Preparing for Mach-E charging at home - preparation and installing charger

[@kWhpony]

Does any guidance exist for locating and orienting the outlet on the wall? How high off the floor and best orientation of the outlet (above or below) the charger?

I've seen the other thread showing the retractable tool balancer and plan to incorporate that for my current and planned 2nd residence.

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[DaveRuns]

Maybe I should have asked this question before I ordered an electric car, but here it goes: I travel a lot. Often times, my car will be parked at the airport for 5 or 6 days. In the winter, I’ve had to have my car jumped because the battery died before I got back. How would this affect an electric car? Will I run out of juice before I get back? Hmmm.

 

[dbsb3233]

Maybe I should have asked this question before I ordered an electric car, but here it goes: I travel a lot. Often times, my car will be parked at the airport for 5 or 6 days. In the winter, I’ve had to have my car jumped because the battery died before I got back. How would this affect an electric car? Will I run out of juice before I get back? Hmmm.

I threw that question out a few months ago too. The short answer was No, we should be fine. There might be a small loss over weeks, but nothing major. Good idea to get to the airport with more than a low charge though, just in case. I'd avoid showing up for a 2-week trip at only 20% to start with. If needing to drive 200 miles just to get to the airport, might wanna top up some charge near the airport (you'd need it to get home anyway).

If the MME ends up including something like a sentry mode feature, that can drain battery faster though. If that's ever added to the MME, probably wanna turn that off if parking for a week+.

 

[SnBGC]

Maybe I should have asked this question before I ordered an electric car, but here it goes: I travel a lot. Often times, my car will be parked at the airport for 5 or 6 days. In the winter, I’ve had to have my car jumped because the battery died before I got back. How would this affect an electric car? Will I run out of juice before I get back? Hmmm.

The MME has a high voltage battery and a low voltage battery. HVB/LVB
The LVB is just like the battery in your ICE so you might have the same issue as before. If the LVB is weak, then your car will be dead when you get back from your trip.

The HVB will be fine. No depreciable loss while parked for the week.

I recommend you set a GO TIME while parked at the airport for once per day. Turn off the climate precondition so it wont consume any power.....except for maybe the GO TIME that corresponds to when you expect to actually drive home.

The GO TIMEs effectively wake up the vehicle and the HVB will charge the LVB if needed. So your LVB will be charged when you get off your plane.

Also, I recommend you purchase a portable jump start battery and keep it in the vehicle. Most likely your MME isnt going to need any service but eventually your LVB is going to fail just like they do on an ICE. When that happens, you can use your portable jump starter to wake up the on board modules enough so the contactors will close to the HVB. At that point you can drive the car to get a new LVB.

In my experience the LVB is going to last much longer in your BEV compared to your ICE but eventually it will die. I have to replace 12v batteries in my diesel trucks and ICE passenger vehicles about every 24-36 months. We have 4 electric vehicles in our family that are at lease 3 years old. 2 of them have had the 12v battery replaced already.

Hope this helps.

 

[Jolteon]

Maybe I should have asked this question before I ordered an electric car, but here it goes: I travel a lot. Often times, my car will be parked at the airport for 5 or 6 days. In the winter, I’ve had to have my car jumped because the battery died before I got back. How would this affect an electric car? Will I run out of juice before I get back? Hmmm.

The 12V may still fail, depending on if Ford allows the Mach-E to energize the HV battery "by iteself" to top up the 12V battery when sitting idle. Tesla tries to do this, most other EVs don't, because of the perceived safety risk of allowing the car to decide when to close the HV contactors by itself, though I'm not aware there have been any Tesla failures related to it.

Anyway - it should be fine. I'd just warn against parking it anywhere with a low SoC in the winter - as the battery cools it may "lose" some capacity just from the cold.

Parking an EV with 10% SoC may be fine overnight at 80F, but not at -10F.

 

[DaveRuns]

The MME has a high voltage battery and a low voltage battery. HVB/LVB
The LVB is just like the battery in your ICE so you might have the same issue as before. If the LVB is weak, then your car will be dead when you get back from your trip.

The HVB will be fine. No depreciable loss while parked for the week.

I recommend you set a GO TIME while parked at the airport for once per day. Turn off the climate precondition so it wont consume any power.....except for maybe the GO TIME that corresponds to when you expect to actually drive home.

The GO TIMEs effectively wake up the vehicle and the HVB will charge the LVB if needed. So your LVB will be charged when you get off your plane.

Also, I recommend you purchase a portable jump start battery and keep it in the vehicle. Most likely your MME isnt going to need any service but eventually your LVB is going to fail just like they do on an ICE. When that happens, you can use your portable jump starter to wake up the on board modules enough so the contactors will close to the HVB. At that point you can drive the car to get a new LVB.

