Defective battery charger

If it is a smart charger.. it might not put out till it "Sees" a battery attached.

Beyond that I can not comment, Also the type of meter makes a difference, on truly cheap units a Quality DC volt meter may well show nothing. Or a very low (By your expectations) voltage, Even though it is workin fine.

Weldon wrote:
Yes the volt meter is set correctly....

Ok. A zero reading at the batteries is highly unusual. There's usually something left. Perhaps the batteries are stone dry.

Weldon wrote:
My inexpensive Schumacker charger does not seem to be working. I can hear it running but if I put the pos. & neg. clips from my volt meter on the battery terminals I get zero reading. Is this how you check a charger?
Thanks

So the battery voltage is fully at zero or is your meter bad?
Many portable automatic chargers need ~9+ volts on the battery or they will not start charging.

Those inferior chargers use an AUTOMOTIVE TYPE circuit breaker inside. A metal/plastic box elongated but around the size of a dice cube with two # 10 threaded studs sticking up. Be sure this breaker has not failed and is preventing power from flowing through it. Auto supply stores such as NAPA or O"Reilly's sell replacement breakers. Don't work on the charger while it is plugged into the wall socket! A bad breaker has infinite resistance using an digital multimeter set to ohms measurement.

Yes the volt meter is set correctly....I see no way to correct the over-current protection. Thanks for your comments.

'Zero' reading when touching meter clips to battery posts with charger running......:H

Do you have the meter ON and using the correct setting/scale?

If YES....you battery is shot (should be some voltage) and your charger has gone into over-current protection or is shot also.

Zero? Are you sure your VM is set for Vdc within the proper range?

Yes. Also you can touch the pos and neg clamps together briefly to see if they spark.