Finally personally saw the difference between battery preconditioning and no battery preconditioning

[kdonnel]

I had a short road trip this weekend that involved two stops at the same DCFC station, the recently added Mercedes branded dispensers at the Buc-ee's in Fort Valley Georgia.

Both stops started at similar initial SOC.

The first stop was without preconditioning.
32.2163 kWh dispensed
in 28 minutes
with a peak of 110 kW

The second stop was with preconditioning.
44.2208 kWh dispensed
in 24 minutes
with a peak of 165 kW

So 37% more energy four minutes quicker.

Why didn't I precondition for the first stop? Because I use Apple maps for navigation.

It was a bit of a pain to force the native navigation in the car to navigate to a specific desired charging station. But the speed was so much improved I guess I will go through the pain on future road trips.

I hope that in the future we get preconditioning through other navigation.

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[generaltso]

with a peak of 110 kWh

with a peak of 165 kWh

kW

 

[Fremont Kid]

I had a short road trip this weekend that involved two stops at the same DCFC station, the recently added Mercedes branded dispensers at the Buc-ee's in Fort Valley Georgia.

Both stops started at similar initial SOC.

The first stop was without preconditioning.
32.2163 kWh dispensed
in 28 minutes
with a peak of 110 kW

The second stop was with preconditioning.
44.2208 kWh dispensed
in 24 minutes
with a peak of 165 kW

So 37% more energy four minutes quicker.

Why didn't I precondition for the first stop? Because I use Apple maps for navigation.

It was a bit of a pain to force the native navigation in the car to navigate to a specific desired charging station. But the speed was so much improved I guess I will go through the pain on future road trips.

I hope that in the future we get preconditioning through other navigation.

I agree finding the charging stations is arcane. I complained to Ford last year that the charging stations should be a primary navigation menu item, rather than located under multiple layers. However, now that I know how to enable the charger listing, I can use it easily.
I would also like to see only the chargers along my route and limited to a certain distance left or right of my location. Example: I want the ability to not see chargers that are 25 miles away located at a 90 degree tangent. Not a huge issue, just that seeing all the chargers clutters the list.

 

[Deleted member 19354]

I had a short road trip this weekend that involved two stops at the same DCFC station, the recently added Mercedes branded dispensers at the Buc-ee's in Fort Valley Georgia.

Both stops started at similar initial SOC.

The first stop was without preconditioning.
32.2163 kWh dispensed
in 28 minutes
with a peak of 110 kW

The second stop was with preconditioning.
44.2208 kWh dispensed
in 24 minutes
with a peak of 165 kW

So 37% more energy four minutes quicker.

Why didn't I precondition for the first stop? Because I use Apple maps for navigation.

It was a bit of a pain to force the native navigation in the car to navigate to a specific desired charging station. But the speed was so much improved I guess I will go through the pain on future road trips.

I hope that in the future we get preconditioning through other navigation.

But nothing on the two screens say anything about “preconditioning in progress “. That would be helpful personally. Or would you like to precondition YES or NO

 

[Progress]

I didn’t directly compare charging with and without preconditioning, but I did precondition the car on this trip using Ford navigation to get to the EA charger in Yuma and it was the first time I saw a peak charge rate of 162 kW.

 

[emichnov]

I preconditioned yesterday and got a peak of 123 kW. An ID4 next to me complained he was only getting 34 kW. When I talked about how important it is to have a warm battery, he dismissed it with a "the car should charge faster than 34 kW". Uh, OK dude, that'll work.

 

[kdonnel]

But nothing on the two screens say anything about “preconditioning in progress “. That would be helpful personally. Or would you like to precondition YES or NO

It would be nice to see some sort of confirmation that the preconditioning is happening.

I still don't know if I navigate to the address of the charger will it precondition or do I have to pick it from the list of chargers?

