If preconditioning is so good and important..... why no dedicated button?

[Maquis]

Well, when you hook up to DCFC the battery warms up really quick to about 95F, so that wouldn't really matter because a longer duration charge will warm the pack anyway. In my testing from mild winter conditions, it only took about 5-10% before it was max temp just from charging with no preconditioning.

Good point

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[DustyShades]

I agree there should be a "Precondition for DCFC" button on the car screen. Useful if you don't want to use the Ford nav.

The reason there's not a precondition button in FordPass is because it takes too long for most peoples' patience. In the winter you would have to press the button and wait 45 minutes or longer to get a full precondition. Battery heating is slow and takes time. That's why they made it a schedule thing rather than an immediate thing. If you want to leave soon, then you should use remote start (it won't heat the battery, but you'll offset some cabin heating).

If you want ideas on what you can do now, see my charging/preconditioning strategy topic. These ideas are explained there, but you can just make a new departure time in the FordPass app for 45 minutes in the future if you know you'll be leaving soon. Or you can program a battery-only departure time once a day around when you might leave, since the battery stays warm for many hours afterwards.

Your preconditioning guide is great. Thanks for taking the time to write it up

 

[Rt1AWD]

Why not use the app's Start button for what you're describing?

does it precondition the battery

 

[macchiaz-o]

does it precondition the battery

I don't know. I think others have said no, and that makes sense to me since preconditioning a cold battery uses quite a lot of energy so you'd want to do that when plugged in, not when leaving a shopping trip or work or whatnot.

Remote starting does condition the cabin for sure. So if you're goal is to get to a comfortable cabin temperature 5-15 minutes before you leave someplace, it's decent for that.

 

[Sam2084]

I would really like to see someone calculate the time savings. Preconditioning uses more battery, which means that you have to put more electrons into the car. That being said, does the faster speed make up for the extra energy needed due to preconditioning? If it breaks even (my guess that it will) then you're tricking yourself into thinking your getting a faster charge while in reality you're just spending more money.

Yes the faster charging speed more than makes up for the preconditioning energy loss, that’s the whole point. It makes a big difference. Last time I DCFC it was at least 15 minutes before my battery was up to temp and it wasn’t even that cold.

 

[DevSecOps]

Yes the faster charging speed more than makes up for the preconditioning energy loss, that’s the whole point. It makes a big difference. Last time I DCFC it was at least 15 minutes before my battery was up to temp and it wasn’t even that cold.

Unless you're monitoring it via the OBD then you wouldn't even know if your battery is up to temp. There's nothing in the car that would tell you that. As for "that's the whole point" ... I don't buy it until I see the facts to back it up. Even if it does provide a greater time savings at what point (temp) does that no longer apply? In 30-40ish degree temps the battery, on a DCFC, is 95F in very short time. I don't have sub-zero temps where I am to test lower temps.

 

[Auto Motive]

..... why there is no "Precondition" button?

Never under stood that either. Our new tesla has it on start menu app.

 

[Rt1AWD]

I don't know. I think others have said no,

exactly

 

[eleven24]

..... why there is no "Precondition" button?

Design always has to account for the worst case scenario. WE know what preconditioning means, and could also figure out just when to begin preconditioning if heading to a DCFC charger but not using Ford Nav to do it.

The problem is everyone else potentially heating the battery up unnecessarily. The range loss and battery degradation requires this be something a user should not be able to select, so I understand why they can't have a button. Even if I'd like one.

What I'd really like to see implemented is a simple add: an indicator on the display when the battery is preconditioning for DCFC charge.

 

[RickMachE]

Unless you're monitoring it via the OBD then you wouldn't even know if your battery is up to temp. There's nothing in the car that would tell you that. As for "that's the whole point" ... I don't buy it until I see the facts to back it up. Even if it does provide a greater time savings at what point (temp) does that no longer apply? In 30-40ish degree temps the battery, on a DCFC, is 95F in very short time. I don't have sub-zero temps where I am to test lower temps.

30-40ish is not cold. In SE Michigan, our average low for December is 23, Jan is 18, Feb is 20. Average highs are 35, 31, and 35 respectively. Highs are late afternoon of course. So, leaving in the morning, you're going out into 20 or below very often.

We did a trip in March of 2022 down to Georgia, and it was basically 20 degrees the whole way, including mid-afternoon. I watched in CarScanner the battery reach the charger at 45 degrees, warm up to 95, then drop very quickly back to 45. I did not measure, chart, or record charging curves.

 

[DevSecOps]

30-40ish is not cold. In SE Michigan, our average low for December is 23, Jan is 18, Feb is 20. Average highs are 35, 31, and 35 respectively. Highs are late afternoon of course. So, leaving in the morning, you're going out into 20 or below very often.

We did a trip in March of 2022 down to Georgia, and it was basically 20 degrees the whole way, including mid-afternoon. I watched in CarScanner the battery reach the charger at 45 degrees, warm up to 95, then drop very quickly back to 45. I did not measure, chart, or record charging curves.

I stated in the post previous that we have mild winters and in my first post I said it would be nice if someone would test it, referring to someone in cold climates. I know my winters are mild so therefore I can't say for sure. But I would really like to see how long the car takes to get to 95F on DCFC in the "real" cold. Is it 5 minutes, 10, 20?

The time it takes to get warm would have been mitigated by the preconditioning using the nav and the energy expended to do so. My guess is that the energy used to warm the battery for preconditioning doesn't actually save any time because that energy has to be replenished, but because I have mild winters I don't really have a good sense of that.

 

[ctenidae]

Or you can program a battery-only departure time once a day around when you might leave, since the battery stays warm for many hours afterwards.

That's not a bad idea at all.

 

[RickMachE]

Part of the problem in testing is that the EA chargers don't like the cold either, and many of them have issues too. So you pull up, all set to "test", and the charger gives you 80kW, not 161 that then slows to 110+. You move to another charger, but alas, you've also warmed the battery in your failed attempt.

And, your wife is going, "WTF, are we testing or driving"?

 

[Shayne]

I don't know. I think others have said no, and that makes sense to me since preconditioning a cold battery uses quite a lot of energy so you'd want to do that when plugged in, not when leaving a shopping trip or work or whatnot.

Remote starting does condition the cabin for sure. So if you're goal is to get to a comfortable cabin temperature 5-15 minutes before you leave someplace, it's decent for that.

This is a one button hack with remote start that works. link If it is cold and the cabin heat is on it will not heat the batteries.

 

[Mach-Lee]

I made a poll with a screen rendering, vote here: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/precondition-now-button.27811/

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