Heat Wave Coming - Battery Health Tips to Remember

[macchiaz-o]

Dragging this up as it's getting warmer, again. Does the AC in the car take a dive while it tries to cool the pack? My FFE (and @SnBGC can probably attest as well) wouldn't have functioning AC for sometimes 20 minutes (my black FFE, my silver FFE is much better, around 3 to 5 min) after sitting, unplugged, windows up, no sunshade (thanks wifey!) all day in a parking lot in 115+. Then around 5:30pm, wife would call and tell me the AC's broken again.

Yes it takes a dive if the car is fully heat soaked when you start it. The air coming out is cool but with a lot less fan speed.

It hasn't happened yet this year, not hot enough yet, but probably by the middle of next month you'll have experienced it several times. June is usually our hottest month even though July through September feel worse (because of humidity but also because summer's wearing us down by then).

If I start my car from home, where it's garaged, or of I start after sunset, the AC feels VERY powerful. It only feels weak when I start from work where I have to park in a wide open lot with no trees, etc.

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[Mach-Lee]

The FFE only had a 32kw battery and it would flip from one to the other. You could see it in a dash display where it would show the climate kw usage. That's the only way I knew it was doing it on purpose. If you turned off the AC for a few min it'd sometimes come on. I'm thinking that system didn't have enough umph to try to run both very well, and the fan was underpowered but still sounded like a AV-8B Harrier II. (amazingly the same fan noise when charging)

It's been a while since I looked at FFE engineering, but I went back and can tell you it's pretty much the same A/C system design as the Mach-E (just things in different spots). They may have worked the software more for the Mach-E to allow simultaneous chiller/evap operation rather than just A or B operation. Also not sure about compressor capacity, I think they are similar. If there's a difference it's probably due to greater airflow.

Focus Electric (23 oz R-1234yf):

Mach-E (21 oz R-1234yf):

 

[snowdoggie]

As most of the US will be baked with a heat wave of 100ºF+ temps in the next few days, it's important to remember a few tips for battery health:

You are so thoughtful! good points to know

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