The most popular and in our opinion best dog fence system, the PetSafe UltraSmart PIG00-13619 (formerly IUC-4100) hits the sweet spot between features and price. The basic system includes the following:

1. One Rechargeable Collar - the Innotek IUC-4100 collar charges in about an hour and features a long life lithium ion battery. The collar has "Progressive Correction" that increases the correction level as the dog gets closer to the boundary line. This feature is effective in stopping the dog from running through the boundary. It has a contoured slimline collar. And best of all the collar can let you know if it has been properly fitted, something really useful on shaggy dogs!

2. Transmitter Box - the main control box lets you adjust the boundary width from one foot to over ten feet. The transmitter also allows you to adjust the correction strength to a low, medium and high levels. It also includes a battery backup system so the system continues to operate if a power outage occurs. (4 AA batteries run the system for 2-3 days on battery backup)

3. Collar Recharger - the recharging cradle lets you recharge the collar in about an hour. A single charge lasts about a month.

4. Lightning Protector - the lightning surge protector prevents electrical surges from both lightning and from the power outlet from damaging the control box transmitter.

5. 500 feet of (20 gauge) wire

6. 50 training flags

7. 2 waterproof splices

8. Long and short collar probes - for use on long hair and short hair dogs

9. Training DVD plus manual

FREE SHIPPING - via UPS Ground to any location in the Continental United States

FREE EXPERTS SECRETS GUIDE - Dog Fence Experts Training and Installation Guide (PDF) was written by professional installers to show you the secrets that make installation and training easy. ($34.95 value)

FREE WIRE BREAK REPAIR KIT - Have a wire break somewhere in the boundary line? This kit helps you find and repair any breaks. Includes a few feet of 20-gauge boundary wire, 1 RF Choke, 2 Waterproof Wire Capsules, 2 Wire Nuts, and illustrated instructions. ($14.95 value)

For a detailed review of the Innotek IUC-4100 see here.

Overview

Innotek’s middle offering is the UltraSmart IUC-4100. (Innotek is a division of the Radio Fence company which also makes the gear for Invisible Fence and PetSafe). We use this system for our own customers, and highly recommend it as the best mix of value and features.

The IUC-4100 is a rechargeable system similar to the SD-2100. The IUC 4100 uses a thinner collar with a lithium ion battery (Li-ion). (The SD-2100 uses a Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery). Lithium ion collars charge faster (approximately one hour vs. twelve hours) and last longer. The collar comes with it’s own charger that plugs into your wall socket and does not have the annoying hum of the SD-2100.

The IUC-4100 Innotek also fixes the problem of the soft warning beep on the collar. The beep on the IUC-4100 is strong enough for the trainer to hear, although we would like it to be louder still. Some of our older customers still have trouble hearing it.

The IUC-4100 also adds the ability to use the Innotek indoor wireless pods, which is a useful feature to keep your dogs out of select parts of your house.

Although this is our favorite system, there are a few things we don’t like about the UltraSmart IUC-4100. First, the correction level for each collar cannot be set independently. (see the resistor hack workaround here) This is not an issue for most households with dogs of similar sizes, but if there is more than a 20-pound difference in size between your dogs (e.g. a Golden Retreiver and a Chihuahua), then you don’t want them to both be getting the same correction level. In this case you should try one of the PetSafe systems where you can adjust the correction level on each collar independently. The second thing we don’t like is the control panel (similar to the SD-2100 panel). The panel is off-white, strangely shaped and less attractive than it could be. Seen an ipod lately guys?

Innotek offers a lifetime warranty on the IUC-4100. This is a little misleading. This really means that they will replace the unit for free in the first year and offer you a discounted repair in subsequent years. We have installed many IUC-4100 containment systems and find them to be quite reliable.

Summary: Our overall favorite. Has all the essentials like a rechargeable battery and indoor zone compatibility. Slimline collar gives it a cleaner look on your dog.

If you found this site useful, please consider purchasing your system through our online store. Our price on the Innotek IUC-4100 is the lowest price that Innotek allows anyone to sell the unit and includes free shipping.

Detailed Review

Collar

The collar is the strong point of the IUC-4100. It is a modern slim line collar with a rechargeable lithium ion battery. The collar is really well designed. It is contoured to fit the dog comfortably. It is nicely waterproofed and really solid, with no controls or other fiddly bits on the collar, so it can really take a beating. The collar is small enough to be comfortable on any dog over 15 lbs.

ReadyTest A unique feature on the Innotek Ultrasmart collars is the ReadyTest feature that helps you get the collar on correctly. When you take the collar off the charger, it goes into the ReadyTest mode, as you fit it around the dog’s neck it makes a clicking sound when you have the collar fitted properly with the prongs contacting the dog’s skin. This is really useful, because if the dog doesn’t have the collar fitted properly the dog does not get the correction, and fitting the collar properly is a bit of an art, particularly on long-hair dogs like golden retrievers.

Rechargeable The collar is rechargeable, and sits in a little cradle that you plug into your wall socket. A full charge takes about two hours and lasts about a month. The lithium ion battery seems to last a long time, we have customers reporting collars working fine after five years. We have collars on our own dogs that have done four years of hard service and the charge seems to be nearly as long as when it was new. That said, the collar battery is not replaceable so if the battery does fail you will need to send the whole collar back to Innotek for repair. It would be better if the battery was removable. Still this is the best collar battery we have used.

