[Vwdiesel] glow plug test

Roger Brown r.c.brown at ieee.org
Tue May 3 18:14:44 EDT 2005


mikitka wrote:
> OK sorry about this but I don't like electricity no matter how small a
> watt/volt/amp.  Had a bad experience when I was younger getting shocked so
> it isn't my friend.  I went back out and hooked up the glow plug to the
> charger and put it on boost, 60amp boost, first I didn't want to try it on
> that for fear of burning out the glow plug. But I did, bravely at that and
> that puppy turned red quick, not to mention my needle pegged past 14amps. So
> it does work, you just have to be brave and use (in my case) the boost
> selection on the charger.

Volts are what gives you a shock, you'll likely never feel a shock from 12V DC unless you really work at it.  110V AC on up is a 
different matter.  Amps makes heat (like in a glow plug) but will not shock you, unless those amps are at a high enough voltage. 
  Static electricity is at many 10's of thousands of volts, you'll feel the shock byt the current is infinitessimal.  You could 
touch the charger clamps w/ 14 amps flowing through them and feel nothing.  That said, if you have 14 amps flowing though your 
body, that would be a bad thing.  Only takes around 20 mA (0.020 amps) through the heart to stop it.  Likely in boost mode, your 
charger has an open circuit voltage higher than 12 volts, maybe 14-15 or higher.

-- 
    Roger



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