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Minor (?) issue with my car's Battery Tender Junior
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56D500boy
Posted 2023-08-29 2:20 AM (#631656)
Subject: Minor (?) issue with my car's Battery Tender Junior



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Location: Lower Mainland BC		.
I have and use a Battery Tender Junior to maintain my 56 Dodge's battery at 12.85 V (or so). Typically I have it on whenever the car is in the garage and especially if know that I won't be driving the car for a few days (or weeks, when we go on holidays).

Recently, I was under the car, changing the speedometer pinion gear in the transmission. While I was under there, I touched the new (2017) left side exhaust pipe (aluminized pipe with no external corrosion). As I touched the exhaust pipe, I felt
an electrical "hum"/tingle. Not a noise, a feeling/sensation. Not an unpleasant shock but an almost pleasurable vibration.

I figured right away that it must be to do with the Battery Tender Junior and to prove that to my self, I pulled the charger out of the wall receptical and re-tested the exhaust pipe. The tactile "hum"/vibration was gone. Plug the charger back in, and the sensation was back. Conclusive

My question is how and why is this happending? Obviously some kind of ground problem.

What can I do to stop this while still leaving the charger charging??

One of these (I have the receiving end permanently attached to the battery posts and then I plug the male/female plug into the female/male plug on the charger cable so I don't have to open the hood):



Edited by 56D500boy 2023-08-29 2:27 AM




(BatteryTenderJuniorComponents.jpg)



Attachments
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Attachments BatteryTenderJuniorComponents.jpg (135KB - 50 downloads)
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wizard
Posted 2023-08-29 2:35 AM (#631657 - in reply to #631656)
Subject: Re: Minor (?) issue with my car's Battery Tender Junior



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Location: Southern Sweden - Sturkö island		Totally normal Dave. My trickle charger does the same.
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56D500boy
Posted 2023-08-29 11:13 AM (#631659 - in reply to #631657)
Subject: Re: Minor (?) issue with my car's Battery Tender Junior



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wizard - 2023-08-28 11:35 PM
Totally normal Dave. My trickle charger does the same.


Nice to know that I am not crazy (well, at least not today ) Sven, but I can NOT accept the fact that this is normal.

What I don't understand is I thought that the 120 VAC (yours would be 220 VAC in Sweden), gets converted to 12 V (or 14 V) BC but there is
still a residual frequency to the 12 V DC.

Maybe I don't understand transformers/battery chargers.

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wizard
Posted 2023-08-29 5:15 PM (#631678 - in reply to #631656)
Subject: Re: Minor (?) issue with my car's Battery Tender Junior



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Location: Southern Sweden - Sturkö island		The tires of the car insulate the earth (minus), you’re on the ground, touching the chassie, hence you become the earth (minus). Same thing can happens to cows, drinking from a metal bowl ”connected” to the earth of a house or barn electrical system.
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56D500boy
Posted 2023-08-29 6:53 PM (#631680 - in reply to #631678)
Subject: Re: Minor (?) issue with my car's Battery Tender Junior



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Hmm...not sure if I like being compared to a cow or NOT.

But I do agree about me being the "ground" terminal. That makes sense.

Still surprised that there is a tactile frequency "hum" when I touch any bar metal on the car (while sitting/laying on the garage floor).

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Powerflite
Posted 2023-08-29 8:31 PM (#631682 - in reply to #631656)
Subject: Re: Minor (?) issue with my car's Battery Tender Junior



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Location: So. Cal		It sounds like what you are describing is a mechanical vibration. Is that correct? Mechanical vibration can come from the transformer itself. And if it is sitting on your car, then it can transfer that vibration over to your exhaust. That is to be expected. It is also expected that those pathetic transformers are notoriously electrically noisy. Getting DC current out of them is a very loose definition of DC. Most electronics designs have large filters at the input of any power source so that the expected electrical noise doesn't destroy or hinder the components inside. I'm not sure how much a lead/ion battery cares about it. If what you were feeling was electrical charge from the exhaust, then yes, I would say you are probably getting a significant amount of noisy reverse current that is going out from the battery, and flowing the opposite direction to ground through your hand. If that's the case, I would get a better battery charger.

I use a 12 x 12", very old battery charger for my cars and it definitely has a hum to it, with associated vibration. But I haven't noticed any electrical charge at the ground of the car. But then again, I haven't checked for it with a meter or scope either.
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Landyacht67
Posted 2023-08-30 4:40 PM (#631699 - in reply to #631656)
Subject: Re: Minor (?) issue with my car's Battery Tender Junior



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Location: Langley BC Canada		it is possible that some of the line voltage side is crossing over (via a bad winding on the transformer) to the low voltage side. This could indicate a potentially failing internal circuit. One way to test simply would be to plug the unit into a GFI receptacle (bathroom or outside plug) on your home. then run a wire from metal of your car to ground. If there's any voltage leakage this will trip the GFI plug (or breaker).
If it trips the GFI I suggest replacing the unit right away as failures like this tend to only get worse.
If the GFI doesn't trip, then its not as much a concern, more an anomoly.
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