battery tender

[drrandy3]

many people are telling me it is okay to use battery tender without disconnecting the neg. , will only be using the battery tender for 2 mos. Is this true or a bad idea

 

[Hib Halverson]

I've used smart trickle chargers, like the "Battery Tender" since the early 90s. All I do is clip them to the battery posts. I don't disconnect anything. Works great. The typically extend a battery's life by a couple of years if they're used all the time.

 

[LLC5]

many people are telling me it is okay to use battery tender without disconnecting the neg. , will only be using the battery tender for 2 mos. Is this true or a bad idea

I am sure you will be fine leaving the battery connected, I have been doing it that way for many years with three different vehicles and no problems. GM's position is that potentially the tender can send a spike voltage which can damage the electronics, so disconnecting the negative cable is the safest bet when using a tender. With the tender hooked up to 110 AC voltage, I suppose that it could be possible but only if there was a fault with the tender, which is a very good reason to buy a quality battery tender to be used on any vehicle. Read between the lines here a little bit: for warranty reasons it would be a very good idea to disconnect the battery negative cable before using any battery charger.