Cooling the Leaf Battery with Ice, This Actually Works?!?

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So the basic deal is a phase change liquid is used to cool the battery. With rust as a possible outcome. What about a phase Change liquid that doesn’t? Vegetable Glycerine phase changes at a low tempature too. You’d be sort of turning the car into a smoke machine though which could be offputting
“dude! Your car is on fire!”
“No, that’s just the cooling system”
“No! Really! There’s so much smoke you can barely see the car!”
“Yes, that is what it’s supposed to do “
“OK, well, I’m gonna run away now to avoid dying.. Also I called the Fire Department”
[facepalm] “oh no, not again..”
 
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MikeinPA said:
Nothing to worry about! Well, actually, aluminum, steel and water make a different kind of a battery. Kind of a battery on a battery.
nissan-leaf-high-voltage-connector-plate-jpg.174182
Click to expand...
My battery was not that bad. Dissimilar Metal corrosion, yes it is a problem..
 
kmcmahan said:
My battery was not that bad. Dissimilar Metal corrosion, yes it is a problem..
Click to expand...
That was the only picture I could find easily. My blue 2013 pack had moderate corrosion on the front aluminum fitting as well as between the aluminum plate on top that clamps the disconnect/fuse pillar to the metal shell. My white 2013 pack is looking worse and correcting that is on my infinite to-do list.

Overall, it needs to be pointed out the pack is not air tight and therefore not water tight. I and others know this from going through the leak testing required after resealing the pack--the new seal is good, but the rubber plugs, connectors, and orings all leak and you have to really tape all of these up to get a good leak test. And that putting 32 deg F material on top is going to cause a pressure drop inside the pack, this could draw moisture or even liquids in.
 
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Ok, I tried the ice packs in the pack...and it helped.

I used 5 lbs of 4x.1LB and 2x .5 LB I've packs. I did cover the plug with a gallon zip lock. That worked well. Over 120 miles of 65-70mph freeway driving, the pack cooled from 124F to 119F, approximately 5F reduction. Ambient was 84F and sunny (hot road). Ice packs were applied after the 3rd DC charge 370 miles into journey.

In previous trips (glad I have records), in a slightly hotter day ~90F the battery cooled 0F on a previous trip (122F) and on a different cooler day ~70F, the pack cooled 3F (120.4 F to 117.5) for similar distances and time/speed traveled.

So I would say the packs gave me 2-4F in extra cooling. The packs were hot when done, which I thought was a good sign.
The set up took less than 5 minutes, so hardly any effort.

On my next attempt, I want to up to 6lbs (about all i cam fit easily), and replace a few times in final 200 miles of travel (of a 600 miles day), as the temp reduction stopped at 5F for remaining 30 minutes of drive, so guessing pack cooling was exhausted at that point. The final charging stop I believe charged about 5KW faster that it would have at 124F, so maybe 10 minutes saved charging.

In the final 90 mile drive, the car started and ended.with a battery temp of 124F further suggesting that the ice packs were.the source.of the cooling.

So cool that it worked.
 
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Ok

Something isn't adding up in my head. If I saw 60F of change in those 5lbs of ice packs vs. 850 Lbs of battery that does not translate to 2F shift in battery temp even accounting for the difference in heat capacity for water (ice pack) and lithium (ion).

5 x 60 x 1.3 (water heat capacity vs. Lithium)= ~400 or about a 1/2 degree shift in batter temp.

There must be additional mechanism in place. One thought is with the hatch open, air flow across the battery improves. Any other thoughts? Am I miscalculating?
 
Wow. Just found this thread. I have two thoughts, both of which you’ve probably already considered but here’s my $0.02:

1. The last time I checked, the United States of America is still a free country. Your car is your property and you can experiment with it and modify it pretty much as you like. I’m intellectually curious about the results. I wish you the best.

2. I would never, ever, ever recommend trying something like this. If you short the wrong circuit, you’ll get a catastrophic fire. I have personally seen cases where a toy R/C car battery or a golf cart battery started a fire that burned down a house. Any Leaf battery can do that too if abused. Save your cash for a newer EV and make sure your current one gets recycled properly!
 
It is really a Sin that Nissan built the leaf from 2011 through 2024 and never addressed the Battery's Thermal Management. If Nissan would have done it right, we'd still have our Leaf along with many others. But in just 10,400 miles, charging at Home with a 16 amp L2 charger, we lost a bit over 7% capacity of the 40Kwh pack. That was our 2020 Leaf. We are one of the many consumers that tried an EV (we had 2) and went back to ICE vehicles and haven't looked back - yet.
 
kitra said:
It is really a Sin that Nissan built the leaf from 2011 through 2024 and never addressed the Battery's Thermal Management. If Nissan would have done it right, we'd still have our Leaf along with many others. But in just 10,400 miles, charging at Home with a 16 amp L2 charger, we lost a bit over 7% capacity of the 40Kwh pack. That was our 2020 Leaf. We are one of the many consumers that tried an EV (we had 2) and went back to ICE vehicles and haven't looked back - yet.
Click to expand...
Both of our Pluses lost 7% the first year and then went flat for many years.
 
kitra said:
It is really a Sin that Nissan built the leaf from 2011 through 2024 and never addressed the Battery's Thermal Management. If Nissan would have done it right, we'd still have our Leaf along with many others. But in just 10,400 miles, charging at Home with a 16 amp L2 charger, we lost a bit over 7% capacity of the 40Kwh pack. That was our 2020 Leaf. We are one of the many consumers that tried an EV (we had 2) and went back to ICE vehicles and haven't looked back - yet.
Click to expand...
Nobody is saying that Nissan's engineers didn't consider or address the battery's thermal management. The battery is passively cooled by air flowing around it. I have owned and ridden many air cooled ICE motorcycles. They had no active thermal management system because they didn't need one. I'm sorry your EV experience was negative. Unfortunately EV batteries wear out over time. ICE cars wear out over time too, they just don't have a gauge to tell you that. If an ICE car is better for you and your family then you should drive one. Best wishes!
 
kitra said:
It is really a Sin that Nissan built the leaf from 2011 through 2024 and never addressed the Battery's Thermal Management. If Nissan would have done it right, we'd still have our Leaf along with many others. But in just 10,400 miles, charging at Home with a 16 amp L2 charger, we lost a bit over 7% capacity of the 40Kwh pack. That was our 2020 Leaf. We are one of the many consumers that tried an EV (we had 2) and went back to ICE vehicles and haven't looked back - yet.
Click to expand...
It's pretty standard for every EV to lose approximately 5% capacity in its first year alone and then it levels out to a much lower rate of degradation. My 2020 is also at 93% state of health and I still get well over 150 miles of range in mixed driving.
 
I have Pajero 4xx still but prefer the leaf especially with these fuel prices, i wonder if the battery pack could be adapted to fit a cooling fan and the ducked inside the cabin, we know the pack is completely sealed but surly something could be done to assist air flow over the pack especially while sitting still.
 
xboxice said:
I have Pajero 4xx still but prefer the leaf especially with these fuel prices, i wonder if the battery pack could be adapted to fit a cooling fan and the ducked inside the cabin, we know the pack is completely sealed but surly something could be done to assist air flow over the pack especially while sitting still.
Click to expand...

This has been done, but it is not trivial to protect the battery from moisture and airborne dust/debris.
Forget about any warranty if the battery is modified.
 

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