks to our Instant Fence are:
1. It has a maximum range of 90 feet in any direction.
2. The boundary shape cannot be adjusted. It can only transmit in a perfect circle in every direction. If you wish to increase the boundary, you may use multiple transmitters and overlap the signal to create a boundary of 180 feet in every direction but keep in mind that the transmitters must be indoors and out of the weather. Overall the Instant Fence is a great product for someone who needs simple installation and is not concerned with its limited adjustability.
If you are serious about training your little pup, you should consider purchasing the petsafe invisible fence.
