Schumacher SC-8020A owner manual Alternator Testing Notes, Battery percent and charge time

light under the following conditions.

•The Charged (green) LED will light if the output of the charging system is at the normally desired level.

•The CHARGING LED does not light in the alternator test mode.

•The connected LED lights if the tester detects a connection.

•When the tester digital display is set to voltage, the CHARGED and CHARGING LEDs won’t light (it could be testing a battery or an alterna- tor).

15.3ALTERNATOR TESTING NOTES

•The alternator percent display can range from 0 to 199.

•The DIGITAL display cannot be set to Alternator % during charg- ing.

•An Alternator % of 0 does not indicate an Alternator output of

0V, it indicates an output too low to charge the battery.

•An Alternator % of 199 does not indicate an Alternator Voltage nearly twice the voltage of a normal alternator.

16.battery percent and charge time

This charger adjusts the charging time in order to charge the battery com- pletely, efficiently and safely. The microprocessor automatically makes the necessary decisions. However, this section includes guidelines that can be used to estimate charging times.

The duration of the charging process depends on three factors:

16.1Battery State – If a battery has only been slightly discharged, it can be charged in less than a few hours. The same battery could take up to 10 hours if very weak. The battery state can be estimated by using the built-in tester. The lower the reading, the longer charging will take.

16.2Battery Rating – A higher rated battery will take longer to charge than a lower rated battery under the same conditions. A battery is rated in ampere-hours (AH), reserve capacity (RC) and cold cranking amps (CCA). The lower the rating, the quicker the battery will be charged.

16.3Charge Rate – The charge rate is measured in amps. This charger pro- vides charge rates of 2A, 10A, and 20A. The 80A rate is for engine start only. The 2A rate is for charging smaller batteries such as those used for motorcycles and garden tractors. Such batteries should not be charged using the MEDIUM TO LARGE BATTERY setting, which is for charging larger batteries. In the MEDIUM TO LARGE BATTERY mode, the charger begins at the 10A rate and increases the charge rate if it determines that the battery can accept the 20A rate. All charging modes will decrease the charge rate as the battery approaches maximum charge.

After the charging process has started, the digital display can be used to

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