First I don't store my bike. If I had to, I wouldn't have one. But I hook mine up after each ride, until the next one.

 

A tender leave it plugged in. A trickle charger nope, you'll fry a battery that way.

 

Yea, well you don't live in Minnesota with 3 feet of snow and a foot of ice at -20 degrees 3 months of the year, shame to hear you would sell your bike if you did

 

During the winter I use my Battery Tenders to put an overnight charge on my motorcycle and lawnmower batteries once a month. I might plug a bike in during the riding season if it doesn't get ridden at least once a week. Last year I had four bikes on the road.

 

I leave mine connected all winter. Just make sure you have a good battery tender, not a cheap knockoff.

 

I plug mine in during the full moon...except leap years...then I plug it in during the new moon.

It is not even the first day of winter yet.

 

I thought about putting my Tender Jr on a plugin timer so it comes on a few times a week
but other than that its on all the time for now

 

The tender is designed to be hooked up and left on ... however if you must, get and adapter that has a plug in it that a light bulb screws into and put it in the garage door opener light

 

Peoples "habits" on how they use the maintainers and "what's worked for them" might be interesting, but it doesn't really provide any factual basis for what the device does and how to use it properly.

I posted this article in another thread...

http://archives.wingworldmag.com/aug...e/battery.html

Now the article is a little dated. Without other information, one can only guess as to what each individual brand is currently doing for their charging/maintaining techniques/methods. For example, has Deltran/Battery Tender updated their wares? Or are they still doing things the way they used too? Who knows...

As noted in a previous reply, and in this article, sulfation is a concern. With all the maintainers in the article - except the Yuasa - I might consider disconnecting the maintainer every 60 days to exercise the battery (and prevent sulfation) as noted. The Yuasa being the exception because it not only pulses the current during float mode, it automatically shuts down and restarts the charge cycle every 28 days to prevent sulfation. Based on this article, The Deltran/Battery Tender is the only unit that I might take a pass on.

 

While rare, a battery tender can fail. The usual fail is to keep charging. Again, this is rare, but in a world where many products are made overseas, quality control can vary.

Name brands cost a little more as they pay for quality control. If I was going to leave my bike unattended and hooked up to a battery tender, I'd purchase a brand name tender.

There are two reason to use a tender. The first is all modern motorcycles have a constant battery drain. Sure this is tiny compared to lights, starting, radios, but is is persistent and always there. Secondly, a fully charged battery is unlikely to freeze in normal winter temperatures. A battery that has a low charge or is discharged can freeze more easily, leading to cracked cases and battery acid leaks.

I belong to the plug it in every week for the weekend. But mine is in a garage so I can walk out, dream of dry sunny days with no ice on the roads. If I had to leave my bike in a remote location, I would leave a quality name brand tender on all winter.
I also think, leaving it on until it turns green is not enough, I like to leave it on long enough to go through several cycles, so the weekend works for me.

One thing I have noticed, if I do it every weekend, it takes less that 1/2 hour to turn green. If I am away for a weekend, it takes several hours and if I am gone on a trip that includes two weekend, it takes overnight to turn green. That is just an indication of the amp draw that is resident to a modern motorcycle. If I was going to be gone for more than three weeks, I'd likely leave it on while I was gone.

My batteries tend to last 10 years. Good battery care is critical to good battery life. I do not know if my way is the best way, but it has worked for me since these battery tenders became popular. Prior to them, I took my batteries out of the bike to prevent battery drain and freezing.