Q: Is trickle charging harmful to batteries ?
A: What means trickle charge ? A trickle charge is a charge rate that is high enough to keep a battery fully charged, but low enough to avoid overcharging. Maintenance charge is another way to describe trickle charge.
It is not recommended long term (months at a time). If trickle charging is used, the charge current should be very low or only intermittent. The best smart chargers will only send an occasional pulse charge to the battery once it is charged. They do not apply a continuous low rate of charge .