Staying in garage for a week: To charge, or not to charge?

scoopman

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We're going on our first trip in a while without Mach N Cheese, who will remain tucked inside our garage for 10 days.

I'm putting a battery tender on my 12V during that time with float to hopefully keep that healthy, so the LVB should be maintained at 100%-ish the whole time.

Current SOC is 73% (I usu charge to 80%) and I don' t think there's anything for me to be gained by leaving the car on my L2 charger while I'm gone.

Does anyone think otherwise that it's better to leave the car on the L2 charger?
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ChasingCoral

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For that short a time there’s no need for the battery tender either.
 

HuntingPudel

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With the 12V on a charger, the MME can probably sit for months without need to charge the HVB. Heck, run it down below 65% and then leave it. 😊🐩

I bet your car would look slick with a front license plate wrap. 🤪🐩
 
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scoopman

scoopman

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For that short a time there’s no need for the battery tender either.
I want to recondition the battery from its recent "adventure" -- I figure it cannot be bad for the battery to be on a tender with a float cycle while the car isn't being used.
 


chrisGT

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I know this is a different EV but this is Porsche's official recommendation for Taycan long term storage. It is a good read
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2020/MC-10182251-0001.pdf

It says leave it on L2 charfer. The most interesting point to me was that the vehicle is so heavy that you should over-inflate to minimize flat spots during storage. MME is as heavy as the Taycan and has narrower tires so I would assume it would have the same problem or even worst. I will definetely inflate the tires if I ever leave it parked for more than 10 days.
 
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ctenidae

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Leave it on the charger. Zero reason not to. Tesla recommends staying plugged in all the time.
 
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scoopman

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I know this is a different EV but this is Porsche's official recommendation for Taycan long term storage. It is a good read
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2020/MC-10182251-0001.pdf

It says leave it on L2 charfer. The most interesting point to me was that the vehicle is so heavy that you should over-inflate to minimize flat spots during storage. MME is as heavy as the Taycan and has narrower tires so I would assume it would have the same problem or even worst. I will definetely inflate the tires if I ever leave it parked for more than 10 days.
That document doesn't define what they mean by "prolonged" other than it is less than 3 months.

My tires are inflated to spec and I don't think 10 days is that long a time, but I'm going to plug it in, taking the combined recommendations of Porsche, and Twitter's new owner 🤣
 

kennethjk

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I left the car for 2 weeks unplugged, after one day it went to sleep mode and after 14 days it went to deep sleep mode.

started right up when I got back. Although I was a bit nervous.
 

jlauro

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For long term, the general recommendation is to leave it on the charger but set to 50% charge. Also, it's recommended to start it at least once a week so the 12v system is kept toped off from being in a deep sleep and always on the charger. The 12v battery can't charge while the HV battery is charging. That can be done by just having a departure time where it will turn on for 15 minutes and realizing the 12v needs charging...

That said, it's all pretty moot if under a month...
 

SpaceEVDriver

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As far as I have found, Ford only gives a recommendation about storage for 30 days or more. I don't think they consider a week even worthy of worrying about.

I wouldn't worry about it.

Ford Mustang Mach-E Staying in garage for a week: To charge, or not to charge? Screen Shot 2022-04-14 at 21.30.28
 

summerlinLV

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I left for 2 week and I charged the car to 80%. I left the car unplugged and after 2 weeks, the charge was at 79%. Leave it unplugged.
 

Jimbo

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Left mine at 70% for three weeks in the cold (avg ~30F, but down to 3F). Came back to it at 68%. No issues. Didn't disconnect LVB.
 

i8iridium

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Left mine in the airport parking garage, unplugged for 10 days at an average temp of 40 degrees. It was ready to rock when I came back.
 

jddrews

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I was recently away for 10 days and left mine plugged in. I ran it down to 50% and kept it there. The most interesting thing was that I was consistently getting LV battery fault messages after a day or two off the charger and now that issue seems to be resolved. The widget is showing LVB between 13-15v now when it was always 12v before my trip. So evidence suggests that extended time on the L2 charger might recondition the LVB much like a battery tender would. Since I’ve been back I’ve had the car off the charger for as long as 3 days without a peep about the LVB.
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