First night with the Heat Pump

[Ragman]

First night on the road with our 24 Flash - I generally do highway runs with our 23 Lariat but wife has that and the usual 2nd choice XLT is at dealer for recall - so getting my first real impression of Heat Pump vs Resistive in negative temperatures.

Pros: it works, no noticeable difference in the cabin heat wise or noise/vibration.

Cons: No noticeable difference in range, granted small sample size it took me 54% of the battery to do ~90 miles coming warm out of a shop. Thats no better then other trucks.

Stealth Truck no more: I had to do some in/out of the truck doing yard checks and I can best sum it up as I won't be sneaking up on anything anymore. Sounds exactly like our ICE F150 when the electric fans kick on except they aren't turning off.

I assume this is a combination of keeping battery warm as well as cabin - however it was eye (ear?) opening and moderately concerning from a future wear perspective.

An interesting observation, I plugged into Level 2 with truck still on - fans immediately turn off - unplug - fans turn on - plug fans turn off. I'm not sure what this means for my 30 minute Tesla stops when its -30... If there is still cabin heat while charging.

Anyone know if the resistive heater is still actually in the trucks and kicks in when on land power? We have -30 on the forecast for Sunday/Monday looks like I'll get to test it out.

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[fvineyard]

Anyone know if the resistive heater is still actually in the trucks and kicks in when on land power?

I do not know myself, but others I trust here say there is still resistive heat for when it is too cold for the heat pump to be effective.

 

[TaxmanHog]

An interesting observation, I plugged into Level 2 with truck still on - fans immediately turn off - unplug - fans turn on - plug fans turn off. I'm not sure what this means for my 30 minute Tesla stops when its -30... If there is still cabin heat while charging.

Anyone know if the resistive heater is still actually in the trucks and kicks in when on land power? We have -30 on the forecast for Sunday/Monday looks like I'll get to test it out.

Still haven't seen a schematic for the new VHP system, based on your observations the PTC might still be on the truck but strategy of use has changed.

 

[Andrewbens]

I believe once you get to a certain temperature the heat pump isn’t anymore efficient than the electric heater strips. It’s something like anything below -0F

 

[Maineiac12]

Residential heat pumps have an “emergency heat” setting which is essentially just a PTC heater that comes on when temps get too cold for a heat pump to work effectively. I’m sure the system in the trucks are similar because otherwise they’d be useless past a certain temp.

 

[Ragman]

Still haven't seen a schematic for the new VHP system, based on your observations the PTC might still be on the truck but strategy of use has changed.

I’m leaning this way, if the heat pump fans randomly kick on while truck is parked to heat battery in middle of night people would freak out. Keeping the original coolant loop heater that takes over when plugged in would be a smart solution as “efficiency” on grid power is moot.

 

[Ragman]

Trucks in driveway so decided to go play. So new toy the 23s don’t have, got in Flash it shows pulling 2.3kw on dash and I can hear a low level hum - assume that’s just keeping battery warm.

Started truck (still plugged in) and it shows 30 amp 7.0 kw charging - being it’s on mobile charger at moment that should not be possible. Either it’s going to melt or there is hvb power being used.

Also no fans running but can hear the pump, and yes there is cabin heat. Sat for a bit and now sounds like a race car under truck which revs up and down can feel through floor boards.

No departure or cabin heating set, just plugged into level2 mobile cord.

 

[davehu]

First night on the road with our 24 Flash - I generally do highway runs with our 23 Lariat but wife has that and the usual 2nd choice XLT is at dealer for recall - so getting my first real impression of Heat Pump vs Resistive in negative temperatures......

.......
Stealth Truck no more: I had to do some in/out of the truck doing yard checks and I can best sum it up as I won't be sneaking up on anything anymore. Sounds exactly like our ICE F150 when the electric fans kick on except they aren't turning off.

I assume this is a combination of keeping battery warm as well as cabin - however it was eye (ear?) opening and moderately concerning from a future wear perspective.

An interesting observation, I plugged into Level 2 with truck still on - fans immediately turn off - unplug - fans turn on - plug fans turn off. I'm not sure what this means for my 30 minute Tesla stops when its -30... If there is still cabin heat while charging.

Anyone know if the resistive heater is still actually in the trucks and kicks in when on land power? We have -30 on the forecast for Sunday/Monday looks like I'll get to test it out.

I hav noticed the same behavior on our 23 Lariat. fans are noisy. In summer if my dog was with me, when I ran into a store I'd just leave the truck on with the AC. very noisy in fact noone seemed to notice the Lightning, it was a little less but comparable to the noise of a regular F-150 with the engine idleing. Also just the other day I returned home after a run out with the tempature in the 20's. in our carport I could clearly hear the fans running when I got out.... keeping the battery warm. plug in from FCSP and they shut off. Plug in and the fans started up again. Same thing you noticed on the '23 Flash. My guess is that when plugging in the FCSP forces some diagnostics and the fans would probably kick back on after a few minutes. I didn't bother to check so just speculation.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Trucks in driveway so decided to go play. So new toy the 23s don’t have, got in Flash it shows pulling 2.3kw on dash and I can hear a low level hum - assume that’s just keeping battery warm.

Started truck (still plugged in) and it shows 30 amp 7.0 kw charging - being it’s on mobile charger at moment that should not be possible. Either it’s going to melt or there is hvb power being used.

Also no fans running but can hear the pump, and yes there is cabin heat. Sat for a bit and now sounds like a race car under truck which revs up and down can feel through floor boards.

No departure or cabin heating set, just plugged into level2 mobile cord.

That sound is the circulator pump moving coolant from the PTC to the battery pack, it happens on the call of the BMS when the pack temperature drops below set point and you're plugged in, the EVSE will only supply what it's capable of sending, FMC on 120v would be limited and any excess is coming from the HVB for the short period needed to warm the pack, once it's warm enough the high draw will tapper back and the battery would be slowly replenished of what it lost during the temp boost phase.

 

[Ragman]

Bit of an update with a few more miles on Flash, did my normal 185 mile run tonight with it and came up short - limped to 1st DC charger in range (50kw) with 4% /9 miles range - about 15 miles short of home. The last 60 miles I had 40% left so figured I was golden and skipped Tesla chargers - only made it 45 of the 60.

Truck at 100% and Full Departure set, optimum except temp and some wind at end.

I’d like to say my 23 Lariat with similar preconditioning would have made it or done the same. Really no noticeable difference at

One noteable item the Flash has X-Ice winters vs Lariat is still on oem Grabbers. They may well have cost me the 5% to get home.

@Ford please please put dimming drivers side mirror on Flash lol

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