I changed my battery at 4 years and put it in my riding mower. While on the bike I only periodically plugged in the Tender (Winter) for a few minutes until the green light came on. While it's been in the mower for the last two years it has never been on the Tender. I went out the other day to fire up the mower to change oil and it was still like a new battery.

 

Completely agree,

During winter storage, wirh Security System on, the battery will be stone dead by springtime.

Use a automatic charger from HARLEY, on my Harley!!!!!

 

I always put my battery on a battery tender for the winter, don't bother at all during riding season, it doesn;t sit long enough.
I always thought a battery Tender "maintains" a fully charged battery, but will not charge a battery 100%. If that is true I assume that letting a battery run down or sit a long time and putting it on a tender will not charge it completely.

Waiting for Battery Guru to straighten me out

 

Both the Junior and the Plus version of Battery Tender brand maintainers will charge a battery. The Junior charges at a rate of about 700-800 milliamps and the Plus charges at a rate of 1.25 amps.

The only caveat is that they will not charge a battery if it is has been deeply discharged. I think the cut off is 3 volts but I'd have to check their web site to be sure.

Once the maintainer (whichever brand you are using) detects that the battery is fully charged it will switch to a maintenance mode to maintain the battery's voltage. The output in the maintenance mode will vary depending on whether you have anything on the bike drawing current such as a security system. My understanding that a typical maintenance mode output is about 5 milliamps.

If you turn on the bike while the maintainer is connected and run the battery below the maintainer's minimum voltage, it will switch back to the charge mode to bring the battery back to a full charge.

They do not continually charge the battery such as normal trickle charger. They only put out enough current to maintain the battery in a fully charged state.

Everything I've read about batteries say that keeping a battery fully charged is the best way to maximize its useful life. The ones stating that they have never used a maintainer and have experienced long battery life are probably riding their bikes often enough to keep their batteries fully charged or close to it.

 

Until I started using Tenders my batteries lasted on average 3 yrs in motorcycles,now they last twice as long.One of my muscle cars the battery is over 10 yrs old,confident in knowing anytime I want to start the car it will explode to life.Your choice,and Tenders do not overcharge any battery.

 

5 to 6 years and battery still starts the bikes but I replace them them. Tender is meant to stay on the bike all winter long thats why it is called a tender and not a charger.
Weak battery may seem ok and still start the bike but they can do long term damage to charging systems that will end up being a bigger head ache and more expensive than a battery.

 

"The only caveat is that they will not charge a battery if it is has been deeply discharged. I think the cut off is 3 volts but I'd have to check their web site to be sure."

The reason they use a minimum cut-off voltage value is to keep nimrods from hooking up a charger backwards and reverse charging a battery (yes, it does happen). It is essentially a polarity protection device. Hooking up a reverse charged battery (or attaching a charger with reversed polarity to a dead battery that is still in the bike) to an, up until that point in time . . . perfectly good motorcycle; will instantly destroy the charging system (Voltage Regulator and Rectifier Bridge) and most of any other electronics (ECM, Radio, Instruments, etc) on the bike that the thoughtful manufacturer didn't see the need to use a reverse polarity circuit.

 

I was in Canada for the last two winters and used a DelTran Battery Tender on my 08.
This winter at home I also used it.
Starts like a champ every time.

 

I use a Battery tender all the time..during winter storage and during the riding season between rides..never had a problem..always fully charged and ready to go..

 

Me too, no Tender but I top the charge off twice during the long cold Winter.