Why 13.59v out when charging

[Tripler]

I have a Thunder Power charger and was wondering why it has 13.59volts comming out of the DC charge cable while
I'm charging a battery via the 220volt Ac input?
Is this a normal thing with AC/DC input chargers? if so then why don't they warn the user of this.
Could be dangerous if the dc charge leads touch while charging

[Tripler]

come on you electrickery experts??

[cjcj1949]

What's dangerous about 13.59 volts?

[JoeBailey]

Why 13.59v out when charging

I'd be more concerned about the lipo shorting out by accident if you unplug the banana leads without disconnecting the pack first. The charger will have inbuilt short circuit protection and your house is backed by safety fuses. If it did short there's little risk of any major damage other then a potentially knackerd charger.

[Tripler]

Ok so if you inadvertantly left a rag or paper with fuel on it close to the dc leads while charging and they touched or causing a spark??
Just want to know why this happens with a charger, must be a reason??

[JoeBailey]

Why 13.59v out when charging

It must output voltage for it to work. If there's no voltage on those leads its just a very expensive box

For charging to take place the output voltage must be higher then the pack voltage.

[M0TFT]

My iCharger 106b does this too, its a DC only one, and I plug an old laptop charger into the jack socket (I'm only charging 130x batteries). but notived that the banana power input lead is also live with the same voltage as the laptop charger.

To be safe, I slid a piece of rubber tubing onto the end of the banana plugs...

Alan (M0TFT)

[pgkevet]

Doesn't soud right to me. I'll have to check my only mains/batt dual charger (fusion elysium) and see if it does the same.
You sure those thunder power chargers aren't made by spectrum or castle creations?

[dillwhacker]

At a guess I'd say the charger has two functional blocks inside - one converts 13.6 VDC to do lipo charging, and the other converts mains 240 VAC into 13.6 VDC.
So when charging off a battery you are only using the first, and when charging off the mains you're using both and can see the 13.6 VDC on the battery input wires.
You might find that although a meter measures 13.6V, there is a bocking component (diode or FET) that means only a tiny output current is available from the DC input wires - try connecting a 12V bulb and see if it lights up.

[Mark_T]

I think one or two on this thread may have misunderstood the OP.

Charger has leads to connect to a battery for power input and a lead to connect to the mains supply.

When using the mains input there is measurable voltage on the battery input leads.

So there is a risk of a short if the unused battery input leads touch.

Like Dillwhacker, I'd hope that there is no real prospect of any current worth worrying about on those leads, but it would be good to know for sure.

[Tripler]

Thank you, I thought I made it clear to start with but obviously not going by some of the replies
I think (dilwhacher) and (Mark_T)s replies made sense and it may well be worth checking to see if there is any current.

[xygax]

You can also use the 13.6v to charge your lead acid battery's... it will make a reasonable job....

[Tripler]

You can also use the 13.6v to charge your lead acid battery's... it will make a reasonable job....

Really?? it did cross my mind, but how about the current draw, and when the 12v batts at full capacity, will this effect the charging from 220v to say a lipo

[cjcj1949]

Your original post was clear, I didn't realise you had an AC/DC charger. I think I have had this problem when using the power socket on a DC charger and so you may be correct and if you are there will be a danger if they touch. You need to find out the output impedance of the source feeding your battery connectors. It may be very high and there may be no danger if it is fed through a diode. A voltage reading takes no current and can be misleading. You could connect a resistor across the battery connectors. Around 10k would be ok. This should get rid of the volts. You could also use any 12V load like an inspection lamp, so long as it's wattage is not too great for your ac input.

You could also open up the charger and see where the battery connections are connected.