is anyone charging to only 80% with standard charge?

[nschuster]

Nissan recommends charging only to 80% when using the standard charge. better for long term battery life. i'm curious if others are heeding this advice or charging to 100%.

i'm leasing the car, so i have little concern for battery life beyond the 36 month lease period.

 

[ebill3]

Nissan recommends charging only to 80% when using the standard charge. better for long term battery life. i'm curious if others are heeding this advice or charging to 100%.

In warmer months, most always 80%. Now, about 50/50 80%/100%. Sometimes about 90%.

i'm leasing the car, so i have little concern for battery life beyond the 36 month lease period.

So, why the great interest in what others are doing?

Bill

 

[nschuster]

just curious if others see it the same way i do.....

 

[thankyouOB]

Nissan recommends charging only to 80% when using the standard charge. better for long term battery life. i'm curious if others are heeding this advice or charging to 100%.

i'm leasing the car, so i have little concern for battery life beyond the 36 month lease period.

what do you mean by "standard charge"?

 

[Caracalover]

I bought, and charge to 80% M-Sat. going to full charge Saturday night so I can go over a mountain and across a desert on Sunday (70 miles, 30 at 55-65mph). I then recharge at my destination to 100% so I can return home. I use L1 charging at home, and converted L2 at the Sunday destination.

I try to avoid LBW, but in the winter I am seeing it within a mile or so of my Sunday destination. I could make it there without it, but I believe that it will not hurt the battery and may even help it to give it a workout one day a week.

If I was leasing, I would try to maintain the battery just in case I was going to buy it after the lease ran out, or to give the next owner a good driving experience if I don't. I want more EV's on the road, so I look forward to the used market being viable. If you leased this car to be good for the world, you will take care of it with that in mind. If you bought it to have the new cool gadget, you likely would not have posed this question.

For what it is worth, it seems like Nissan has you covered. I doubt a 100% charge will hurt the battery, but going to turtle too often likely will. At this point no one really knows but everyone seems to agree that keeping the SOC in the mid-range is optimal, and if you are above 80% you should not charge it to 100% until the SOC has been dropped below 80%. If you can charge once a week, charge to 100% when needed and don't worry about it. If you are charging from 60% to 100% every night, you likely should go to 80% and keep charging every night. If you were using most of the battery every day, you likley would not be asking the question, and 80% would not be considered. Is it better to charge every other day and use 80% of the battery? No one really knows, but your stress levels will be far lower if you have the extra charge available, so perhaps charge to 80% and use half the availabe charge daily.

 

[lenny]

At 100% I'd just have enough to get to work and back twice, with A/C and heat off, no side trips, less than 10% of battery left. A bit too close for comfort for me. Since I need to recharge every day anyway, I figured I might as well charge to 80% most of the time.

 

[planet4ever]

If I was leasing, I would try to maintain the battery just in case I was going to buy it after the lease ran out, or to give the next owner a good driving experience if I don't. I want more EV's on the road, so I look forward to the used market being viable. If you leased this car to be good for the world, you will take care of it with that in mind.

Very well put, Caracalover! I am leasing, and that is precisely how I feel. I do charge to 80% most of the time, but 100% if I think I am likely to need the range the next day. On the other end, I prefer to avoid "Low Battery Warning", but am willing to take it down to "Very Low Battery Warning, again if I need the range. i.e. I think of 80% to LBW as ideal; 100% to VLBW as acceptable but probably a little harder on the battery. I see VLBW to Turtle as for extreme situations only, and driving past Turtle as an emergency action used only to find a safe stopping place.

Incidentally, I haven't decided, but I'm leaning toward not buying the car at the end of the lease. It's really more high tech than I wanted. At the moment I have my eye on the "i", but have no idea how I'll feel 28 months from now.

Finally, as thankyouOB asked, what do you mean by "standard charge", nschuster?

Ray

 

[Herm]

Recently Ecotality released a report using their Blink data, as part of their grant report duties.. and it shows that most users charge to 100% full at home. I suspect you cant trust that Blink data too much. Either most people are leasing or they dont believe in battery degradation.

About 60% of the users charge to full, 20%-30% of them charge in the life preserving mode, while at home. For some weird reason a lot of Tucson Leafers charge to 80% at home

The November EV project report:

http://avt.inl.gov/pdf/EVProj/EVProjNissanLeafQ32011.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Herm]

Incidentally, I haven't decided, but I'm leaning toward not buying the car at the end of the lease. It's really more high tech than I wanted. At the moment I have my eye on the "i", but have no idea how I'll feel 28 months from now.

You feel the i's range would be sufficient?

 

[nschuster]

thank you all - VERY good information!

by standard charge, i meant the home charger which takes about 7 or 8 hours to charge. i guess that is called level 2? also, it took me a minute, but i think i figured out that LBW is low battery warning.

still not sure what SOC means and where on my dashboard I read that (and how i read it).

i know, i am SO new at this.... just got the car yesterday, haven't read the manual yet (the orientation by the dealer was adequate, nothing special; there was stuff i had to figure out for HIM, particularly on setting up Carwings). i admit it, i was too busy driving and enjoying yesterday to start reading!

heck, i don't even know the difference between an amp and an ohm. luckily, my sister in law got me a dummy's guide to electricity book for the holidays. to me, electricity is pure magic.....

