Pre-conditioning the batteries....how?

[MellowJohnny]

<snip>

For what its worth, I have found Departure Times are more reliably set in the car. Tap the car icon, tap Settings, and select Charge. You can edit your charge times and depature times there.

This is interesting - I set a departure time for 7:30 this morning but the car was stone cold. It was plugged in, but precondition time was outside of my "preferred" charging time, if that matters. I also have "Allow start when vehicle is unplugged" set to true in FordPass. The only other time I've tried it was 4:45 am (during the "charging" window) and it worked fine. So this was disappointing.

I will check to see if the same settings were transferred from FordPass to the car...wife has it at work right now

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[Mach-Lee]

This is interesting - I set a departure time for 7:30 this morning but the car was stone cold. It was plugged in, but precondition time was outside of my "preferred" charging time, if that matters. I also have "Allow start when vehicle is unplugged" set to true in FordPass. The only other time I've tried it was 4:45 am (during the "charging" window) and it worked fine. So this was disappointing.

I will check to see if the same settings were transferred from FordPass to the car...wife has it at work right now

Yes, you need to adjust your charging hours to allow power draw during your preconditioning times. I have mine set from 11 PM - 12PM (noon) so I get power for morning preconditioning.

 

[flapjake314]

All of the above. A warm battery has higher capacity, higher maximum current, higher regen limit (more energy recaptured) and will also last slightly longer since charging freezing lithium batteries (from regen) can cause lithium plating. Although I think regen will be limited until the pack warms up enough.

If you don't care about performance or efficiency then you don't have to precondition. But if you want higher performance or driving efficiency then you should.

i had heard the L2 comment before but i was at a hotel plugged into L1 and it still preconditioned. it said precondition in progress at the assigned time -shrug-

 

[Darauk]

It was plugged in, but precondition time was outside of my "preferred" charging time, if that matters.

Oh, this is interesting! I work from home, so I don't have a set schedule. Perhaps I should set my charging window to 24-hours a day?

I have a charge limit of 85% to preserve battery life. Would setting a 24-hour charge window be "bad"?

 

[Darauk]

I wanted to share some initial findings after running a test today.

My charging hours are midnight to 8am, with a max charge of 85% for routine use.

Today I had to go to the DMV at 2pm, so I set a departure time of 2pm with cabin at warm. This was to both get the MME preconditioned for my afternoon errand and to test the departure time outside of the charging window. Shortly after 2pm, I went out to the car to find it warm and ready to go.

I don't know if it matters, but I have a 48-amp L2 charger installed.

I'll do a couple of more tests for errands throughout the week.

 

[Mauser]

Oh, this is interesting! I work from home, so I don't have a set schedule. Perhaps I should set my charging window to 24-hours a day?

I have a charge limit of 85% to preserve battery life. Would setting a 24-hour charge window be "bad"?

This is similar to the question I have. Working from home, I have really no set departure time every day. I'm guessing there's no other way to "ad-hoc" pre-condition?

Still trying to understand how I would go about properly pre-conditioning the car prior to my departure.

 

[Darauk]

There is no ad hoc precondition that I have found. The only way to prep the battery for optimal driving is to have the MME plugged into the charger and set a departure time.

What I ended up doing today was going thru my calendar for the rest of the week, setting departure times as needed for each trip I knew I needed to take.

I suspect it will become a hassle, and encourage me to move somewhere warmer.

 

[Darauk]

That said, it would be great if @Ford Motor Company could add a "precondition" button to the main screen of the Ford Pass app.

Tap that button then set a timer for when you plan to leave, like "precondition --> leave in ## minutes".

Is there an official place to submit feature requests?

 

[Mach-Lee]

That said, it would be great if @Ford Motor Company could add a "precondition" button to the main screen of the Ford Pass app.

Tap that button then set a timer for when you plan to leave, like "precondition --> leave in ## minutes".

Is there an official place to submit feature requests?

Battery heating takes 30-60 minutes FYI, so not sure how useful that would be in advance? I think that's why the on-demand option wasn't given, people wouldn't like waiting an hour.

 

[Darauk]

Battery heating takes 30-60 minutes FYI, so not sure how useful that would be in advance? I think that's why the on-demand option wasn't given, people wouldn't like waiting an hour.

That makes sense. I'm not sure whether I would use a quick precondition option if it always meant waiting up to an hour for the car to be ready.

Hopefully over time I will get in the good habit of always remembering to set departure times for the week.

 

[Mauser]

Battery heating takes 30-60 minutes FYI, so not sure how useful that would be in advance? I think that's why the on-demand option wasn't given, people wouldn't like waiting an hour.

Meh. Just give us the option - let us decide if we use it or not. But that's easily said about a lot of things that are missing as well.

Personally, I'd love to be able to set climate manually from the app instead of the pre-set or last-used options.

 

[SnBGC]

i had heard the L2 comment before but i was at a hotel plugged into L1 and it still preconditioned. it said precondition in progress at the assigned time -shrug-

According to the shop manual, departure times will work with L1 or L2. There is a note that says when using L1, the car may consume some of the HVB energy to condition the vehicle since the shore power may not be enough by itself.

 

[DaveP]

This thread has left me more confused

 

[flapjake314]

This thread has left me more confused

what's there to be confused about, it definitely works with L2, maybe works with L3, definitely doesn't work with L1, except when it might work a little bit with L1

 

[Darauk]

I've done some more testing yesterday and today. Setting departure times from the app are spotty at best. Setting departure times in the car work every time.

Departure times precondition the car regardless of the charging window. Again, I am hooked up to an L2 charger. My default charging window is 11pm-8am, but I can set departures anytime outside that window and the car is warm (it's been ~30s F here) and ready to go.

I really wish the app were a bit more reliable, though. In my testing, it only saves the departure time perhaps half the times I've tried to set it.

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