Battery Charger Question

[jdux999]

Hello All. I'm about to pull my House Battery out for the winter and store it in my garage. I bought a Schumacher 1359 battery charger and figured it would be a no-brainer to hook it up, until I read the precautions. It warned the user to stay as far away from the battery as possible when connecting the negative cable to a ground source because it might explode. One web site I looked at suggested attaching a long extension cable to the negative side so you can be far away from the battery. Are they just being super precautious or is it a real issue? Also, when they say to attach it to a ground source, could that just be a water pipe running through my garage?

[jimp]

There is always some risk when dealing with battery chargers, but just don't hold your head/face over the battery when making the connections, and make the connections to the battery BEFORE plugging the battery into the outlet. Once you attach the + cable clamp to the battery, be careful with the (-) cable clamp as touching any metal object will ground it and cause sparks, etc. Attach the - clamp and then plug the charger into the outlet. Check the water levels before you start charging.

[norty1]

It's called "Legal Speak". The instructions likely went thru the legal department before being released.

[Mustang65]

Connect the charger cables to the battery then plug it into the wall

Don

My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

[hoppers4]

Originally Posted by norty1

It's called "Legal Speak". The instructions likely went thru the legal department before being released.

X2. This country is so litigation happy that manufacturers have to include every little thing that can go wrong using their products. Also referred to as CYA. Mustang has the right answer.

[oldmanAZ]

Originally Posted by Mustang65

Connect the charger cables to the battery then plug it into the wall
Don
...snip

An elegant and safe solution!

Originally Posted by norty1

It's called "Legal Speak". The instructions likely went thru the legal department before being released.

What he said ^^^^^

[jdux999]

Thanks for the info. In this legal climate it's hard to tell what's legitimate information and what's CYA. One further question; the instructions say to attach the negative lead to a grounded source. Does that mean NOT to connect the lead to the negative post on the battery?

[Vicr]

Whenever working around batteries: WEAR EYE PROTECTION!!!