Question About Trickle Charger

[bronsin]

I have a battery buddy for my vehicles that I use when one of them sits for a while. I put my VOM on the + and - clamp jaws of the charger when it was plugged in expecting to get ~ 12 volts.

I got 9 volts.

Whats going one here is this normal?

The battery it was hooked up to all winter reads nearly 14 volts.

[NJ Drive]

Smart chargers need to have a load on the other end before they ramp up voltage and current. High resistance found(or open circuit) = low voltage/low current out.