battery tender

[48tony]

should i leave the tender carger on all the time to maintain the 2 batt i have hooked up Seems i could shut them off every so often.Butt if leaving them on all the timewill do no harm I will do so.I did pop off the vent covers to allow full venting on the batt

 

[papyson]

what do you mean by tender charger?does it have full cutoff when the battery reaches a full charge state?i have batteries on a campboat that i leave on trickle 24/7 year round....no problem...i have used the same brand charger in a fishing boat and it will eventually boil the battery dry...so its iffy and i think depends on the battery condition as much as anything else..i see you live in MA so if you are storing boat i would disconnect the battery and give it a good full charge and disconnect charger.....then throw a charger on it a couple times in the winter to maintain that charge.... the objective is to keep the battery from freezing and it wont do that if charged....reconnect in the spring and you should be good to go.....just remember one thing...every time you let a battery run down the lifespan of that battery is shortened....especially a starting battery....and some of the newer motors are saying not to use a deep cycle as a starting battery......another tip is to use a fully charged battery as a starting battery....its not recommended to start an engine and run it with a battery thats just charged enough to turn the engine and start it...the reason is that you are stressing the charging system on the engine...especially on the rectifier only charging systems...some people recharge their trolling motor batteries from the engine charging system...thats a no-no with me...