Schumacher NIN-812A General Charging Notes, Using the volt meter to test battery state of charge

11.4ABORTED CHARGE: If charging cannot be completed normally, charging will abort. When charging is aborted, the charger’s output is shut off. The CONNECTED LED will be lit and the display will read BAD BAT. In this case, the charger ignores all buttons. To reset after an aborted charge, press the START/STOP button to turn the charger off.

11.5DESULFATION MODE: If a battery is left discharged for an extended period of time, it could become sulfated and not accept a normal charge. The CHARGING LED will blink when the special desulfation mode is ac- tivated. When blinking, the charger has switched to the Desulfation Mode of operation. If successful, normal charging will resume after the battery is desulfated. The CHARGING LED will then stop blinking and light continu- ously. Desulfation could take up to 10 hours. If desulfation fails, charging will abort and the CONNECTED LED will remain lit and the display will read BAD BAT.

11.6COMPLETION OF CHARGING: Charge completion is indicated by the CHARGED LED. When lit, the charger has stopped charging and has switched to Maintain Mode of operation.

11.7MAINTAIN MODE: When the CHARGED LED is lit, the charger has started Maintain Mode. This mode of operation is known as Float-Mode Monitoring. In this mode, the charger keeps the battery fully charged by delivering a small current, when necessary. The voltage is maintained at a level determined by the BATTERY TYPE selected. To finish the charging cycle press the START/STOP button, and the OFF LED will light.

11.8GENERAL CHARGING NOTES:

The fan runs whenever one or more batteries are being charged.

If the charge mode is changed after charging has started (by pressing the BATTERY TYPE button), the charging process stops.

The voltage displayed during charging is the charging voltage and usually will be higher than the battery’s resting voltage.

12.using the volt meter to test battery state of charge

12.1OVERVIEW

The charger has a built in volt meter to test your battery’s state of charge. The charger does not have a built in load tester. As such, a recently charged battery could have a temporarily high voltage due to what is known as “surface charge”. The voltage of such a battery will eventually drop during the period immediately after the charging system is disen- gaged. Consequently, the tester could display inconsistent values for such a battery. For a more accurate reading, the surface charge should be removed by temporarily creating a load on the battery by turning on the lights or other accessories.

The battery tester is only designed to test 12V batteries. Testing a device with a rapidly changing voltage could yield unexpected or inaccurate results.

•8 •