What is an AC amp? How is it measured?
Im trying to charge my new lawn mower. The charger that came with the mower is measured in ac amps. When I hooked it up, the needle jumped right to 10 amps (biggest number on the meter) after a while I checked the meter and the needle was pointing to 0 amps. I know the mowers battery doesn't come charged. Whats going on?
What your charger is doing is converting AC from the wall to DC to the battery. With no charge on the battery, there's minimal voltage (voltage in electricity is similar to pressure in water) and current (amps) is the flow of electricty from a higher voltage to a lower voltage (like water that flows from high pressure to low pressure). The output of the charger will be at a higher voltage than the battery when the battery is uncharged. With a high difference in voltage, there's large current (like you saw - 10+ amps). As the battery charges up, its voltage goes up, so the difference between the voltage of the battery and the charger is less...therefore less current flow (less pressure, water moves slower...make sense?)
The battery is fully charged when its voltage is about the same as that of the charger's output. With no difference in voltage, there's nothing "pushing" the elctricity, so minimal to 0 amps.
