Battery Health Recs from Ford

krafty81

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Utilizing the departure times feature, setting an upper charge limit and leaving your vehicle plugged into a Level 2 AC charger help the battery stay at a healthier state of charge and maintain a healthy temperature.

This was on my Ford app. Are they saying to leave the car plugged in all the time even when not charging? Confused. It normally sits in my garage.
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krafty81

krafty81

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OK. Not a big deal for me, I keep plenty of charge on the car.
 

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From my observations......
The car doesn't cool the battery while parked off plug....ever.
While parked on plug, it will cool the battery if inside the charge schedule but will not cool the battery outside of the schedule even if it is plugged in.

@macchiaz-o figured out a trick to allow the battery cooling without charging while parked on plug. You must be at a saved charge location though. Open up the charge schedule (charge anytime) and set the max charge percentage to something lower than current SOC. Park and plug in. Vehicle will NOT charge but WILL cool the battery when necessary.

I have been using this trick for the last week or two. Works great. Not ideal, but better than letting the battery cook. I hope Ford corrects this programming snafu Pronto.

My car cooled the battery a bit this morning before I left for work. Drove to office and plugged in but no cooling was needed. Returned from lunch and it was pretty warm out. Got the message on the screen about high temps. Plugged in but no cooling. About an hour and half later, during the hottest part of the day, the cooling system turned on and brought down the battery temp.

Arrived home, set my charge limit down to 50%, opened the charge schedule and plugged in. I could hear the car cooling the battery while making dinner. No charging......just cooling the battery.

When I head to bed, I open FP and turn up the charge percentage and set my schedule to super off peak.

Tomorrow, will do it again.
And again and again until summer is over and/or Ford fixes the software. The car SHOULD cool the battery while parked on plug no matter what the charge schedule or setting. Someone dropped the ball in a major way IMO....
 

zhackwyatt

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Tomorrow, will do it again.
And again and again until summer is over and/or Ford fixes the software. The car SHOULD cool the battery while parked on plug no matter what the charge schedule or setting. Someone dropped the ball in a major way IMO....
Totally agree. @Ford Motor Company hopefully will rectify.
 


SnBGC

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From my observations......
The car doesn't cool the battery while parked off plug....ever.
While parked on plug, it will cool the battery if inside the charge schedule but will not cool the battery outside of the schedule even if it is plugged in.

@macchiaz-o figured out a trick to allow the battery cooling without charging while parked on plug. You must be at a saved charge location though. Open up the charge schedule (charge anytime) and set the max charge percentage to something lower than current SOC. Park and plug in. Vehicle will NOT charge but WILL cool the battery when necessary.

I have been using this trick for the last week or two. Works great. Not ideal, but better than letting the battery cook. I hope Ford corrects this programming snafu Pronto.

My car cooled the battery a bit this morning before I left for work. Drove to office and plugged in but no cooling was needed. Returned from lunch and it was pretty warm out. Got the message on the screen about high temps. Plugged in but no cooling. About an hour and half later, during the hottest part of the day, the cooling system turned on and brought down the battery temp.

Arrived home, set my charge limit down to 50%, opened the charge schedule and plugged in. I could hear the car cooling the battery while making dinner. No charging......just cooling the battery.

When I head to bed, I open FP and turn up the charge percentage and set my schedule to super off peak.

Tomorrow, will do it again.
And again and again until summer is over and/or Ford fixes the software. The car SHOULD cool the battery while parked on plug no matter what the charge schedule or setting. Someone dropped the ball in a major way IMO....

So.......
I didn't notice this before but now that I've been following the vehicle behavior more closely, it appears the car has to be 'stimulated' in order for battery conditioning to operate. If you have just parked....and within the charge schedule....and HVB state of charge is above the preset charge limit and you plug in.....and the battery requires additional cooling, then the vehicle will cool the battery (without charging it).

If you do all those things and the battery doesn't need cooling right at that moment, then the modules go asleep. In that state, the car will not cool the battery because it doesn't know the battery is cooking in the heat (because the modules aren't monitoring anything). Walk by the car with PaaK or FaaK, then the modules wake up and sometimes the battery cooling starts.

I have had this happen to me several times this week.
I can see my car from my office window so I usually know when it's cooling the battery (because I can see the vents open). I've walked by the car several times in the late afternoon and cooling would start. Now that I think back to the previous events....they all initiated when I first plugged in or when I walked by some time later. I don't remember observing the car cooling itself otherwise.
 

Mach-Lee

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I have had this happen to me several times this week.
I can see my car from my office window so I usually know when it's cooling the battery (because I can see the vents open). I've walked by the car several times in the late afternoon and cooling would start. Now that I think back to the previous events....they all initiated when I first plugged in or when I walked by some time later. I don't remember observing the car cooling itself otherwise.
Wonder if this is by design. They could figure when you park the car "storage" conditions exist, which would raise the battery temp limit to 50-60ºC. But if the battery is going to be used or charged it should be maintained at <40ºC.

I think Teslas have something called Cabin Overheat Protection which turns on the A/C when the cabin gets above 105ºF. Presumably this would also cool the battery some, but if that feature is turned off I don't think the Teslas cool in park either? Perhaps a Tesla owner could chime in.

My biggie will be keeping the pack warm in winter when it's well below zero and the car has been sitting in the parking lot unplugged all day. Might have to remote start it a couple times to get it warmed up enough.
 

