My 2006 Can Am 400 Outlander is now at 101 hours. Yesterday I replaced the battery, and it started up immediately. The ATV is used infrequently, but with little notice, so I want to leave the battery in the garaged ATV - ready to go.

Reading I've done from posts here seem to indicate the Battery Tender Plus is about the best option I can go with.  Let me know if this is not the current consensus.

Will the Battery Tender Junior be sufficient for my purposes?

Or, should I be looking at something else?

Thanks!

I have about 8 things on a battery tender up at the cabin. They seem to work well from everything between a lawn mower and large tractor.
They have definitely prolonged battery life of all the vehicles.
I do think that they sometimes stop charging if I leave them alone for an extremely long time. I have had older batteries not start even though they were on the charger. Reconnect the charger, let it do its stuff for a few hours and then everything is fine again. Don't understand that part.
They are easy to use and longer cables are cheap and easy to get.
It doing my research, I didn't think the junior would do what I wanted long term.

How long does the battery sit between uses?

Battery tenders are great, work well, but batteries do have a finite lifespan. I don't know how long batteries in your climate typically last, but if that is the first time you have changed the battery, I don't see a battery problem.


That is if you want something set and forget the battery tender is what you seek.


We always took the batteries out of small equipment when not in use and store them in a heated structure. Made sure they were fully charged and didn't look at them again until spring.

After losing 2 batteries with less than 2 year shelf life 5 winters ago, I bought 2
battery tenders,,one is a junior model the other a full size battery charger with a trickle charge.
just replaced my 5 yr old tractor battery which sits outside under cover that had a 2 year proposed life
I am still running the 5 yr old Yamaha quad battery with zero issues so far,

until tomorrow where it will be dead as a doornail because I talked about it..


.

I have had no issue with these


https://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-SEM-1562A-CA-Charge-Battery-Maintainer/dp/B0009IBJAS/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1467426313&sr=8-5&keywords=trickle+charger

I have used the Jr's on some riding lawn mower /tractors and have some issues of having to unplug and plug back in after long periods of no use (3month +)

started suing these instead http://www.harborfreight.com/15-amp-three-stage-onboard-battery-charger-maintainer-99857.html

over 4 yrs on tractors, Large welders, atv's and even a car.

I have had great results from using Battery Minders for long-term maintenance/standby use. The little 1.5 amp model would be perfect for your application.

I had a Battery Tender plus that worked fine till it died.

Then I bought a Pulse Tech CX 100 and I have been really happy with it.

I have used it on my mower, tractor, ATV and boat batteries.

During the winter I keep it connected to my tractor any time I'm not using it for something else.

No problems with any of the batteries.

Have Battery Tender Jr. for both my Vette and ATV.

Use the cigarette lighter adapter on each and works great for long term storage.

I have a CTEK http://smartercharger.com/ which looks like it works like the CX 100.
I keep two Miatas on chargers for the winter and the cheap battery tenders I used (Schumacher) used to use a lot of power and would seem hot especially in the summer.
The CTEK has many functions and runs much cooler (uses less power) once battery is fully charged.
Has lead/acid and AGM mode.

Kind of pricy but I feel it is worth it.

Last time was a little over a year and a half. Before that it was getting used once every month or two. I don't know how long the gaps will be when I walk away from the machine.

Thanks for all of the replies.  I have hit the links, am looking at the suggestions and will have something within a few days.

Here's the Battery Minder one.

https://www.amazon.com/BatteryMINDer-Model-1510-Maintenance-Desulfator/dp/B00Q3CM2QY/

I use a battery tender plus on my smaller seldom used 12v stuff. Love it.

How about multi batteries? Can one batt tender by used on several things ( mower, ATV & welder etc ) at one time?  Can they all be linked together?

Which CTEK are you using?  I started looking at them after reading this post, specifically the MUS 4.3.

Battery Minder says yes on most of their units. I would recommend charging each battery separately up to full charge, getting their voltages as close as practical before connecting them together.

I use a Junior for everything including my Jeep.

Both of those have worked well for me, in fact one boat battery will just now have to be replaced, after twenty years.
Another infrequently used car battery, often put on the Jr. model, lasted seventeen years.

I do not leave them plugged in permanently however.  I just plug them in every few weeks, to bring the batteries up.
Just make sure that nothing is discharging the battery in any way, or the battery life, seems to go down.  Old cars' clocks, will run them down, and sometimes other things on smaller fun toys, will bring the battery down.
A battery disconnect, if it is practical, and doesn't harm any onboard computers, etc. is advisable, when not using frequently.

CTEK MUS 4.3
Use it to keep Miata batteries (AGM mode) topped off.
Also use to keep RV battery (Also AGM) topped off.

At 4.3 amps it would probably take a long time to charge a depleted battery but for keeping a battery topped off it works great.

I use a tender randomly when batteries are going unused in things like my motorcycle or ATV for a season.  More often then not I try to put them on an actual smart battery charger for an afternoon once every few months.  Seems to work so far.  For average run of the mill Yuasa ATV battery I seem to get about 5 years from them give or take.  Winter kills them, so if I know I am not going to be using them to plow for a while, I will bring them inside.

Can't just let them sit for many months on end though (hooked up in the machine...)
Run the machine often, or put a battery charger on it now and again, or opt for a tender, all those options will work.

Also, the older the battery gets the more attention it will need.  My 2012 Honda Rancher still has its original OEM battery and I can tell its getting weak, if the ATV goes unused for over a month or two you can tell its tired.  As long as put it on the charger every 2 or 3 months or use the ATV once a month I am sure it will still work fine.  If I get another winter and summer out of that battery it will have surpassed my expectations for an ATV battery, 6 years of use.

We had an ATV battery go bad and it wouldn't stay charged and crank. This was in Fall 2014 IIRC

So, I 'temporarily' [you all know how that goes

Taped a 10 x 12 inch $16 ebay panel to the front rack that never gets used because this is a 6x6 and clipped it to the battery.

Battery perked up and lasted about 2 more years. Was surprised!


As far as the vehicles and machinery, we try to charge everything from time to time if it isn't run and mostly use either the little Vector Smart chargers or the bigger one that's been on the market for ---gosh close to 15 years now...

I think it may have been superseded but they can put out up to 40 amps, are robust and are still available on ebay.