Unanswerd Question

[captain ron]

I asked in another post about clipping the clamps off my smart charger and hard wiring it to my battery bank and have it plugged in to an outlet that is only hot when on shore power. Will the charger draw any power from the batteries when not turned on. I was told if I left it hooked to batteries when not charging it would drain the batteries. True or False?

[Utahclaimjumper]

Chuck, run one of the charging leads thru a relay thats activated by the shore power when you connect.>>>Dan

[captain ron]

I was getting ready to ask if there was a valve or relay that only let current flow one way.
Chuck

[DrivingMissLazy]

I was getting ready to ask if there was a valve or relay that only let current flow one way.
Chuck

Since the output of the charger is thru diodes, which are one way, then the batteries can not discharge back thru the charger. If there is a n output voltmeter on the charger, then that meter could very slowly discharge the batteries.
Richard

[Tony LEE]

Chargers would need a battery voltage sense input( ideally running directly from the battery terminal, or at least connected after any diodes or other semiconductors) which should have very high input impedance so drawing microamps but the only way to check would be to disconnect the positive lead of the charger and connect an ammeter between the charger and the battery with the mains disconnected.  Anything less than 10 milliamps would probably not be worth worrying about