 

[lpickup]

Nissan recommends charging only to 80% when using the standard charge. better for long term battery life. i'm curious if others are heeding this advice or charging to 100%.

I simply charge to whatever amount I'll need the next day. This usually means 80% for a typical work day, and 100% for weekends where we have plans, or weekdays when we may have additional errands or activities going on.

I have 2 timers set up for 80% charge and 100% charge. I have the 80% to fire M-F and 100% to fire Sa/Su, but I adjust these as necessary when pulling in for the night. I do wish it was slightly easier to do this, especially given there are only 2 timers. Something like a simple screen that summarizes what the next timer to fire will be and from the same screen allow you to change to the other timer. The screen that shows the next timer to fire is there, but it's several button presses away, and assigning a specific timer to the next day is even more button presses. But maybe this is just my own peculiarness.

 

[nschuster]

That makes sense - a good use of the two timers (i agree, it could have been a more elegant feature; also, it sometimes takes a bit of time for the Leaf app to update the info on my iPhone).

By the way, I love your license plate.....very clever.

 

[PhatBoyG]

Warm weather (60+) we charged to 80% without any problems. Maybe 100% on weekends for extra driving.

With Winter (32F mornings), we are charging 100% every day and pre-heating the climate control before unplugging.

 

[saywatt]

That makes sense - a good use of the two timers (i agree, it could have been a more elegant feature; also, it sometimes takes a bit of time for the Leaf app to update the info on my iPhone).

By the way, I love your license plate.....very clever.

I find the timers too cumbersome since I have what most might consider erratic driving habits. I have my timers set to 80% charge, 100% of the time. If I need more juice, I either hit the override button in the car to continue the charge to 100% or, I use my iPad or Mac to "Start Charging" which also continues the charge past 80%.

 

[lpickup]

That makes sense - a good use of the two timers (i agree, it could have been a more elegant feature; also, it sometimes takes a bit of time for the Leaf app to update the info on my iPhone).

By the way, I love your license plate.....very clever.

I find the timers too cumbersome since I have what most might consider erratic driving habits. I have my timers set to 80% charge, 100% of the time. If I need more juice, I either hit the override button in the car to continue the charge to 100% or, I use my iPad or Mac to "Start Charging" which also continues the charge past 80%.

I don't do anything from the iPhone app because, well, I don't have a smartphone! Plus you can't really do anything useful from it anyway. I hope that changes in the future.

BTW, the reason I don't use the timer override for the 100% charge (I do agree that setting timers for 80% and using the override button for 100% is a great strategy and very easy) is simply that on those occasions that I do charge to 100%, I don't want the car sitting in the garage at 100% for any more time than is absolutely necessary. Is this based on my experience as a battery chemist? Absolutely not! I have no idea if letting the car sit fully charged for 8 hours instead of 2 is detrimental to battery life, but at least some people that post here says letting it sit like that should be avoided, so I figure it can't hurt to try to have the car reach 100% just prior to my pulling out of the garage.

 

[greenleaf]

If you start off at 100%, you lose some regen capability (and faster wearing of brake pads) ...

 

[thankyouOB]

thank you all - VERY good information!

by standard charge, i meant the home charger which takes about 7 or 8 hours to charge. i guess that is called level 2? also, it took me a minute, but i think i figured out that LBW is low battery warning.

still not sure what SOC means and where on my dashboard I read that (and how i read it)..

SOC - state of charge. It is equivalent to battery state, but the folks using it actually have a meter (first made by gargid, I believe) that is more granular and breaks the battery capacity state to about 300 units. Mostly essential to folks who are pushing the range all the time.
They are working on a way to understand the charge-meter on the dash (time to charge to 80% or 100%) so it can be used to more reliably tell how much charge is left. that is, as opposed to the 12 battery capacity bars on the display. The time-to-100% seems to have 24 units, rather than 12.

 

[ebill3]

BTW, the reason I don't use the timer override for the 100% charge (I do agree that setting timers for 80% and using the override button for 100% is a great strategy and very easy) is simply that on those occasions that I do charge to 100%, I don't want the car sitting in the garage at 100% for any more time than is absolutely necessary. Is this based on my experience as a battery chemist? Absolutely not! I have no idea if letting the car sit fully charged for 8 hours instead of 2 is detrimental to battery life, but at least some people that post here says letting it sit like that should be avoided, so I figure it can't hurt to try to have the car reach 100% just prior to my pulling out of the garage.

Battery engineers (not me) tell us that charging a Li-ion battery to 100% (4.2 volts per cell), and keeping a battery at a high state of charge is detrimental to battery life. However, it appears that the LEAF 100% charge is 4.1 volts per cell and the difference between 2 hours and 8 hours at that level is probably not worth worrying about. Long term, days and weeks, is another story.

There is a reason you might want to consider leaving the LEAF connected for several hours after charging stops at 100%. There is a balancing program that, if needed, goes into effect after 100% is reached. Balancing is ensuring that all cells (cell pairs) are at the same voltage. You can see an indication of this if Carwings sends two 'Charging Stopped' messages separated by several hours. Balancing does not occur when charging to 80%.

Bill

 

[EdmondLeaf]

60+ miles/day always to 83% even on weekend. Time will show if I am a winner.

 

[Stoaty]

Balancing does not occur when charging to 80%.

Reference please? When Nissan was asked whether balancing occurs at 80%, the answer was "that is proprietary information".