Insane charging noise

[Marcel]

I assume the hardware is identical, then it must be a software issue?

Sponsored

 

[ChasingCoral]

No, not all EVs are like this. My 2014 Leaf stays completely silent during charge.

My Mach-E is making lots of noise while L2 charging on a 40A JuiceBox charger. I just haven’t reported this since I have much more annoying instrument cluster noise problem

That's because the 2014 Leaf lacked the battery temperature management system the Mach E has.

 

[bobh]

I have written about this a few weeks ago. I use a Ford Charging station connected to a 60 Amp fuse to charge my car. When I set it at the full 48 Amps the fan seems to run almost continuously and makes noise. It is not very loud, but it is noticeable. When I turn the charger down to 30 Amps via the Ford App, there is no fan noise. I am generally not in a hurry to charge and I usually recharge when the battery is at 40-50%, so my practice is not recharge at 30 Amps unless I need a quicker charge.

 

[Chudsaviet]

That's because the 2014 Leaf lacked the battery temperature management system the Mach E has.

I think you maybe correct, but I’m wondering how much heat does Mach-E battery emits during L2 charge. Probably its nit required to run fan all the time. Lets hope they will fix it by OTA

 

[SnBGC]

I have written about this a few weeks ago. I use a Ford Charging station connected to a 60 Amp fuse to charge my car. When I set it at the full 48 Amps the fan seems to run almost continuously and makes noise. It is not very loud, but it is noticeable. When I turn the charger down to 30 Amps via the Ford App, there is no fan noise. I am generally not in a hurry to charge and I usually recharge when the battery is at 40-50%, so my practice is not recharge at 30 Amps unless I need a quicker charge.

That is the specific reason why the Ford Connected Wall charger has the slider to adjust charging speeds. If you need the fastest charge rate possible, then it is going to make some noise. If you prefer a quieter charging experience then you can turn the power down via the slider in the app. It's actually quite slick....when it works. The ChargePoint Home Flex is also able to adjust the charge rate via the app but it requires a few more steps. Not nearly as convenient as the Webasto (Ford Connected) EVSE interface. Back before any of us took delivery......there were many questions asking if the Ford Connected Wall Charger had any advantages over the provided mobile EVSE or any 3rd party EVSE. None of us could answer that question at that time. Now that summer is here, we know the answer. That one feature alone makes it worth considering.

48A charging may warm the battery to 194 degrees-ish so if the ambient temps are 77 degrees or warmer, then the fan is likely to turn on. The fan speed is variable so the computer will run the fan as slow as it can while still allowing the heat transfer to lower the coolant temp to a reading below 104 degrees. If ambient temps are below 77 degrees then the pumps might circulate fluid while the fan remains off.

If ambient is 104 or higher, then the chiller must be used in conjunction with the fan and pumps.

I think you maybe correct, but I’m wondering how much heat does Mach-E battery emits during L2 charge. Probably its nit required to run fan all the time. Lets hope they will fix it by OTA

See above. Nothing to fix. It appears our vehicles are performing as expected.

 

[ODBMongoose]

That is the specific reason why the Ford Connected Wall charger has the slider to adjust charging speeds. If you need the fastest charge rate possible, then it is going to make some noise. If you prefer a quieter charging experience then you can turn the power down via the slider in the app. It's actually quite slick....when it works. The ChargePoint Home Flex is also able to adjust the charge rate via the app but it requires a few more steps. Not nearly as convenient as the Webasto (Ford Connected) EVSE interface. Back before any of us took delivery......there were many questions asking if the Ford Connected Wall Charger had any advantages over the provided mobile EVSE or any 3rd party EVSE. None of us could answer that question at that time. Now that summer is here, we know the answer. That one feature alone makes it worth considering.

48A charging may warm the battery to 194 degrees-ish so if the ambient temps are 77 degrees or warmer, then the fan is likely to turn on. The fan speed is variable so the computer will run the fan as slow as it can while still allowing the heat transfer to lower the coolant temp to a reading below 104 degrees. If ambient temps are below 77 degrees then the pumps might circulate fluid while the fan remains off.

