Best practice using a battery maintainer!

[Carlosfandang0]

Should a battery maintainer/trickle charger be connected straight to both battery poles? Or should the negative go to the tab connected to the body? Any other tips for connecting one of these? Is it ok to leave the battery connected to the car? Thanks.
EDIT: should have said that the car also has stop/start .

 

[KevinC]

Definitely use the separate ground point assuming our cars have one (I've never checked). You don't want both cables on the battery. If there's a separate place for positive, use it too.

I keep my BMW on a Noco 1 maintainer, and the car has a rear-mounted battery, hence there are both positive & ground points to attach to under the hood.

 

[Carlosfandang0]

Definitely use the separate ground point assuming our cars have one (I've never checked). You don't want both cables on the battery. If there's a separate place for positive, use it too.

I keep my BMW on a Noco 1 maintainer, and the car has a rear-mounted battery, hence there are both positive & ground points to attach to under the hood.

Thanks, yeah, there is definitely a negative tab separate from the battery on the golf, there’s not one for positive though I believe, I’ve been looking at the NOCO 1 and will likely buy one.

 

[KevinC]

I’ve been looking at the NOCO 1 and will likely buy one.

I'm quite happy with mine. The tiny thing is the size of a typical wall wort power adapter - VERY small. Only $30 at Amazon. Temperature-compensated, which is a must for AGM (and I live in Arizona where the garage gets very hot in summertime) so definitely a concern for me.