Replacing clamps on battery charger?

[HWJohnson]

This past weekend I set up my electrolysis tank. The battery charger I used was a cheap manual charger from Autozone. Paid $40 for it.
It seemed to work ok on my #5 skillet but the meter stayed pretty low most of the time. There were a couple of times after I turned the skillet and stirred the water a bit that it would read higher but it would gradually go back down again but bubbles would still be coming off the skillet.

I'm wondering if I bought some better clamps with a tight spring to replace the cheap clamps that are on there now if that would make a difference?
I should be able to just cut the old ones off and then strip some of the plastic from the wire and attach it to the new clamp, correct?

 

[Doug D.]

My experience has been that it's more a matter of clean contact than a tight grip. I have tended to use my charger's clamps directly on the piece and sacrificial metal, and, over time, have had to do some maintenance.

If the clamp on the piece gets wet, it will start to corrode where the wire is attached to the clamp. This will cause poor current flow and the resistance will create heat at that point which can melt the insulation on the wire. It is a simple matter to wire brush the clamp clean, pry open the wire compression connection on the clamp, cut off the end and strip the insulation back to expose clean wire, and use pliers to reconnect the wire. Some avoid that issue by fabricating jumper wires so the charger's clamps never get wet.