Hi Folks,
I bought an Iota 45a Intelligent (Q4)
battery charger in the summer, but didn't have time to install it.
Now that the boat is in storage for the winter, I removed the 2 group 27 flooded house batteries (new this spring). Brought them to the house for warmer storage, and figured I would use the Iota to charge / maintain them throughout the winter, and install it in the boat in the spring. It comes with a 3 prong AC plug!
I had NOT yet plugged in the charger to the AC outlet, but when I tried to connect the leads to the 1st battery, I got a decent spark!!!
Double checked everything, tried again, same result!
Looked like the charger was shorting out the battery! Got out the multimeter, set for Ohms (2K). ** Electrical not my strongpoint, but do understand basic short, ground, etc**** Got reading of .54 on pos /neg leads from charger!!
Not sure what I was expecting for readings, but since the charger was not plugged into AC, I did not think a spark was normal. Should the charger leads show open / no resistance (1.0 reading) until it is plugged in and starts charging? Or is this normal??
I did NOT have the chargers ground lug connected to ground either, but don't think this woudl matter so far.
Thoughts?????