To tend or not to tend?That is the battery question

 I finaly bought a battery tender,and its a nice little unit from walmart 20. processor controlled auto detecting 6/12v 1.5amp.Now do you guys leave your battery on as a tender or charge and remove?Do you charge after every use or wait till its low?I have been waiting till the battery gets to low and dies while i'm otw then taking it to work.I wait for the boss to leave sneak in his garage and plug it in to the tender on his hot rod.

 thanks Mike 

Batter Tenders are great products.  I have 3 of them. They keep all my toys fully charged!

A battery tender is not a charger technically. It just will keep a steady state of charge in a battery. If your battery is discharged it needs a real charger.

This is the one I use.
The Battery Tender® Plus is a 1.25 amp battery charger designed to fully charge a battery and maintain it at proper storage voltage without the damaging effects caused by trickle chargers. Included is a quick connect ring terminal harness for hard to reach areas and alligator clips for an alternate connection.
Description
Help Documentation
Temperature compensated to ensure optimum charge voltage according to ambient temperature.
Automatically switches from full charge to float charging mode.
Battery Tender® at 1.25 amps will charge as fast or faster than any 3 amp charger available.
Reverse Polarity Protection to ensure user safety. Red & Green Lights Alternately Flash in this condition.
Complete 4-step charging program (Initialization, Bulk Charge, Absorption Mode, Float Mode).
10 year Warranty!

That sounds good Jeff. A combo. There are just tenders out here and that was what I was getting at.

That sounds good Jeff. A combo. There are just tenders out here and that was what I was getting at.

ohh I should have been more specific.It does all the same as above(with the exception of the temp comp).Its a charger/tender for up to a 32ah battery and a tender only for anything larger.

This.

If you click the image that's not there it will show. Sorry tapatalk hates me.

Not sure on that one.  Sounds like you should hook it up every time.  Like Rob says some are not chargers, they just maintain the charge.

I have three tenders, leave one on a boat for the gas motor and electronics battery (I use a different high output charger for the trolling motor AGM batteries), one on a tent trailer for the deep cycle battery, one on a Rokon two wheel drive motorcycle.  I charge all batteries ASAP after using them.  Not a good thing to leave a discharged battery sit around for a while before charging it. 

Not a good thing to leave a discharged battery sit around for a while before charging it.

http://www.kayakfishingmagazine.net/articles/139-kayak-fishing-how-to-articles/1538-sla-batteries-demystified.html

-Allen

I charge my batteries after every use, and just before.  I'm not sure that tending them will increase their lifespan, but should keep them charged and ready for use.  The important thing I believe is to not over run your battery.  I had a battery completely die on me after using it for 3 days at BSS.  Now it's only holing about a 9v charge and is useless.

I picked up a couple of the Genius chargers and they are the way to go, they will recover, charge and maintain  a battery.