Best Charging Practices?

[Maxx]

I have been charging at home with some assumptions that I am not sure are correct. Currently I am charging to 60% on Sunday night, driving it on Monday, letting it sit around 50% for most of the week driving it on Friday to 40%, charge overnight to 80% for weekend drive. Here is a general question:

Which one is worse for the battery; higher number of cycles? Or spending more time at SOCs away from from 50%? Assuming in both cases you consume the same number of KWhs annually. In other words charging to 90% using 10% every day until you hit 10% (1 cycle but spending a day at 90% and a day at 10%) vs going from 60% to 40% (4 cycles but spending 4 days at 50% )

Also, I have heard when you drive home, you should let the truck sit for a few hours for the battery to balance before you charge. I also heard battery does not like to be at low SOC and like to charged at temps closer to body temperature. So if I get home at 10% SOC when temp outside is 35 degrees and battery is warm from driving, which one takes precedence? Is it better to charge immediately or wait a few hours to charge?

If you have source for your answers please share. If you don’t, I still like to read your opinion with your reasoning.

Forgive me if this is already posted somewhere. I searched and could not find it.

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[Pioneer74]

A cycle is defined as a 0 to 100 charge event, not every time you initiate charging.

 

[Maxx]

A cycle is defined as a 0 to 100 charge event, not every time you initiate charging.

Got it, but you still get my drift, right?

 

[LightningB514]

Man, that’s a hard question to answer. I don’t think the car manufacturer even know what the right answer is to charging. What I do is use my truck battery until I get down to 20% - 25% and then charge it up to 90%. I travel the most on Thursdays so I usually just charge Wednesday and Thursday nights all the way to 90%. If I plan to travel far on weekends, I will usually charge it up to 100%. I personally thinks it’s good to charge it to only 90% to increase longevity on the battery and in a warm garage if possible.

 

[Pioneer74]

Got it, but you still get my drift, right?

I get it, but in my opinion, you're worrying about it too much.

You're going to have the same number of cycles no matter what. That depends on your efficiency and the miles you drive. If you think that keeping it close to 50% is best for you, and you can work around that in your use case, I say go for it.

I charge to 90% every night before I have to work the next day. 85% in warmer weather. Why? Because it takes me 40% battery in summer, and around 45% in winter for my commute.

I try to have 2 days worth of commute "in the tank" because some days I wake up to the battery not charged and Ford hasn't shown reliability about starting charge sessions and following schedules. If I could count on my truck being at the level I want every morning, I would probably only charge to 70% except before long trips.

 

[snowy_91]

I keep mine at the same as I did for the MachE, 95%. When I am home it's always plugged in. But South Dakota is not know for it's robust charging infrastructure so anywhere I go I need enough for a round trip.

 

[TaxmanHog]

With regard to thermal conservation:

The trucks thermal management system will moderate either condition with the chiller or PTC warmer, but either consumes extra energy, finding the sweet spot is best in your moderate use case, others with larger daily demands and TOU rates might have to squeeze their schemes to optimize all impacts.

Winter strategy would be to charge while battery is still warm from usage, so I would start it immediately upon arriving home, if I wait until early evening or automatically start late night/early AM and the temps are under the chemically safe charging requirements then the PTC is going to get it up to a safe charging temp.

Summer strategy would be best to wait, let the ambient air cool the pack slowly, then let delayed charging scheme kick in late evening / early AM.

 

[Ice No More?]

Those are some good questions and I can understand some of the confusion. I try to keep it simple, I have been following Ford's recommendation and charging to 90% pretty much everyday. 100% if I am going on a longer trip. I figure that if Ford will warranty the battery for 8 years, 100k miles it is probably good for double that. I plan to monitor my rate of battery decay to be more educated when I buy the next version.

