Wiring, Stereo & Electronics Audio Components | Radars | Alarms - and things that spark when they shouldn't

Parasitic Drain Test

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old 08-28-2007, 09:57 AM
  #1  
TECH Regular
Thread Starter
 
MrEddie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Houston, Tx
Posts: 418
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts

Default Parasitic Drain Test

When checking for parasitic drain, do you hook the multimeter up in series (disconnect battery) between the negative battery cable and the negative battery post? What is an acceptable number of amps for just a clifford concept 100 (nothing fancy). I'm not having an issue, but I just received a new digital multimater and am curious. Thanks!
Old 08-28-2007, 10:16 AM
  #2  
Kleeborp the Moderator™
iTrader: (11)
 
MeentSS02's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Dayton, OH
Posts: 10,317
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes on 2 Posts

Default

Yes...you just hook it up in series. I had to make sure I used the larger fused port on my multimeter since my car liked to spike upwards of about 1 amp after the initial connection, and then it settled right back down to where it should be (I think mine draws 10-15 mA after everything settles down). The spike was blowing the smaller fuse in the other port though...
Old 09-02-2007, 10:32 PM
  #3  
TECH Regular
Thread Starter
 
MrEddie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Houston, Tx
Posts: 418
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts

Default

I hoooked up in series between the negative battery terminal and it pulled about 0.01 amps with no alarm. When arming, the amps shot up to 5-8 amps and then went back down to 0.01 - 0.03 amps - kept cycling. I didn't use milliamps since I was fearing blowing a fuse when arming the alarm (5,000 to 8,000 milliamps exceeds my mA options during the arming). Thanks for the tips.

Last edited by MrEddie; 09-17-2007 at 11:37 AM.




All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:29 PM.