Testing Battery Charger

[Gary Salsman]

I'm thinking my charger is going, or gone bad. I'm running A/H soda , 1 tablespoon per gallon, in a 30 gallon garbage can. 2 parallel 10 gauge SS plates. Shumacher se4225 set to 20 amps. It just doesn't seem to work like it used to.   FWIW, it never, even when new, showed 20 amps, at best probably 10, no matter what I was cleaning. Now it shows about 2 amps. Even if I turn the dial to 60 amps, the meter doesn't change. I cleaned all the connections, and no difference. Is there a way to check the performance?  With no load, the voltage reads 13.5 V

[Cheryl Watson]

But... what do you observe in the electro when you turn it on?  <I don't trust the 'meter' only what my 'eyes' tell me.....

[Cheryl Watson]

PS... there is an internal 'fuse' on the battery charger that 'may' need to be bypassed...

[Gary Salsman]

I too never trusted the meter, and it was working fine for about 3 years. Lately it didn't seem to bubble as much as it used to. It does seem to be working now, all I needed to do was buy another one  On sale now online at Northern tool for $149. 
  Actually, I drained the water and washed the plates even though I had probably only cleaned about 15 pans with it. I added clean water and soda, and it seems to be working perfectly again

[Mark Zizzi]

Gary, I would try the old charger again now that you've got a fresh mix of electrolyte and clean anodes and compare with the new one... just to rule out the old electrolyte wasn't the problem.

[Gary Salsman]

I will test when the new charger comes. The electrolyte and plates only had about 15 pans run thru it, so neither one were dirty.  I cleaned and changed anyway. Something funny happened

[Mark Zizzi]

Oh, I guess I misunderstood. Thought you had the new one up and running already. So you mean the old charger is working properly again after the electrolyte change? Not sure why you said you "needed" to buy a new one.