 

[Engelbert]

I'd like a simple on-screen button labeled "Precondition," showing up whenever I am NOT using built-in nav (hence no automatic preconditioning), and I push it about 20 minutes before I arrive at a charger. Fully my responsibility to push the button. A status stripe on the screen then reads "Preconditioning" until the car begins charging, or otherwise until 40 minutes have passed with no charging.

As I have no plans to stop using CarPlay/Waze, and as duplicating my charger destinations within built-in nav as the sole means to start preconditioning is completely ridiculous, the manual screen button would be great.

 

[HOLOTYPE]

Stupid question that has probably been covered already so apologize for not wading through search results, but will you be able to initiate precondition from the app by selecting an in-network DCFC now that Blue Oval Charge network has been enabled? Or can you only do it from the built-in navigation? EDIT: BOCN may have been enabled for others already, but it just became enabled for me.

 

[Misterrobot]

For preconditioning, any suggestions when I’m located 3 minutes from my local charger at work? I’m guessing that preconditioning can’t be performed.

Follow up Q: are there specific types of lower amp level 3 chargers where it doesn’t matter whether or not of the battery is preconditioned? I have heard that all L3 chargers are not the same when I comes to the Mach e

Hey, I just realized that there is an identical fast charger on the way home or about 9 miles away. Maybe I should use that one and get some preconditioning.

Peace and love from a newbie.

 

[Space_Pony]

Why don't you use your home charger. It's financially wiser to use your home L2 charger as much as possible.

 

[Deleted member 19354]

Why don't you use your home charger. It's financially wiser to use your home L2 charger as much as possible.

Me personally I do not have the option for L2. The distance from the panel to the garage over almost 1000 feet away and above $3k to install.

 

[the golden eel]

For preconditioning, any suggestions when I’m located 3 minutes from my local charger at work? I’m guessing that preconditioning can’t be performed.

Follow up Q: are there specific types of lower amp level 3 chargers where it doesn’t matter whether or not of the battery is preconditioned? I have heard that all L3 chargers are not the same when I comes to the Mach e

Hey, I just realized that there is an identical fast charger on the way home or about 9 miles away. Maybe I should use that one and get some preconditioning.

Peace and love from a newbie.

You can precondition the battery while the car is sitting unplugged in a parking lot, but it's a really round-about way to do it. I tried it last winter, just to see if it would work. Basically, you have to leave your car on with the Ford navigation trying to get you to a nearby DCFC.

A few more details here...
https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/battery-preconditioning-some-measured-data.25598/post-593607

For the life of me I still don't understand why we can't have a "precondition now" button on the app and/or in the car.

 

[JellyBelly]

I am curious… isn’t preconditioning happening on longer trips by default? I don’t know how long it takes to precondition the battery but if you are already driving for 30 miles or 50 miles and directly go to a DC charger the battery should be preconditioned already.. Is my understanding wrong?

 

[67 Stang Convertible]

I had a short road trip this weekend that involved two stops at the same DCFC station, the recently added Mercedes branded dispensers at the Buc-ee's in Fort Valley Georgia.

Both stops started at similar initial SOC.

The first stop was without preconditioning.
32.2163 kWh dispensed
in 28 minutes
with a peak of 110 kW

The second stop was with preconditioning.
44.2208 kWh dispensed
in 24 minutes
with a peak of 165 kW

So 37% more energy four minutes quicker.

Why didn't I precondition for the first stop? Because I use Apple maps for navigation.

It was a bit of a pain to force the native navigation in the car to navigate to a specific desired charging station. But the speed was so much improved I guess I will go through the pain on future road trips.

I hope that in the future we get preconditioning through other navigation.

Here's a question I can't seem to get an anwer to. Beleive it or not your Native Ford Navigation is a "Connected Service". I think mine expires this summer or next, can't recall exactly. If I let the Navigation Service expire (as like you, I use a 3rd party app for navigation 95% of the time) how will I be able to precondition my battery when on a trip???

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