If ambient is 104 or higher, then the chiller must be used in conjunction with the fan and pumps.


See above. Nothing to fix. It appears our vehicles are performing as expected.

I think there definitely is something to fix.
At the time of writing, I have spoken to another mach e owner in the Netherlands and he also tells me that is not possible to charge 3 phase 11Kw in a residential area. People might live spacious but I literally had a complaint of my neighbor that she could not sit in the garden with the sound like a stationary diesel in the background. And she is not exaggerating. If this is the fast charging at home experience, Ford made a mistake.

 

[SnBGC]

I think there definitely is something to fix.
At the time of writing, I have spoken to another mach e owner in the Netherlands and he also tells me that is not possible to charge 3 phase 11Kw in a residential area. People might live spacious but I literally had a complaint of my neighbor that she could not sit in the garden with the sound like a stationary diesel in the background. And she is not exaggerating. If this is the fast charging at home experience, Ford made a mistake.

So you don't know what power is feeding your EVSE? I thought you said earlier that you turned down the speed and everything was much quieter? If something was wrong with the car then you would hear the same sound even with the slower speed and possibly even get some notices on the dash or your app. But, if you want to be sure then take it in to get it checked out.

Yes the car is loud when cooling the battery at the maximum charge rate. Only solution that I am aware of is to lower the charge rate.

 

[ODBMongoose]

So you don't know what power is feeding your EVSE? I thought you said earlier that you turned down the speed and everything was much quieter? If something was wrong with the car then you would hear the same sound even with the slower speed and possibly even get some notices on the dash or your app. But, if you want to be sure then take it in to get it checked out.

Yes the car is loud when cooling the battery at the maximum charge rate. Only solution that I am aware of is to lower the charge rate.

Im no engineer. All ive understood sofar is that the cooling kicks in because the converter needs to make 3 phase 11kw 16 amperes from AC to DC. I was told that the cooling noise is no problem when charging by the highway since thats already DC. Yes, i managed to get the sound significantly down by lowering the amperes from 16 to 10. But thats not the point. I arranged a high speed 3 phase charging station at home but now I can't use it since it annoys anyone in a 50 meter radius.

 

[ARK]

Im no engineer. All ive understood sofar is that the cooling kicks in because the converter needs to make 3 phase 11kw 16 amperes from AC to DC. I was told that the cooling noise is no problem when charging by the highway since thats already DC. Yes, i managed to get the sound significantly down by lowering the amperes from 16 to 10. But thats not the point. I arranged a high speed 3 phase charging station at home but now I can't use it since it annoys anyone in a 50 meter radius.

Could this louder noise be the result of using a 3 phase charger? I’ll admit I wasn’t familiar with what that was, seems to be uncommon in the United States for home use. I think even the beefy L2 chargers people talk about here on this forum, capable of charging at 48 amps, like the Ford Connected Charge Station or Chargepoint Home Flex, are only single phase chargers.

But a three phase charger seems to work differently, could this make a difference to the Mach-E, if the power is being delivered via a three phase charger vs a single phase charger, even if the total amps are the same? I note that certain three phase chargers (like these commercial ChargePoint models in the UK) are capable of charging at up to low L3 speeds, but since the power is AC, I would think this wouldn’t matter since the Mach-E would cap it at 48 amps regardless?

 

[highland58]

Difference Between Single Phase and Three Phase Power Supplies (electronicshub.org)

The supply voltage in single phase power supply is ≈230V

In three phase power supply, the supply voltage is ≈415V

Wow I didn't know that was 415V with 3 phase...

 

[SnBGC]

Im no engineer. All ive understood sofar is that the cooling kicks in because the converter needs to make 3 phase 11kw 16 amperes from AC to DC. I was told that the cooling noise is no problem when charging by the highway since thats already DC. Yes, i managed to get the sound significantly down by lowering the amperes from 16 to 10. But thats not the point. I arranged a high speed 3 phase charging station at home but now I can't use it since it annoys anyone in a 50 meter radius.