 

[RickLightning]

I have been charging at home with some assumptions that I am not sure are correct. Currently I am charging to 60% on Sunday night, driving it on Monday, letting it sit around 50% for most of the week driving it on Friday to 40%, charge overnight to 80% for weekend drive. Here is a general question:

Which one is worse for the battery; higher number of cycles? Or spending more time at SOCs away from from 50%? Assuming in both cases you consume the same number of KWhs annually. In other words charging to 90% using 10% every day until you hit 10% (1 cycle but spending a day at 90% and a day at 10%) vs going from 60% to 40% (4 cycles but spending 4 days at 50% )

Also, I have heard when you drive home, you should let the truck sit for a few hours for the battery to balance before you charge. I also heard battery does not like to be at low SOC and like to charged at temps closer to body temperature. So if I get home at 10% SOC when temp outside is 35 degrees and battery is warm from driving, which one takes precedence? Is it better to charge immediately or wait a few hours to charge?

If you have source for your answers please share. If you don’t, I still like to read your opinion with your reasoning.

Forgive me if this is already posted somewhere. I searched and could not find it.

Cycles have been addressed by others. No difference in five 10% charges and one 50% charge.

As far as letting the truck sit, this isn't a "I heard" it's a "Ford recommends". But let's be clear why. Sometimes when you come home, the battery is really hot. Therefore, they want it to cool off before charging it. Most times when I come home the battery isn't really hot, so it's largely irrelevant.

Both our Mach-E and our Lightning charge to 90%. We plug in daily, whether we've driven 10 miles or 50 miles.

We charge between 7PM and 11AM 5 days a week, no limits on weekends. By default, the vehicle sits for hours most times before charging as a result. Yesterday I got down to 63%, and pulled in around 5:30, so it sat for 90 minutes before charging.

Keep in mind that Ford warrantees the battery for 8 years / 100,000 miles to be 70% or higher capacity. They fully expect to blow through that 70% number with people that abuse the crap out of their batteries. Fast charging daily. Lots of full throttle events. Driving in 100 degree temps. Being an idiot.

Don't overthink things. We could take 100 people who all do something different, and the result in 8 years will likely be plus or minus a few percentage points.

 

[EdRudy]

20/80 for me. I charge every day all day, if I am home. Only one brief fast charging, 30% to 80% when driving to the beach. Once at the beach I used the Ford portable charger to bring the truck up to 100% (took almost 6 days from ~50% to 100% with 120v) for the drive home and made it back with about 25% left.

 

[shutterbug]

Keep in mind that Ford warrantees the battery for 8 years / 100,000 miles to be 70% or higher capacity. They fully expect to blow through that 70% number with people that abuse the crap out of their batteries. Fast charging daily. Lots of full throttle events. Driving in 100 degree temps. Being an idiot.

Fast charging daily? I'm sure many here have seen a story about an uber driver, whose Tesla battery was completely dead after 120,000 miles in 15 months. The part that stood out to me was that he was supercharging twice a day.

In general, it's best not to overthink it. Plug in daily; set charge limit to fit in with your most common use case; and take advantage of TOU rates, if you have them. In the winter my rate is $0.03166 per kWh between 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM, so that's when I try to do most of my charging.

 

[RickLightning]

Fast charging daily? I'm sure many here have seen a story about an uber driver, whose Tesla battery was completely dead after 120,000 miles in 15 months. The part that stood out to me was that he was supercharging twice a day.

In general, it's best not to overthink it. Plug in daily; set charge limit to fit in with your most common use case; and take advantage of TOU rates, if you have them. In the winter my rate is $0.03166 per kWh between 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM, so that's when I try to do most of my charging.

Can we plug in at your house?

 

[azypather]

I keep mine at the same as I did for the MachE, 95%. When I am home it's always plugged in. But South Dakota is not know for it's robust charging infrastructure so anywhere I go I need enough for a round trip.

Same for me in NW Florida. I've had my truck for 8 months now and yet to charge it anywhere but home!

 

[shutterbug]

Can we plug in at your house?

Only if you thing that driving from MI to AZ is cost effective.

 

[geoff.]

With regards to charging speed, I'm curious if anyone with the FCSP derates it to something slower just to take it easier on the battery?

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