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Battery Chargers

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auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 2168 West of Toronto
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2008-12-20          158733

Is there a way to tell if the charger is charging (or trying to)? Presumably plug in, say, a 4-amp charger, and connect the terminals to the leads on a multimeter. But what range would you set the meter to? DC volts? Amps?

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kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
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2008-12-20          158735

DC Volts. It may not measure any voltage output unless it's connected to a battery. If it's an auto ranging meter just set it to auto, otherwise set it to the smallest range larger than 12 volts. A 15 volt range would work fine. A good way to know that it's working would be to connect it to a battery, measure the voltage with the charger turned off, then turn it on and measure again. The charging voltage should be ~13.5V or higher.

A smart charger might not output any charging voltage if the battery is completely dead or has an open circuit.

One trick to "booting up" a totally dead battery is to connect a known good battery in parallel with the dead one and then hook up the charger. Being totally dead will surely shorten the life of a battery but this trick can get it going again for awhile. ....

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kalpia
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 77 Extreme Western on the beautiful St. Croix River, WI
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2008-12-21          158771

Most battery charges have a charge needle to indicate the current state of the battery. Typically weak batteries will show a lot of deflection early on and then gradually decrease as the battery is charged. Depending on charger, it will put anywhere from +16 to trickle in the battery depending on the battery's charge. If you think the battery won't hold a charge you can test it with a Hydrometer to load meter. If you just have a battery charge and want to know if it's outputing a voltage put a meter (DMM) across the leads, set the meter to read DC volts. ....

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2008-12-22          158784

Or the low-tech version is to just turn on the vehicles (or tractors) headlights with the engine OFF and the battery charger disconnected, then connect the charger.

If the charger is working the lights will get brighter when you connect the charger.

Best of luck. ....

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r1bourg
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 14 Whitefish Falls,Ontario
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2008-12-22          158801

Another way to see if the charger is working is to see if the cell are bubbling away after an hour or so. This is the explosive gas given off. That's why you should not create a spark or open flame near a battery. This buubling does not insure the battery will hold the charge. For this you must test the specfic gravity of the fluid with a $10 glass instrment from your automotive supply shop.A $40 dollar load tester I bought last year is a quicker method as I just place an alligator clip on the pos and neg terminal an press for a reading. The acid test requires you read each cell. Hope this helps. ....

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auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 2168 West of Toronto
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2008-12-23          158818

Really appreciate all the helpful smarts. Do have a voltmeter, hygrometer, load tester, and various chargers, but this application is unusual. I keep a one-amp charger on each of two summer vehicles in another location, so any changes are gradual and inconvenient to measure. One of the chargers makes a slight hum when working, the other doesn't. So I just wanted to know how to do a basic test of a charger, and the answer seems to be that it should show a 12-v difference between the clips. ....

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