Battery Indicator The collar has an indicator light that blinks green to tell you everything is fine. The collar blinks red when the battery is low. You have two or three days to recharge the collar before the battery is completely drained.

The two drawbacks on the collar are both related to the collar’s streamline design:

• No controls – while we do like that there are no controls on the collar, the lack of controls means that you cannot adjust the correction level of each dog independently. (there is an independent workaround, the resistor hack here, but it is not elegant). So if you do have two dogs that are more than 30% different in size, you may want to take a look at the older Dogtra EF-3000 or the non-rechargeable PetSafe PRF-304W.


• Quiet Speakers – to make the collar durable and waterproof, Innotek tightly sealed the speaker inside the collar. While this is great for waterproofing, this makes the collar beep hard to hear for adults (children and dogs seem to be able to hear just fine!).

Long/Short/Training Prongs The collar prongs can be unscrewed with the included tool and replaced with either the “no shock prongs” which are used for training, the “long prongs” for long hair dogs, or the “regular prongs” for short hair dogs. All three are included with the system.

Collar Band The collar has an integrated plastic collar. It is a high quality plastic, and some of our team thinks it looks modern and sleek, but most of us would prefer a cloth band. The collar is waterproof and wears really well. Our oldest collars look near new except for a few scrapes. The collar closes using a belt buckle style closure which is not as easy to use as quick-snap closures used on other systems.

Transmitter

The transmitter box is the brains of the system and connects to the boundary wire loop to create the virtual boundary. Inside the box are a series of controls that you use to set up the system.

1. Correction Level Switch - sets the correction levels, there are three levels, plus the correction is progressive so it gets stronger the longer the dog wanders past their boundary. The low correction level is good for small dogs, the medium correction level is good for most dogs in the 30-80 pound range, and the highest correction level is good for all but the most stubborn dogs. One thing to note is that you adjust the correction level for all the collars at the same time.


2. Field Size Switch – the field size switch lets you boost the signal for large yards. Select small for anything under an acre (1,000 feet of boundary wire); select large for any installation over an acre. The system can power up to 25 acres (5000 feet of boundary wire)


3. Field Width Dial - sets the width of the boundary. This control sets how far out from the wire the boundary starts. You can set it anywhere from a few inches to about 10 feet. In practice most people are going to want to set it about 3-5 feet. Smaller than that and the dogs can be hard to train because they can too easily run through. Larger than that and you start taking away too much of the dog’s space which can be a problem in smaller yards.


4. Collar Recharge Reminder Switch - reminds you to charge the collar by squawking about once a month. This is a completely useless feature and you should switch it off. The collar will flash red when it need recharging. This thing is just going to wake you up in the middle of the night with it’s infernal beeping.


5. Alarm Volume Dial - this sets the volume of the alarm at the control box. So if you get a break in the wire this determines how loud it will beep. Set it at the maximum when you first do the installation then forget it.


6. Power Switch – turns the whole unit it on and off. This is the kind of expert advice, that you can only get at the Dog Fence DIY website!


7. Battery Backup Switch - this activates the battery backup. The control box can survive on battery backup for 2-3 days on the backup batteries (8 AA batteries) if the power fails, you will still get about three days of your fence still working. A pretty useful feature for people that often lose power during lightning storm, since these can spook some dogs and cause them to bolt. Not that useful in other power loss situations, since the dogs are usually so conditioned to obey the fence boundaries that they are unlikely to even notice that the fence is off.





8. Power Adaptor Plug – where you plug in the included power adaptor, that connects up to a regular wall socket.


9. Boundary Wire Terminal – this little terminal block is where the boundary wire connects to the system. It works like the speaker hookup in the back a stereo, you just pull back the latch, insert the wire and let go of the latch to secure the boundary wire in place.


10. Status Light - tells you if everything is working according. Green indicates that everything is fine, the light flashes red when you have a break in the wire.

The IUC-4100 transmitter box is a wall mountable unit. The rear panel is removable and can be fasten using the supplied mounting screws. To get the longest life from the unit, mount it indoors in a place that stays above freezing. It must absolutely be kept out of the rain.

Boundary Kit

The system comes standard with:

• 500 feet of boundary wire (20 gauge), enough for about 1/3 of an acre


• 50 boundary flags – used to mark the boundary line during the initial training phase


• 2 Waterproof wire splice - used to join sections of the boundary wire

If you need additional boundary kits to create a larger boundary you can purchase it in our online store ($30 per 500 feet). You can also upgrade to the slightly thicker 18 gauge boundary wire (we don’t think there is a big difference between 18 gauge and 20 gauge)

Training DVD and Instruction Manual

The system comes with a training DVD from Innotek that shows you how to train your dog on how to use the system. We use a little different approach, but the Innotek way works too.

Indoor and Outdoor Zones

The Innotek 4100 is compatible with the Innotek indoor zones and the Flintstones style outdoor zone (cleverly designed as a rock). These let you create small circular exclusion zones that you can set from 2-12 feet in diameter to keep the dog out of small area. For example you could use the indoor zone pod to keep the dogs out of the kitchen, or slip it under a couch cushion to keep them off the sofa. The outdoor zones could be used to keep them away from a garden bed or out of the fish pond, etc.

Warranty

The system also has a limited lifetime warranty - that is a weasly way of saying it has a one year warranty. After the year there is a fixed charge for repairs ... the charge depends on what part breaks. Reliability is pretty good so hopefully you will never need it.

Specifications

Manual

For the Innotek IUC 4100 Manual click here. (PDF)

The Dog Fence DIY Difference