hyperionmark said:
I was at 6 bars today and had a chance to get some free juice at 6kW. I chose not to because you all scared me.
No need to be scared. Unless your pack is in the very high range L2 should not be a concern. Only L3, DCFC, should be watched, but again not a concern, just watch the temp bars during charging. If you see it heading towards very high, then, and only then, should you think about switching to L2. JMHO
My 2013 Leaf SL, 08-13 build, just lost first capacity bar at 3-year and 8-months and 49,600 miles. I still get 60 miles @ 80% and 80 miles @ 100%.
As was stated earlier, your Leaf should be a worry free car. Just enjoy it.
As a side note, you should only use "FREE" charging if it is convenient to you, or you need extra juice to get back home. I finally learned this when one day I was sitting at the "FREE" L3 DCFC and realized that I was spending about 30 minutes, and driving a few miles out of the way, to get what would have only cost me $1.00 at home. I had never thought of it before because it was "fun and entertaining" to go to the dealer to plug in. Since that day we have only used "FREE" electricity if it was absolutely necessary to add electricity to the battery to make it back home (a very rare situation, and one that we actually planned on). Now, even that should no longer happen.
We are exchanging our ICE for the new Tesla S 75D for our longer driving trips. Now, before you say only rich folks can get a Tesla, I justified it by amortizing it over 1,000,000 miles, so only $0.10 per mile + $0.05 per mile for maintenance. This is still less than the cost of gas in the ICE. We got a Tesla that still qualifies for the Lifetime Supercharger use so we are able to use it for our long-distance trips, both local, regional, and cross-country. We pick it up in 3 days in Denver, CO, to drive it home. Our first road trip.