SnBGC

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Wonder if this is by design. They could figure when you park the car "storage" conditions exist, which would raise the battery temp limit to 50-60ºC. But if the battery is going to be used or charged it should be maintained at <40ºC.

I think Teslas have something called Cabin Overheat Protection which turns on the A/C when the cabin gets above 105ºF. Presumably this would also cool the battery some, but if that feature is turned off I don't think the Teslas cool in park either? Perhaps a Tesla owner could chime in.

My biggie will be keeping the pack warm in winter when it's well below zero and the car has been sitting in the parking lot unplugged all day. Might have to remote start it a couple times to get it warmed up enough.
I don't think it is intended operation. My previous Ford BEV would cool or heat the battery when parked on plug no matter what charge schedule settings were used. I suspect many of the software engineers may not be EV owners or even understand how they are used. They must have overlooked the possibility that some of us would want to charge during super off peak hours while still expecting the car to heat or cool the battery while parked on plug.

Also, they COULD have also included the option for the car to be set to cool or heat the battery while parked off plug provided the state of charge was above a setting determined by the owner.

That would be appreciated by all. If I was part of Team Edison, I would have campaigned heavily for those two features. Especially since we now have spare battery capacity to add that second feature.
 

pottslaw

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I don't think it is intended operation. My previous Ford BEV would cool or heat the battery when parked on plug no matter what charge schedule settings were used. I suspect many of the software engineers may not be EV owners or even understand how they are used. They must have overlooked the possibility that some of us would want to charge during super off peak hours while still expecting the car to heat or cool the battery while parked on plug.

Also, they COULD have also included the option for the car to be set to cool or heat the battery while parked off plug provided the state of charge was above a setting determined by the owner.

That would be appreciated by all. If I was part of Team Edison, I would have campaigned heavily for those two features. Especially since we now have spare battery capacity to add that second feature.
My experience has been different. Mine has "cooled when parked and plugged in outside of the designated charging times" on a few occasions in the last month or so. Each time i got the Outside Air Temperature" warning message when I turned off the car in the garage, and I plugged it in as instructed. Outside air temperatures were +/- 110 degrees F (with the Sync 4 display showing 128 degrees F or higher). Our garage is attached to the house and the noise level from the cooling (and seeing the vents in the grill open) made it clear the car was trying to cool the battery outside the programmed charging schedule.

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IMG_0316.jpg
 

macchiaz-o

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My experience has been different. Mine has "cooled when parked and plugged in outside of the designated charging times" on a few occasions in the last month or so. Each time i got the Outside Air Temperature" warning message when I turned off the car in the garage, and I plugged it in as instructed. Outside air temperatures were +/- 110 degrees F (with the Sync 4 display showing 128 degrees F or higher). Our garage is attached to the house and the noise level from the cooling (and seeing the vents in the grill open) made it clear the car was trying to cool the battery outside the programmed charging schedule.
Interesting!

Mine doesn't do that... It behaves as Greg described. My vehicle was built in December/January, his in November. When was yours built? Have you been back for any dealer installed updates at all?

Is anyone else noticing the same behavior? (Vehicle recommends plugging in due to temp, you plug in and vehicle periodically cools itself outside of its charging schedule)
 

SnBGC

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I guess I'll chime in as well in case @Ford Motor Company is listening. I don't have anywhere to plug in at work so would prefer the settings allow for battery cooling even if the car isn't plugged in. I'm fine micro managing the charge if it means battery health is preserved.
Agree. I am lucky in that I can plug in at work but many others don't have that luxury. My brother is in the same situation as you and he would sure appreciate a feature like that.

Out of curiosity, have you tried setting two departure times? Say 3 pm and then 5 pm and enabling the "allow conditioning for departure times off plug"? That should start the conditioning process for 30 minutes and cool the cabin as well as the battery.

Worth a try?
 

SnBGC

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My experience has been different. Mine has "cooled when parked and plugged in outside of the designated charging times" on a few occasions in the last month or so. Each time i got the Outside Air Temperature" warning message when I turned off the car in the garage, and I plugged it in as instructed. Outside air temperatures were +/- 110 degrees F (with the Sync 4 display showing 128 degrees F or higher). Our garage is attached to the house and the noise level from the cooling (and seeing the vents in the grill open) made it clear the car was trying to cool the battery outside the programmed charging schedule.

Ford Mustang Mach-E Battery Health Recs from Ford IMG_0316


Ford Mustang Mach-E Battery Health Recs from Ford IMG_0316
Good to hear that someone's car is working normally. This is the first example that I am aware of when the car cooled the battery outside the pre-defined charge schedule.
 

shberry

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Don't have my car yet, maybe October(ish). Anyway maybe this has been answered, so sorry, but here's my question. It seems to me that preconditioning won't be good for the battery. Wouldn't preconditioning cause more cycles of charging on the battery? Based on recommendations, I shouldn't charge until I get down to 20%, and then charge to only 90%. For me, this will result in charging about once a week on the 240V I put in the garage. If I precondition, won't it charge whenever I'm less than 90%, resulting in charging unnecessarily, thereby reducing the battery life? What am I missing?
 
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krafty81

krafty81

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Seems to only be an issue if you are parking your car in very hot temps. Here is CA my garage stays around 85 at the hottest.
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