In my experience the LVB is going to last much longer in your BEV compared to your ICE but eventually it will die. I have to replace 12v batteries in my diesel trucks and ICE passenger vehicles about every 24-36 months. We have 4 electric vehicles in our family that are at lease 3 years old. 2 of them have had the 12v battery replaced already.

Hope this helps.

Great info, thanks!

 

[jhalkias]

Also, I recommend you purchase a portable jump start battery and keep it in the vehicle. Most likely your MME isnt going to need any service but eventually your LVB is going to fail just like they do on an ICE. When that happens, you can use your portable jump starter to wake up the on board modules enough so the contactors will close to the HVB. At that point you can drive the car to get a new LVB.

And stupid me thought I could stop carrying that thing in an electric car. I have a big unit from Lowes with jumper cables, tire inflator, light, and 120 plug in front.

 

[SnBGC]

And stupid me thought I could stop carrying that thing in an electric car. I have a big unit from Lowes with jumper cables, tire inflator, light, and 120 plug in front.

I have one like that too but felt it was too bulky and cumbersome to carry in the car. I bought something similar to this on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BTM1MSY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_QlLBFb4VP52XS

You dont need much amps....just enough voltage to power up the modules.....Ford usually requires at lease 10 volts to start up the on board computers. A simple jump start pack should do the trick.

 

[JamieGeek]

Maybe I should have asked this question before I ordered an electric car, but here it goes: I travel a lot. Often times, my car will be parked at the airport for 5 or 6 days. In the winter, I’ve had to have my car jumped because the battery died before I got back. How would this affect an electric car? Will I run out of juice before I get back? Hmmm.

Aside from the excellent advice given by @SnBGC I would add: If the airport where your parked at has any free Level-2 chargers (free as in no cost but also free as in available at the time you park) make use of them. Leave your car parked at the Level-2 for 5 or 6 days plugged in.

Shouldn't be an issue in that case either.

Note that you'll also be able to monitor the car via the FordPass app and see if its alive or dead

 

[dbsb3233]

Leave your car parked at the Level-2 for 5 or 6 days plugged in.

That just seems wrong to me, to tie up a charger that long so no one else can get to it.

 

[ClaudeMach-E]

Aside from the excellent advice given by @SnBGC I would add: If the airport where your parked at has any free Level-2 chargers (free as in no cost but also free as in available at the time you park) make use of them. Leave your car parked at the Level-2 for 5 or 6 days plugged in.

Shouldn't be an issue in that case either.

Note that you'll also be able to monitor the car via the FordPass app and see if its alive or dead

I"m sorry but other people might want to use the L-2 charger. Bad Idea.

 

[janitorjim]

That just seems wrong to me, to tie up a charger that long so no one else can get to it.

are there charging stations in long term parking and if so would that be ok?

 

[SnBGC]

That just seems wrong to me, to tie up a charger that long so no one else can get to it.

I have wondered about that too but what other choice do you have in a long term parking garage. Everyone there is flying somewhere.... ??

Maybe it they arrange the stalls so several cars can access the same cord? I have a little card that was given to me by the local utility company that says it's okay to unplug my vehicle when my car is full and someone else needs it. It looks like those hotel door handle cards for "Do Not Disturb" or "Service Needed Please". I wonder if that would work.....at least your car would have a full charge if you didn't have time to top up before your flight.

 

[dbsb3233]

are there charging stations in long term parking and if so would that be ok?

That's a tricky one. I'd probably say they should just consider adding some 120V outlets to long-term parking. A week at 120V should fully charge a BEV, should be cheap to install, and people can use their own mobile chargers. Save the more expensive L2 chargers for short-term parking, and put a limit on them (i.e. idle fee).

Valet is another option (albeit expensive). And let the valet guys move cars as necessary to utilize chargers efficiently. I could see BEV charging becoming a more common feature and use for valet. That's what one of the casinos we frequent in Vegas did -- took out the L2 chargers in the self-parking garage and moved them to valet. Personally disappointed, but it actually makes more sense from a resources standpoint.

 

[SnBGC]

That's a tricky one. I'd probably say they should just consider adding some 120V outlets to long-term parking. A week at 120V should fully charge a BEV, should be cheap to install, and people can use their own mobile chargers. Save the more expensive L2 chargers for short-term parking, and put a limit on them (i.e. idle fee).

Valet is another option (albeit expensive). And let the valet guys move cars as necessary to utilize chargers efficiently.

Really good idea. Especially if there is a way to lock the outlet cover so nobody steals your convenience EVSE. If that option were available then I would use a dedicated L1 unit that way I could park over the (input) power cord to keep anyone from stealing it. The L1/L2 combo units usually have removable input cords so that isn't going to be as secure.

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