i'm thinking of getting a battery conditioner\charger. are they any good? whats a good one? i have a bike with an alarm will it stop it from wrecking the battery through constantly discharging it?
all experiences opinions welcome.
                                                                                                                                                                             

I have an optimate, worth its weight in gold.                                                                                                                                                                              

Another vote for the Optimate...expensive, but worth it, especially if you need to leave it a while.                                                                                                                                                                             

Agreed, Optimates are brill. Used to keep the drag bike topped up on one of those... Worked a treat!                                                                                                                                                                             

i can leave my bike for 6 months and there's no problem with it.   What problems do you guys face that the optimate solves?                                                                                                                                                                             

My alarm drains my battery summat shocking. Plus the fact its an old bike. If i leave mine more than 2 weeks before starting it, it just doesnt want to know. Now its in a more secure area, i can leave it a bit longer cos i dont put the alarm on, but i've had a nightmare with it this winter. I made the mistake of taking it to my mums where i could only get to it once in a blue moon. The alarm wasnt on for 6 months and it still drained the battery. New battery, new optimate and a carb clearing session later, it appears to be working ok now. Wont be doing that again!

yamahama I was told by the Aprilia dealer to always keep the Bat well charged as the starter gear can get knackered due to the high compression of the twin I had an optimate but it stopped working so I give mine a good charge the night b4 I use it if its been left for a while                                                                                                                                                                             

Optimate for me too! But also have an Accumate which is switchable between 6v & 12v so it's more useful if you have old Brit bikes too.   Rather than fit the all weather connector by the battery I fitted mine onto a fused battery connection into the top box. I bought a cigarette lighter holder & also a number of "race connectors" from Maplins and with a little soldering now have the ability to use a standard tyre inflator, phone charger, ipod charger etc. directly from the bike whilst camping.                                                                                                                                                                             

I got a cheeper oxford charger but i cant leave it on for more than a couple of days as it wont let the battery rest (ie constante charging) but the optimate charge then discharge a little as i understand so much better buy. and off topic but ken you may wont to delet that cus in barmouth you may have a few young ladys standing by your bike with a hair dryers lol

I have Datatool's version of the Optimate which came with the tracker that I had fitted to one of my bikes, now gone. I've wired plugs to the batteries of both the Bandit and ZX-9R and used it on them throughout the winter when they didn't get much use. Both have alarms/immobilisers and I've never had problems turning the engines over.

As micksaway said, they're essential for big V-twins and to a lesser extent for triples since the starter sprag clutch is their main weakness and they need to be turned over smartly to fire up. They're always a good idea for any bike.

Optimate every time, have a Accumate but its crap                                                                                                                                                                             

I've got a banner Accuguard which does the same job. A must for older BMW airhead twins which need a fair bit of starting in cold weather.
I've also got a cheapo version from Lidl or Aldi, forgotten which, that I keep in reserve and only cost a tenner or so. Seems to do the job OK.                                                                                                                                                                             

CTEK for me - seems to do a brill job on the Firestorm that does need a good chunk of power to turn it over and can knacker a battery if it's not kept in tip top condition. Also de-sulphates - is that good?                                                                                                                                                                              

I too have the Datatool equivalent of the Optimate and tend to swap it between my bike and Roachy's.  Although with me using the bike every day, it tends to be plugged into Roachy's most days.

It works brilliantly and makes sure the batteries are always in good nick.  When Roachy got her bike it had spent long periods sat unused and the battery wasn't in the best nick.  Indeed I nearly scrapped it at one stage.  A year later with regular use of the battery conditioner and it's as good as new again.

Got waterproof connectors fitted to both bikes for easy swap over of the conditioner.

Well recommended, every biker should have one in my opinion.                                                                                                                                                                              

thanks all for your comments very helpful