Advice: Preconditioning

[JackMach-DET]

Does anyone have advice or recommendations on how to precondition the Mach-e when departure days and times are never the same. Is remote start the same as preconditioning? I never leave the house at the same time each day and my weekly work schedule changes each week so the days vary too. Any advice would be appreciated. The car is parked in a non-climate controlled garage that rarely gets below 32 degrees during winter. Let me know if you need more information.

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[Gullwingdmc]

Does anyone have advice or recommendations on how to precondition the Mach-e when departure days and times are never the same. Is remote start the same as preconditioning? I never leave the house at the same time each day and my weekly work schedule changes each week so the days vary too. Any advice would be appreciated. The car is parked in a non-climate controlled garage that rarely gets below 32 degrees during winter. Let me know if you need more information.

Unfortunately remote start is not the same as preconditioning. Remote start only does the cabin, preconditioning does the battery abs if you set it, the cabin.
At this point there is no way to on demand precondition. You would have to set the times each week, or day, to get it to happen.

 

[JackMach-DET]

Unfortunately remote start is not the same as preconditioning. Remote start only does the cabin, preconditioning does the battery abs if you set it, the cabin.
At this point there is no way to on demand precondition. You would have to set the times each week, or day, to get it to happen.

Thanks for the info. Is preconditioning recommended if the external temperature rarely dips below freezing? Hopefully they'll add the on demand function in an update.

 

[DanHo]

It‘s my wife’s car and we are plugging in every night so that it preconditions the next day. Her departure varies daily and we go in every night to set the departure time. Pain in the ass but helps.

 

[Gullwingdmc]

Thanks for the info. Is preconditioning recommended if the external temperature rarely dips below freezing? Hopefully they'll add the on demand function in an update.

Preconditioning is recommended for any temps above or below what the batteries optimal temp is. Which I believe is around 90°, someone can correct me on that though. All it does is save you from having to use battery power to warm or cool the battery to that temp. If you chose to have it heat or cool the cabin it saves you that battery power too.

 

[sgriffin130]

Don't have my car yet, so working from ignorance a bit. But until their is an on-demand function available, why not just set it to precondition the earliest time you leave? Does it take that much electricity?

 

[JackMach-DET]

Don't have my car yet, so working from ignorance a bit. But until their is an on-demand function available, why not just set it to precondition the earliest time you leave? Does it take that much electricity?

That is something I've considered but never tried. I wasn't sure if I needed to precondition if temperatures rarely go below 32 degrees, but I can definitely try this out for a week. Thanks!

 

[silverelan]

Ford recommends preconditioning yet fails to offer an on-demand ability to precondition the vehicle. It's a shortcoming for the time being. If I could even let the car know 15 minutes ahead of departure time thru the app, that'd at least be something.

 

[Frankie]

So preconditioning conditions the battery but the car actually being running DOESNT condition the battery? If that’s true it seems extremely stupid. What is the proof of this?

 

[timbop]

So preconditioning conditions the battery but the car actually being running DOESNT condition the battery? If that’s true it seems extremely stupid. What is the proof of this?

I don't know that there actually is hard evidence, but I think that belief is based on the idea that the battery has a lot more "thermal mass" than the air in the cabin and thus requires more time and energy to warm up. In really cold weather it has been observed that preconditioning starts half an hour or so before departure, whereas remote starting the car defaults to 15 minutes. You also have to overtly tell it to precondition while not plugged in, but remote starting doesn't make that distinction.

Presumably someone with an OBDII reader and software can confirm if the battery warms up when remotely started?

 

[KevinS]

I guess I've been operating under the false assumption that remote starting the car while it is plugged in to an L2 charger would precondition the battery as well.

 

[timbop]

I guess I've been operating under the false assumption that remote starting the car while it is plugged in to an L2 charger would precondition the battery as well.

I don't know whether that has been confirmed or not via @Ford Motor Company or someone with an OBDII reader

 

[alexgorod]

Ignoring the long trips with a need to drive pretty far to reach next charging point, but for regular daily trips of 50-100 miles, what is the point of preconditioning?

 

[timbop]

Ignoring the long trips with a need to drive pretty far to reach next charging point, but for regular daily trips of 50-100 miles, what is the point of preconditioning?

less stress on the battery while driving, better driving performance in cold weather, and as @Mopey pointed out in extremely cold weather all the heat has to go to the battery so the cabin gets very cold.

 

[silverelan]

They need to put a "Precondition" button in Ford Pass app. I lose 1% just pulling out of the garage after hitting the Start button in these 38F temps.

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