Best charging routine?

[lesz]

What is the best charging practice if you only take frequent, short trips? Ford recommends ABC (Always Be Charging). Others recommend best practice (for health of both HVB and LVB batteries) is to let the HVB SOC get down to 50% before charging. Unfortunately, what has happened to me, if I wait for the HVB SOC to get to 50%, the LVB SOC can be too low to allow some OTA updates to occur. Thanks in advance for the feedback.

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[smoke20]

Lot's of info on this in the forum and lots of opinions and preferences. Do take a look; it is all very interesting.

I typically drive 30-50 miles a day. In the summer I charge to 70 and in the winter I charge to 80. I do charge every night. On the rare days that I will need more range, I simply go up to 80/90.

 

[Homestead]

If your LV battery gets low do some of the charging with level 1 to bring up the LV battery charge.

 

[Teslaeata]

I’d defer to Manufacturer’s recommendation, always, set charge timer to go to the charge % Ford say is best unless a day trip follows the next day when I’d say go to 100% so long as it doesn’t sit around for hours and hours fully charged.

As it is, though, my usage dictates my charge routine and I take my chances.

The car gets used, over 30,000 miles per year, which means I have to charge to 100% almost every time I charge at home at least twice per week, never left at 100% beyond an hour or so,
very rarely need to go beyond 80% on DCFC.

Nearly 3 years old with 84,000 miles and I’m at 92% SoH so doing OK.

 

[lesz]

I’d defer to Manufacturer’s recommendation, always, set charge timer to go to the charge % Ford say is best unless a day trip follows the next day when I’d say go to 100% so long as it doesn’t sit around for hours and hours fully charged.

As it is, though, my usage dictates my charge routine and I take my chances.

The car gets used, over 30,000 miles per year, which means I have to charge to 100% almost every time I charge at home at least twice per week, never left at 100% beyond an hour or so,
very rarely need to go beyond 80% on DCFC.

Nearly 3 years old with 84,000 miles and I’m at 92% SoH so doing OK.

from a charging routine seems to me you’re in really good shape. My challenge is because I don’t drive far or often, I never charge for very long. The one recommendation of periodically using level one charging seems like a good option.

 

[Teslaeata]

If your LV battery gets low do some of the charging with level 1 to bring up the LV battery charge.

LV battery charge level should be managed by the car whether hooked up to charger or not, whether On and in drive mode or not.

So long as HV battery’s above a certain level which I think is 15% without looking that up,
LV starts charging within 24hrs of reaching 40% charge level or immediately it drops to or below 30% so nothing to worry about there.

Battery management is programmed to take care of all that using the onboard DC/DC converter which serves as the 12V charger.

I wouldn’t worry about the 12V status and just enjoy the car?

 

[lesz]

LV battery charge level should be managed by the car whether hooked up to charger or not, whether On and in drive mode or not.

So long as HV battery’s above a certain level which I think is 15% without looking that up,
LV starts charging within 24hrs of reaching 40% charge level or immediately it drops to or below 30% so nothing to worry about there.

Battery management is programmed to take care of all that using the onboard DC/DC converter which serves as the 12V charger.

I wouldn’t worry about the 12V status and just enjoy the car?

thanks, and your point was exactly the approach I used when I first got the car. Unfortunately, one of the OTA’s would only complete step two of three. I reached out to Ford and was told that my LVB SOC was too low to complete step three.

 

[Teslaeata]

thanks, and your point was exactly the approach I used when I first got the car. Unfortunately, one of the OTA’s would only complete step two of three. I reached out to Ford and was told that my LVB SOC was too low to complete step three.

Yes, I heard that report from others, don’t think my car suffered from this but I wouldn’t know because I don’t take any notice when car’s pending an update, I let updates happen when car’s ready and LV is up to it.

I suppose it’s up to individual preference.

?

 

[AliRafiee]

I’ve have tried various methods. But I found the best way to charge the car is to plug it in. ??‍

 

[Mach-Lee]

If you have a smart EVSE, lower the amps and try to charge at least 10-20% at a time.

If you don't drive a lot, it will be more important for you to schedule your updates at night and allow the car to install them on the schedule rather than immediately. That way the 12V battery can managed before installation (advices applies to vehicles that have gotten the 12V optimization update).

 

[lesz]

If you have a smart EVSE, lower the amps and try to charge at least 10-20% at a time.

If you don't drive a lot, it will be more important for you to schedule your updates at night and allow the car to install them on the schedule rather than immediately. That way the 12V battery can managed before installation (advices applies to vehicles that have gotten the 12V optimization update).

The charger I use is the one provided by Ford when I bought the car. my updates are scheduled at 2 AM. However, for the update that would not complete the third step, I got the notice the next morning and that’s when I contacted Ford and was told the 12V SOC was too low.

 

[Mach-Lee]

The charger I use is the one provided by Ford when I bought the car. my updates are scheduled at 2 AM. However, for the update that would not complete the third step, I got the notice the next morning and that’s when I contacted Ford and was told the 12V SOC was too low.

Yeah you must not have the 12V optimization update yet.

See here: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/how-to-get-failed-otas-to-install.29749/

 

[johnnycombo]

I'm retired and my driving has been greatly reduced, I still do ABC/90%, 100% with pre-conditioning before a long trip.
My 12v battery gives a warning through the PAAK if I leave it unplugged too long to the point that I need to put a charger on the 12v to recover its state of charge. I'm also waiting on parts for a recall so that could change things.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Depending on how long your short trips are, you could just set your charge limit while at home to 65% and keep it plugged in all of the time. You could also use an EVSE that charges at a slow rate in order to keep the length of input as long as possible for 12V maintenance. My daily commute is 10.4-10.5 miles each direction. I charge twice a week to 85% on a 32A L2 EVSE and have had no problems keeping the 12V maintained. ??

 

[Jerrytball]

I was reading through this waiting to see if I was going to see a comment about the 12 V battery charging. I thought the 12 V battery does not charge when it’s plugged, rather when the car is plugged in charging the high voltage battery. I thought you had the vehicle or the vehicle needs to be running for the 12 V battery to be charging or is this something different?

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