Departure and Battery

[DubyaB]

So I've been reading different things on this forum, other forums and the ford website regarding setting departure times and heating the battery. Some say it only works when plugged in, others say it'll work unplugged but only heat cabin. Today I hooked up car scanner to see what happens when I set a departure time while unplugged. Answer: nothing. So it seems at least on the newer '23 versions it only works plugged in, ok.

I'm primarily concerned about comfort during colder times when my car is outside while at work, unplugged. I read somewhere about using the battery pre conditioning while on route to a charger. Seems it starts heating the battery 30 miles from charger selected in the nav.

So with my car stationary in my heated garage at 15c, I selected a charger 1 km away and told it to go there. When I opened up the car scanner app, the coolant heater was drawing 6kw, coolant inlet temp jumped up and the battery temp started to rise. When I turned on the heater to 22c auto setting the heat came on and the coolant draw dropped to 5kw. It definitely works.

I am just thinking of doing this on the coldest days to keep the battery happy and the cabin warm for the 62km drive home. I haven't had the car long enough (picked it up Wednesday) to see how it keeps up normally after it cold soaks outside.

What has everyone's experience been in Canada with the cold?

Sponsored

 

[Rickgk]

So I've been reading different things on this forum, other forums and the ford website regarding setting departure times and heating the battery. Some say it only works when plugged in, others say it'll work unplugged but only heat cabin. Today I hooked up car scanner to see what happens when I set a departure time while unplugged. Answer: nothing. So it seems at least on the newer '23 versions it only works plugged in, ok.

I'm primarily concerned about comfort during colder times when my car is outside while at work, unplugged. I read somewhere about using the battery pre conditioning while on route to a charger. Seems it starts heating the battery 30 miles from charger selected in the nav.

So with my car stationary in my heated garage at 15c, I selected a charger 1 km away and told it to go there. When I opened up the car scanner app, the coolant heater was drawing 6kw, coolant inlet temp jumped up and the battery temp started to rise. When I turned on the heater to 22c auto setting the heat came on and the coolant draw dropped to 5kw. It definitely works.

I am just thinking of doing this on the coldest days to keep the battery happy and the cabin warm for the 62km drive home. I haven't had the car long enough (picked it up Wednesday) to see how it keeps up normally after it cold soaks outside.

What has everyone's experience been in Canada with the cold?

I would be interested in knowing this too.

 

[Mach-Lee]

So I've been reading different things on this forum, other forums and the ford website regarding setting departure times and heating the battery. Some say it only works when plugged in, others say it'll work unplugged but only heat cabin. Today I hooked up car scanner to see what happens when I set a departure time while unplugged. Answer: nothing. So it seems at least on the newer '23 versions it only works plugged in, ok.

I'm primarily concerned about comfort during colder times when my car is outside while at work, unplugged. I read somewhere about using the battery pre conditioning while on route to a charger. Seems it starts heating the battery 30 miles from charger selected in the nav.

So with my car stationary in my heated garage at 15c, I selected a charger 1 km away and told it to go there. When I opened up the car scanner app, the coolant heater was drawing 6kw, coolant inlet temp jumped up and the battery temp started to rise. When I turned on the heater to 22c auto setting the heat came on and the coolant draw dropped to 5kw. It definitely works.

I am just thinking of doing this on the coldest days to keep the battery happy and the cabin warm for the 62km drive home. I haven't had the car long enough (picked it up Wednesday) to see how it keeps up normally after it cold soaks outside.

What has everyone's experience been in Canada with the cold?

If you want scheduled cabin preconditioning while unplugged, then you have to enable that option in FordPass when setting the departure time.

My recommendation is you should precondition anytime a) the car has been parked in an environment <0°C for many hours and b) if you will be driving more than 15 minutes.

In Canada during winter, you want to plug the car in every night like a block heater to keep the battery warm regardless of charge level.

The battery will not heat while unplugged unless you are navigating to a charger.

Sponsored