While the owners manual may state that the C7 is ok sitting for up to 4 to 6 weeks and the vehicle will have a reduced starting power, why take the chance of a dead battery or low voltage starting/cranking power.

There is a solid reason the GM has decided to sell a Battery Protection Option.

Many C7 owners, including owners of earlier models have posted here that since they have connected a battery maintainer, whether it is a Deltran Battery Tender brand, CTEK brand, B&D brand or whatever, they don't experience low or dead batteries.

In the chart noted above, GM has a NOTE stating that after 12 hours of sitting the chart is only accurate to 10%.

In order to have peace of mind, that the C7 won't experience a dead battery or low voltage it only makes sense to connect one of these smart chargers that will maintain the battery voltage level.

The engineering of the C7 was quite complex, and the GM people made the decision to include a dedicated receptacle to keep the battery voltage maintained. For those owners who do not believe the C7 should be kept on a battery maintainer, it is your choice. For those C7 owners who want to take a proactive approach to car ownership should highly consider using the rear charging receptacle for it's intended purpose and secure or buy a battery maintainer and keep the C7 on the charger when not in use.

A $70.00 investment for a vehicle that costs $60,000+ would be a wise decision. I have 4 vehicles all connected to battery maintainers (CTEK brand MUS 4.3 an 8 Step smart charger) and over so many years I have NEVER experienced a low voltage battery or dead battery. This includes such high voltage drain vehicles as Jaguar, Porsche, Corvette and even my Ford F150. These new state of the art vehicles are loaded with electronics that continue to run after the vehicle is shut down for specific periods of time. These cars are loaded with plenty of electronic sensors that require power. Even when the Corvette is so-called turned off, the vehicle is still using power for security alarms and such.

It would be wise for anyone owning one of these modern state-of-the- art vehicles to consider owning a battery maintainer and using it regularly for it's intended purpose.

 

GM sells a "battery protection option" because people will buy it and they make money on it. Period.

 

In the 2016 C7 manual on pages 285 and 286 there are specific instructions and illustrations on how to access the battery and jump it. Step by step. If your wife, for example is out on her own with the car, have these two pages printed out and let anyone who drives the car know that they are in the glove box.
I have only had my car for a month now. After reading these posts I went out and went through the procedure of accessing the battery and it went real well. No problems getting the carpet back in place or accessing the battery. Sorry if I have......

 

Your misinterpreting the GM statement. Battery voltage can only be measured after ~12 hours because there is a surface charge when you stop! Then their chart for voltage versus state of charge is only accurate +-10%!
I agree the C7 is quite complex and part of that complexity is the system they built into it versus previous Vette's that shuts electrical power off after ~10 minutes even if you make a mistake and level an interior light on like I did in my '93! Actually my '08 had that feature to some degree as well.
If you use your car only occasionally and for short trips than your advice may be sound. I found in my street rod that has a higher parasitic drain the the C7 and driving 15 miles every couple of weeks was not charging the battery sufficiently. Now that it's 15 years old and mostly just goes to Car Shows I keep a charger on it all the time!
Bought the equivalent of the GM charger when I got the C7 to see if it would solve my "low voltage" issue - it didn't and haven't used the charger since 2013! As noted in a previous post it sat for 2 1/2 weeks when on vacation and even with it's low voltage (probably a weak cell) it started fine!
As you say "your car do as you wish!"

 

I don't think anybody has mentioned it here, (and I'll admit that it's a slim chance) but it might be that the battery in your remote has gone down to the point where it won't let you open the doors. (Yeah, it's even a slimmer chance that it happened to both of them at the exact same time, but they were probably put into both of the remotes at that same time.)
If you actually do manage to get into the car, (using the key if necessary) and it still won't start, there is a slot in the steering column that you can insert your remote into, and that might get it to start for you!

 

I have a C7 that I purchased in 2014, along with the C-TEK charger as an option when I bought the car. If I don't plan on driving it for more than a couple of weeks, I always put the charger on it, easy enough.

I went to start it a couple of weeks ago, and there was not enough enough batter power to start it. I put a regular charger on it for 20 minutes, and was able to start it up. Drove it around for 20 minutes, pulled it in the garage, put the C-TEK back on it, waited a couple of days, tried to start it, nothing. Called my dealer, and told me to bring it in. I had to jump it to get it into the dealer, and left it running in the service bay, letting them know it may not start.

The service manager told me they would test it, and have a read out, letting them know the condition of the battery. If was bad they would replace it , no charge. Sure enough, when the test was finished, I was supposed to have 750 cold cranking amps, I had zero. New battery installed, no charge. I know mine is not the only battery failure, but one would think the battery should last more than 2 years...