I went to a Kmart yesterday and found a neat compact battery tester.

I never knew how valuable this tool would be. I knew my battery was on its way to a discharge after being on the lake on Monday ,I used the meter and it tells me the battery still has 1/3rd charge. It has a light for the following settings:

Fully Charged

2/3 Charged

1/3 Charged

Recharge

I then put my battery on the charger all night,the needle on the charger said it was fully charged. The tester still told me it was at 1/3rd charge.

Then it dawned on me. I was charging the battery while it was sitting on the metal floor of my van.

I moved it over to a wooden 2X6 and continued to charge it all day. The needle on my Charger showed the battery wasnt yet fully charged,yet it had been on the charger all day. I checked it against my handy little tester and the tester tells me I have a full charge. I then tested the battery on my van,and it read full charge too.

Seems the readings on my charger are off,glad I double checked. Pick one of these little testers up,they really come in handy!!

Cost about $12.00 and is very compact.

http://seasense.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=181&category_id=22&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=26

http://www.batterymart.com/p-ez-red-super-compact-battery-hydrometer.html?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Base&utm_term=ez-red-super-compact-battery-hydrometer&utm_campaign=Base

Thanks for the info

It does not matter what the battery is sitting on, it's not going to affect the charging or disharging of the battery.

Sounds to me like your charger is a little small for your battery or your battery is close to being junk. Even run down to 20%, a 10 amp charger should restore it back to full charge in 7- 9 hours, depending on the size battery.

If your battery has caps you can take off, get you a hydrometer with a floating bulb, not one of those dinky things with the balls, they only cost $5 - $8 and they are the best thing you can use to check your batteries condition of charge. Most parts stores sell them.