Inverter and Shore Power ??

IMO the OP meant "converter" and it has been confusion ever since.

Yes you can leave the converter on, that's the whole idea.

I have two "EMERGENCY POWER" zones in my OFF-ROAD POPUP that is fed by my 600WATT PSW INVERTER direct connected to my battery bank. This is "ON" 24/7 even when connected to shore power. My on-board smart mode converter/charger continues to keep my battery bank charged when on shore power. When camping off the power grid I have my shore power cable plugged into my portable 2KW Generator to re-charge my batteries when needed.

I have my emergency must have items turned "on" plugged into these two zones all the time. Our Home entertainment items are also plugged into one of these emergency power zones...

Being a PURE SINE WAVE INVERTER we don't have to worry about what is plugged into these two zones for fear of going up in BLUE SMOKE...

Kinda neat to always have 120VAC power available to use at all locations.

Roy Ken

Perdy simple,
Most of todays converters DO fully charge the batteries.
If you need to conserve battery power off grid, turn it off
If you on grid leave it on, if you want to.
I don't know of any electronic device ever made that cannot be left on.
But some do have a limited duty cycle while operating, such as many water pumps

Depends on the inverter and what you mean by ON.

For example.. In my RV I have a Xantrex Prosine 2.0, This is a inverter/charger with pass through, the specs say it is a very good 3 stage + charger (Alas that module has an issue so i do not often use it)

It has 3 on/off switches with the option of a 4th.

The main On/Off/Remote (4th swtich) must be in either ON or REMOTE (and if you have a remote it has to be on) or the thing will NOT charge the battery or pass power.

The "inverter enable/disable" can be in either position if you have shore power as can the Charger enable/disable if you have another converter online as I do (Progressive Dynamics 9180 with wizard.. I like it better even if the prosine did not have an "issue").

I hope this answers your question.. NOTE: the main on/off/remote is on the inverter itself, the other two I mentioned are on the remote panel inside the living space.

Different models work differently.. (or not, depending on the model) but if it is a pass through type.. I would leave it on.

WHY:

Well... I am parked on a 30 amp site.. I have enough battery that even if I am using electricity to cook dinner (Microwae, toaster oven size large, steamer) I have time to get dressed, Turn off the water heater, go out and RESET the breaker without loosing power to the television, or computers.

It makes one Darn Fine UPS.

Yep, leave the inverter on 24/7/365 unless you are storing it or dry camping and shut all things down at night.
I am a full timer and the inverter has been turned on since 1999!

Our inverter has been on 24/7 for the past 6 years EXCEPT sometimes when we drycamp and want to conserve batteries overnight. You do need to be aware that it is on. Once we were in a campground that lost power but we didn't realize it at first because the inverter kept us powered up. We risked running our batteries down too low if the campground power stayed off too long. Now we set our Auto Gen start to come on when the batteries reach a pre-programmed state of low charge.

Shore power doesn't - usually - do a good job of charging your battery because converter is never wired properly. Idling inverter will draw some current from the battery that is not getting a good charge already.