Is DCFC charging safe?

[NorCoMetaller]

New owner here. In the Mach E subreddit, a user experienced an HVJB issue and some other users are inquiring if he had been fast charging in Unbridled mode. Which made me wonder - is there a danger in using a fast charger and if so, would it be all modes or just Unbridled?

Thanks in advance!

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[bshaw]

You are way overthinking this.
Learning the quirks of DCFC has nothing do with drive mode or the HVBJB issue.

Just use the car as you think it should be used, and you'll be fine.

 

[MachEMaster]

I would recommend entering your charger destination in the Ford Nav, and the vehicle will pre condition the battery enroute. It seems that many of the reported HVBJB failures have been after DCFC and Wide Open Throttle events.

 

[thekat03]

New owner here. In the Mach E subreddit, a user experienced an HVJB issue and some other users are inquiring if he had been fast charging in Unbridled mode. Which made me wonder - is there a danger in using a fast charger and if so, would it be all modes or just Unbridled?

Thanks in advance!

Um. Unbridled mode is when it's driving. It shouldn't make any difference which driving mode you use, when charging. It's not going to charge differently in different modes.

 

[RickMachE]

#Reddit=BadInfo

 

[NorCoMetaller]

Um. Unbridled mode is when it's driving. It shouldn't make any difference which driving mode you use, when charging. It's not going to charge differently in different modes.

Thanks so much - that makes sense. The way the person framed the question implied that it somehow mattered. I appreciate your help!

 

[NorCoMetaller]

I would recommend entering your charger destination in the Ford Nav, and the vehicle will pre condition the battery enroute. It seems that many of the reported HVBJB failures have been after DCFC and Wide Open Throttle events.

Great - thanks so much. I've done nearly all of my charging at home so this is new territory for me. I appreciate the help!

 

[Teslaeata]

You are way overthinking this.
Learning the quirks of DCFC has nothing do with drive mode or the HVBJB issue.

Just use the car as you think it should be used, and you'll be fine.

THIS!

‘s what I do.

27mth, 67,000miles more than 22,000kWh bought of which 5,500kWH is through DCFC and battery state of health still 96%.

Don’t worry, love & enjoy your ‘Stang ?

 

[superdave80]

I would recommend entering your charger destination in the Ford Nav, and the vehicle will pre condition the battery enroute. It seems that many of the reported HVBJB failures have been after DCFC and Wide Open Throttle events.

How would this help avoid the HVBJB failure problem? Preconditioning your battery causes MORE power to flow into the battery (via the HVBJB) in a shorter timeframe, and make a failure more likely, not less.

 

[helium89]

You are way overthinking this.
Learning the quirks of DCFC has nothing do with drive mode or the HVBJB issue.

Just use the car as you think it should be used, and you'll be fine.

We got SSN a month ago now, and the only local dealership still hasn’t been able to do diagnostics on it. Ford Roadside Assistance dropped the ball, which resulted in the car sitting overnight before being towed. We were fortunate enough to have the failure occur within walking distance of home. If it had happened on a rural road at night in the winter or on a road trip in one of the southwest’s many dead zones during the summer heat wave (not exactly outside the realm of possibility), it would have been a legitimately dangerous situation. If we lived somewhere without car rental options and needed the vehicle for work, we would have been screwed.

There are people for whom the potential consequences of failure are severe enough that it may make sense to sell their cars, and saying “just use the car as you think it should be used” trivializes what are very real concerns. We do enough driving in remote areas with poor cell reception that we plan on selling our car whenever they figure out what’s wrong with it and get it fixed. It’s fine if the risk of failure doesn’t bother you, but don’t pretend that people with concerns are worrying about nothing.

 

[HuntingPudel]

My HVBJB issue happened when I hadn’t DCFCd for several months. It also happened after a 3/4 throttle freeway entrance (prior to that a slow and go to get to the freeway), so my event doesn’t much correlate much with the information gathered from other events. ?‍?

That said, there is a correlation between DCFC prior to driving hard and an HVBJB event. The theory is that the DCFC has already pre-heated the contactors and driving hard bakes them into an event. A DCFC event is not necessarily causal, but it *could* be an exacerbating circumstance. ??

 

[NorCoMetaller]

THIS!

‘s what I do.

27mth, 67,000miles more than 22,000kWh bought of which 5,500kWH is through DCFC and battery state of health still 96%.

Don’t worry, love & enjoy your ‘Stang ?

This post! What a great way to start the weekend. Thanks!!

 

[bshaw]

It’s fine if the risk of failure doesn’t bother you, but don’t pretend that people with concerns are worrying about nothing.

All I'm saying is don't worry about problems you don't have currently and may never have. I think you'll be much happier overall in life that way.

 

[Billyk24]

My HVBJB issue happened when I hadn’t DCFCd for several months. It also happened after a 3/4 throttle freeway entrance (prior to that a slow and go to get to the freeway), so my event doesn’t much correlate much with the information gathered from other events. ?‍?

That said, there is a correlation between DCFC prior to driving hard and an HVBJB event. The theory is that the DCFC has already pre-heated the contactors and driving hard bakes them into an event. A DCFC event is not necessarily causal, but it *could* be an exacerbating circumstance. ??

Pre-heated, bakes but no reference to any actual temperature. It is possible to read battery temperahure in real time via hardware and/or software. Unfortunately, little or no temperature data is being presented with these events.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Pre-heated, bakes but no reference to any actual temperature. It is possible to read battery temperahure in real time via hardware and/or software. Unfortunately, little or no temperature data is being presented with these events.

The problem is that there is no way to read the temperature of the HVBJB contacts. They can infer it based on voltage drop, but there is no sensor in the MME for that. Battery temperature can be read directly but it has little to no bearing on the HVBJB and failure rate. ?‍?

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