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Others can be more articulate about this, but if you use a charger that doesn't shut off once the battery reaches full charge, it could wreck the battery. The way I understand it, a fast charger is ok if you monitor the battery's state of charge. A trickle charger operates at a lower charge rate that will have less tendency to overheat (?) the battery. A battery [i]maintainer[/i] charges at a fairly sedate rate and will alternately send a current or not to the battery depending on the battery's state of charge. Lots of people here likely use a maintainer during long down times for the car, e.g. during the winter. A fully discharged battery can result in damaged plates. I think Boxsterra has spoken about this. I'm winging it a bit here, but others will either corroborate this or correct me.

Others can be more articulate about this, but if you use a charger doesn't shut off once the battery reaches full charge, it could wreck the battery. The way I understand it, a fast charger is ok if you monitor the battery's state of charge. A trickle charger operates at a lower charge rate that will have less tendency to overheat (?) the battery. A battery [i]maintainer[/i] charges at a fairly sedate rate and will alternately send a current or not to the battery depending on the battery's state of charge. Lots of people here likely use a maintainer during long down times for the car, e.g. during the winter. A fully discharged battery can result in damaged plates. I think Boxsterra has spoken about this. I'm winging it a bit here, but others will either corroborate this or correct me.