Defective battery charger

[Weldon]

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

[Gdetrailer]

MEXICOWANDERER 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"

I merely responded to the question not a permutation. Ten Thousand Excuse Me's...

:h

No need to get offended.

OP could have set the meter to AC volts instead of DC volts which would show ZERO volts on the display...

Thousands of things are just plain wrong with the OPs post..

Using a car charger on a 6 Ahr gell battery is a bit like using an atomic bomb to go fishing.. Results will be a disaster...

New gell batteries for game cameras cost what a whole $25 and the proper charger which is typically stocked right beside the battery is a whole $15...

Just not sure if the OP is joshing us or not..

[MEXICOWANDERER]

"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"

I merely responded to the question not a permutation. Ten Thousand Excuse Me's...

[Gdetrailer]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
I thought you were measuring CHARGING voltage or at the least CHARGING amperage.

What voltage do you have AT THE CHARGER when it is plugged-in and switched on?

At this point in time, it really doesn't matter.

The OP is attempting to use a car battery charger which most likely at the minimum has a 2 Amp charging rate and at the worst 10A-50A charging rate. This kind of current will easily over heat/charge a 6 Ahr gell batter which is used in game cameras.

Chances are the battery was run flat (10.5V or less) sitting in a game camera too long and is beyond trying to massage back to health..

My suggestion is to not worry about the charger, it is most likely OK and if it was a smart charger it saved the OP from a possible battery fire...

The OP NEEDS to buy the PROPER charger designed for charging a game camera battery...

Gell cells are very picky about float and cycle charging voltages and extremely sensitive to over charging and being left in a partially or completely discharged state.

Assuming from the OPs post that there is NO voltage on the battery terminals (IE no "change"), OP most likely will need to buy a new battery AND the correct charger for this application...

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I thought you were measuring CHARGING voltage or at the least CHARGING amperage.

What voltage do you have AT THE CHARGER when it is plugged-in and switched on?

[Gdetrailer]

Weldon wrote:
I put the charger on a 12v 6 amp battery for a game camera, left it on for a couple of hours. There was zero improvement in the batteries voltage after the charge.
Thanks for the comments!

:E

:h

You CAN'T use a big honkin' car battery charger on a PUNY little GEL CELL and expect it to work :S

If it is not a "smart" charger that game camera battery is most likely toast and you are very lucky to have not had a meltdown of said battery..

If it is a "smart" type of charger it may have done you a FAVOR by not turning on the output.

Smart type chargers will not turn on the output unless it SEEs a little bit of voltage from the battery, they will not charge a completely flat or dead battery (voltages of 10.5 or less is a DEAD battery).

GEL CELLS require a very low current charger, often a small wall hugger providing no more than 1/2 AMP of current. The correct charger will work much better without toasting the battery and it is not any charger designed and sold for use with car batteries..

Your charger is most likely fine, try connecting it to a CAR battery and see if is charging.

[Weldon]

I put the charger on a 12v 6 amp battery for a game camera, left it on for a couple of hours. There was zero improvement in the batteries voltage after the charge.
Thanks for the comments!

[wa8yxm]

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.

[2oldman]

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.

[time2roll]

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.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

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.

[Weldon]

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

[Old-Biscuit]

'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.

[2oldman]

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

[BFL13]

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