The collection of grease and gunk effect's the process just as you suspect. I strain and/or skim my tank occasionally. When I strain the entire contents I scrub and rinse inside tank. I don't worry much about amperage,if it bubble's it's working. I don't have any numbers for you but conductivity can be tested with an ohm meter. I'd assume the solution could also be tested similar to spas and pools. My handy-dandy tip for today concurn's odd shaped or over size items and straining and cleaning tank. I throw heavy plastic sheet in a box,barrel or flower box to serve as temporary tank. I cobble up and line plywood boxes for odd shapes. I recently did a bike frame in such temporary tank. To maximize solution,I sat up glass bottles so they made tents in large open areas of frame.

Those are neat ideas -taking up space with the jars and making your own containers of various sizes with the plastic sheets.

Everything is frozen now, but I was speaking about the amperage the charger was able to deliver, not how much was going from cathode to anode. When working well, the charger was delivering 6 amps, but eventually fell closer to 2 amps. It is also, of course, possible that I somehow damaged the charger. Thanks again!

The charger isn't necessarly at fault,could be any number of things,poor connections at the top of list. If it's not a smart charger,hook charger to a half or more discharged battery. Needle should go close to max charger is capiable of then drop as charge come's up in battery.