I leave the Battery Tender connected all winter. Never any problems.

 

I leave my tender connected all winter. I have been doing that for 20 years without any issues.

 

When I'm home I ride everyday or 2, I do not put the tender on the bike, it's not needed. When I go to work I'm away from home for up to 2-3 weeks, the tender is plugged in. The tender is plugged in for months at a time when the bike is stored over winter. My car and truck batteries are maintained in a similar fashion when they are not being used on a regular basis.

I prefer the Optimate 3 "Automatic" charger and will replace my basic tenders with this style of "smarter" chargers as the basic tenders require replacement. I also will swap out the basic tenders once in a while with the optimate to check the other batteries conditions. For the most part a basic tender is good enough, I like the smarter tenders/chargers since they run regular maintenance routines to check the condition and features that can recover some dead batteries (even if it's just enough time for me to get a new battery).

Optimate chargers can be found at other power sport dealers. Mine is a Honda branded Optimate, don't tell my bike.

 

I don't use a tender year round, but I generally leave it plugged in mid November to mid March 24/7.

 

Does anyone ever read the manuals that come with the tender?

In a nutshell here is how to use a tender to the highest and best use.

Plug it in and leave it until you go for a ride. Plug it back in until the next ride.

Does it hurt the battery always plugged in. NO! it prolongs it life. I have 24 bikes on tenders and have experience battery life beyond ten years.

One caution some have "trickle chargers" and don't know what they have. A trickle charger will fry a battery if left on too long.

There is a finite amount of discharge/charge cycles in a given battery. Even if left unridden for a couple of days the parasitic draw is always going especially with all the accessories on a touring bike. Even a cruiser has draw. Just remove the neg cable in a dark corner of the garage and you will see a good spark jump from the bolt to the battery post. A tender negates that draw with an equal current. All the little processors in a modern bike need current 24/7 to keep their data.

You paid for the tender why not get the best use of it?

I also have a garden tractor and a van on tenders. I have been using tenders ever since they came out and replaced my trickle chargers with them in the 90's.

Again if one reads the manual that came with the tender when purchased they would know how to use them. Trickle chargers were for temporary use, tenders for permanent use.

 

Up here it's not as sunny as in Florida, so I use a wind powered one.
The beanie with the little propeller suction cups onto the top of my helmet
and not only charges the battery on a cloudy day, but doubles as a means to keep the mosquitos and blackflies away from my face when at a stop sign.

 

I don't use one in the Spring or Summer but keep it plugged in most of Fall and all Winter. The same plug doubles as a connection for my power port. I love being able to keep the cell charged up on those long rides, 'cause you never know.