Insane charging noise

efisher

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I should make a noticeable whirring sound but nothing as loud as what I hear in your video. Take it to the dealer and have them check it out.
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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.
This may also be a seasonal issue. Although you may need to charge at a lower amperage (say 32A) in the summer, you may be able to get away with a full 48A in the winter; especially if your car is parked outside. Lower ambient temperatures, which I assume hover around 0-5 degrees Celsius in the winter in the Netherlands, may keep the battery cool enough to avoid any of the fan noise. I'm curious to find out if you have that problem when the temperature dips below 10 degrees C.
 

BadgerGreg

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I should make a noticeable whirring sound but nothing as loud as what I hear in your video. Take it to the dealer and have them check it out.
My MME is as loud as his video when charging at 48A. However, when I reduce my charging to 32A, charging is very quiet and I still get topped up overnight. I think the best thing to do is to back off the amperage in the warm months and crank it back up to 48A in the winter months if you need the extra charging speed.
 

theo1000

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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.
Can you build a screen/enclosure of some kind. Honestly I just charged mine at 48amp in my garage and it was loud but as as soon as I close the garage door barely audible.

Or explore noise cancelling devices.
I'm curious to find out if you have that problem when the temperature dips below 10 degrees C.
Im curious as well. There must be folks here who charged in the March cold wave. Wonder if one of those folks can post. On my Etron for sure the insulation on the battery is so good even in -5f garage the full cooling system kicked on at 40 amp. Now that I think about it doesnt make any sense for the compressor to kick on. Maybe heat the battery?
 

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Im curious as well. There must be folks here who charged in the March cold wave. Wonder if one of those folks can post. On my Etron for sure the insulation on the battery is so good even in -5f garage the full cooling system kicked on at 40 amp. Now that I think about it doesnt make any sense for the compressor to kick on. Maybe heat the battery?
I would think the eTron may indeed turn on its heat pump (i.e. run its compressor) to warm up the battery in colder ambients
 


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Just brought my new MME home (ER + AWD) and plugging into my EVSE set to 40A it is about as loud as the OPs. I can't hear it in the house with the garage door shut though so it's not that much of a problem.

However, since the ambient temp in my garage is 97ÂşF and Texas is in a voluntary energy conservation situation this week, (yea, ERCOT ?), I've paused charging and will resume it after 10pm. Long term, I'll probably set the schedule to wait until that time every night.
 

ARK

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I am charging tonight for the first time since this thread started and feel more confident in saying that OP’s Mach-E seems to be a lot louder to me than mine while charging.

Here is a video I took of my Mach-E charging just now. Not much to see because it is dark (though I do include the pony puddle for proof of life), but not much to hear either which is the point.

I charge at 32 amps. As far as I’ve noticed, this is always the noise level I get, even the one time I charged at 48 amps for a couple of hours on a late afternoon.

 

BadgerGreg

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Just brought my new MME home (ER + AWD) and plugging into my EVSE set to 40A it is about as loud as the OPs. I can't hear it in the house with the garage door shut though so it's not that much of a problem.

However, since the ambient temp in my garage is 97ÂşF and Texas is in a voluntary energy conservation situation this week, (yea, ERCOT ?), I've paused charging and will resume it after 10pm. Long term, I'll probably set the schedule to wait until that time every night.
I switched to 32A this week and no longer have the noise. I'm very confident now that there is a cutoff between 32A and 40/48A regarding the noise, especially during the summer when MME owners plug in their cars in a warm garage. The only charging I do is from 11pm - 7am, which is when my electric utility company offers a 50% discount on electricity use.

The only downside to 32A is that I won't get a full charge in 8 hours, but in a pinch I can always set it to 48A; even then, I'm not really bothered by the extra noise.
 

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My extremely hot garage 40 amp charger can sometimes create a noise like a gas car running with your foot on the accelerator. pretty loud. But it doesn't stay at that level the whole time. I think the higher temps kick in all fans on deck.
 

BadgerGreg

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One thing I noticed about 32A charging: I am apparently getting much lower losses relative to 48A charging. In other words, where I'm getting an average of 14% loss when charging at 48A, my first two sessions at 32A have averaged only 9%. This means more of the consumed electricity is going to the battery (not the loud cooling system), and that's a good reason to stick with a lower amperage when you can. I need a few more charging sessions to get a more accurate comparison, but I'll report out on that in a few more days...
 

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One thing I noticed about 32A charging: I am apparently getting much lower losses relative to 48A charging. In other words, where I'm getting an average of 14% loss when charging at 48A, my first two sessions at 32A have averaged only 9%. This means more of the consumed electricity is going to the battery (not the loud cooling system), and that's a good reason to stick with a lower amperage when you can. I need a few more charging sessions to get a more accurate comparison, but I'll report out on that in a few more days...
That would be interesting to see how much that is temp dependent. IE: Is loss less on a 48A on a cold day vs 32A on a hot day.
 

BadgerGreg

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That would be interesting to see how much that is temp dependent. IE: Is loss less on a 48A on a cold day vs 32A on a hot day.
Yeah, I’m going to track that. As I live in Michigan, I’ll be able to test for a wide range of temps.
 

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Yeah, I’m going to track that. As I live in Michigan, I’ll be able to test for a wide range of temps.
it does make sense that there would be higher losses when charging at 48A, since more heat is generated. But just curious how you're coming up with % loss, since the MME provides such minimal info when on charge
 

BadgerGreg

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it does make sense that there would be higher losses when charging at 48A, since more heat is generated. But just curious how you're coming up with % loss, since the MME provides such minimal info when on charge
I have to estimate energy delivered by multiplying the percentage charged by 88 kWh. For example, if the FordPass app says my car went from 30% to 80%, I calculate energy delivered as 0.50 x 88 = 44 kWh. It’s not perfect, as there is a rounding error (+/- 0.9 kWh) on the receiving end. If anyone from Ford is reading this, it would be nice to have the charging log include an exact measure of kWh received.
 

skiingj

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My Ford Connected Charger app slider stops at 30A not 32A. Not sure that makes a big difference but I'm curious if its just me that's getting 30 and not 32? I'm lowering from 48A per this thread to reduce noise and loss.
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