Schumacher SF-125A Personal Precautions and Safety, Preparing to Charge, Grounding Methods

B. PERSONAL PRECAUTIONS AND SAFETY

1.WARNING: Wear complete eye protection and clothing protection, when working with lead-acid batteries.

2.Make sure someone is within range of your voice or close enough to come to your aid when you work with or near a lead-acid battery.

3.Have plenty of fresh water and soap nearby for use if battery acid contacts skin, clothing, or eyes. If battery acid contacts skin or clothing, wash immediately with soap and water.

4.Avoid touching your eyes while working with a battery. Acid particles (corrosion) may get into your eyes! If acid enters your eye, immediately flood eye with running cold water for at least 10 minutes. Get medical attention immediately.

5.Remove all personal metal items such as rings, bracelets, necklaces, and watches when working with a lead-acid battery. A lead-acid battery can produce a short-circuit current high enough to weld a ring (or the like) to metal, causing a severe burn.

6.Take care not to drop a metal tool or other metal onto the battery. Metal may cause sparking or short circuit the battery or another electrical devise. Sparking may cause an explosion.

7.Always operate battery charger in an open well ventilated area.

8.NEVER smoke or allow a spark or flame in the vicinity of the battery or engine. Batteries generate explosive gases!

C. PREPARING TO CHARGE

1.Make sure you have a 6 or 12 volt lead-acid battery. Check car owner manual to make sure.

2.Clean battery terminals. Take care to keep corrosion from coming in contact with your eyes.

3.If required, add distilled water in each cell until battery acid reaches levels specified by battery manufacturer. This helps purge excessive gas from cells. Do not overfill. For a battery without cell caps, carefully follow manufacturer's recharging instructions.

4.Study all battery manufacturer's specific precautions, such as removing or not removing cell caps while charging, and recommended rates of charge.

5.Be sure area around battery is well ventilated while battery is being charged. Gas can be forcefully blown away by using a piece of cardboard or other non-metallic material as a fan.

6.If necessary to remove battery from vehicle to charge, always remove grounded terminal from battery first. Make sure all accessories in the vehicle are off, so as not to cause an arc.

7.A marine (boat) battery must be removed and charged on shore. To charge it on board requires equipment specially designed for marine use.

8.Select charge rate suitable for the battery being charged - (2 or 15 Amps).

GROUNDING AND AC POWER CORD CONNECTION

INSTRUCTIONS - Charger should be grounded to reduce risk of electric shock. Charger is equipped with an electric cord hav- ing an equipment-grounding conductor and a grounding plug. The plug must be plugged into an outlet that is properly installed and grounded in accordance with local codes and ordinances.

DANGER - Never alter AC cord or plug provided - if it will not fit outlet, have proper outlet installed by a qualified electrician. Im- proper connection can result in a risk of electric shock.

This battery charger is for use on a nominal 120-volt circuit, and has a grounding plug that looks like the plug illustrated in sketch A. A temporary adapter, which looks like the adapter illustrated in sketch B, may be used to connect this plug to a two-pole receptacle as shown in sketch B if a properly grounded outlet is not available. The temporary adapter should be used only until a properly grounded outlet can be installed by a qualified elec- trician.

During operation do not place the charger or its cables on the vehicle seat or carpeting.

GROUNDED OUTLET ADAPTER

METAL SCREW

COVER

OF GROUNDED

OUTLET BOX

(A)(B)

GROUNDING PIN

Grounding Methods

When charging a battery in a boat, RV or motor home always connect one lead of the output cable to the battery. Never con- nect to a remote receptacle or other means for the purpose of remotely charging the battery. The wires may be inadequate for handling the charge current of this charger and may over heat. Often these wires are bundled in with other wires which could be damaged and lead to a direct short across the battery and charger. If this occurs a fire can result, equipment and appli- ances operated from the battery may also be damaged.

DANGER - Before using adapter as illustrated, be certain that center screw of outlet plate is grounded. The green-colored rigid ear or lug extending from adapter must be connected to a prop- erly grounded outlet - make certain it is grounded. If necessary, replace original outlet cover plate screw with a longer screw that will secure adapter ear or lug to outlet cover plate and make ground connection to grounded outlet.

Use of an adapter plug is not allowed in Canada.

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