Yes. I see your frustration.
There are a few clarifications that might help us make sense of things.

The cooling kicks in because the battery needs to be cooled down.
The faster you charge, the more heat is created. No way to avoid this.

So, The EVSE provided by Ford is about 7.2 kW charge rate and the vehicle can handle this charge rate with relative ease and the cooling system doesn't really need to work very hard.

Because these cars have such a giant battery......and maybe not the best efficiency (compared to a Renault Zoe for example...), then folks might have the need for faster charging. Ford has provided a pretty large on-board charger for those users. In order to take advantage of the faster speeds then the user needs a circuit that can provide more power. Here in North America that is a 60A circuit with an EVSE that can supply up to 48A of current at 240v. In Europe, that appears to be a 3 phase circuit at 16A ????
I am not too familiar with European power grids so others will need to jump in here and help.

Point being.....the intent from Ford is to use the provided EVSE and charge at a rate of about 7.2 kW for most users. If you need more, then get the larger EVSE and a circuit to match. With those faster speeds comes more noise.

I agree that it would have been nice to know ahead of time how loud this car is when charging at 11 kW that way some users could save their money and just stick with a slower unit if noise was a concern.

Could this louder noise be the result of using a 3 phase charger? I’ll admit I wasn’t familiar with what that was, seems to be uncommon in the United States for home use. I think even the beefy L2 chargers people talk about here on this forum, capable of charging at 48 amps, like the Ford Connected Charge Station or Chargepoint Home Flex, are only single phase chargers.

But a three phase charger seems to work differently, could this make a difference to the Mach-E, if the power is being delivered via a three phase charger vs a single phase charger, even if the total amps are the same? I note that certain three phase chargers (like these commercial ChargePoint models in the UK) are capable of charging at up to low L3 speeds, but since the power is AC, I would think this wouldn’t matter since the Mach-E would cap it at 48 amps regardless?

In the end it comes down to watts. We can talk single phase, 3 phase, 120v/208v/240/480v etc.
It all boils down to 7200 or 11,000 watts for most users. The more watts, the hotter the battery gets while charging and discharging.

 

[ARK]

In the end it comes down to watts. We can talk single phase, 3 phase, 120v/208v/240/480v etc.
It all boils down to 7200 or 11,000 watts for most users. The more watts, the hotter the battery gets while charging and discharging.

Interesting, so if watts = amps * voltage, then 48 amps with a single phase charger (assuming 230-ish volts) is a much less straining event for the battery compared to those same 48 amps at 415 volts, as @highland58 said applies with three phase chargers, because the watts would be much higher?

 

[SnBGC]

Interesting, so if watts = amps * voltage, then 48 amps with a single phase charger (assuming 230-ish volts) is a much less straining event for the battery compared to those same 48 amps at 415 volts, as @highland58 said applies with three phase chargers, because the watts would be much higher?

I could be mistaken but I think the euro circuit is around 16A per leg?
Here in NA we have roughly 48A per leg.

 

[prdude]

Yes. I see your frustration.
There are a few clarifications that might help us make sense of things.

The cooling kicks in because the battery needs to be cooled down.
The faster you charge, the more heat is created. No way to avoid this.

I would add to this that it is not only the traction batteries that need to be cooled down but also the charging module and other power electronics. It would seem that the charging rate the OP is wanting to use would generate much more heat than the typical L2 charging in the U.S.

 

[highland58]

Interesting, so if watts = amps * voltage, then 48 amps with a single phase charger (assuming 230-ish volts) is a much less straining event for the battery compared to those same 48 amps at 415 volts, as @highland58 said applies with three phase chargers, because the watts would be much higher?

It would not be the same 48A at 415V. Each phase is 120 degrees apart so the combined current flow is not the same. It's been quite a while since I was an electronic tech, but calculating power on a 3 phase circuit is a lot different than DC P=IE.

Per this Three Phase Calculator - myElectrical.com when I plug in 18A it says ~ 12kW
at 16A it is closer to 11kW.