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A trickle charger left on a battery 24/7 will eventually dry out the electrolyte but 4 to 8 hours a day while the block heater is running on cold winter nights won't hurt the battery at all. And as others have posted, a warm and fully charged battery makes a great deal of difference in starting a diesel. In really cold climates (north of Winnipeg, say) the trickle charger helps keep the battery from freezing. This relatively rare situation typically cracks the plastic case and then the electrolyte leaks out all over the car's chassis.
Because my car has about 30 milliamps of "phantom load" (not really phantom because I know what it is and want it to be there) I have a trickle charger built in to the engine compartment and plug it into a timed outlet almost every night. The charger runs for only two hours but that's enough to keep the load from gradually discharging the battery, especially as this car isn't driven every day. [10 milliamps of discharge current is generally considered the safe limit.]
Jeremy
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"Buster" in the '95
Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970
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