New owner any tips?

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PacoBelan

New member
Joined
Jun 10, 2021
Messages
1
Hi I've got a new 2019 (2029 was a typo oops) leaf a week back any tips especially around charging etc?

Should I top up every night or wait till it gets low and do a long charge? Etc
 
Welcome. Try to keep the battery between 25% and 75% charge - don't charge every day if you don't need the extra range. Instead, charge it when the state of charge (SOC) falls below 40% or so, and try to unplug it when the SOC reaches about 75%. Also try to avoid charging the battery when it (the battery) is hot.

Here are a a few Tips & Tricks that are for the Gen I Leaf, but many of which also apply to the Gen II:

https://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=23297&p=482154
 
Disregard the charging to 75%; it's nonsense. Probably came about because Teslas and Bolts batteries are prone to catching fire when they are charged over 90% on a hot day. Bolt sent a firmware to limit at 90% for, as I recall, their 2018/2019 models'

I've had 2 previous Leafs and currently have a 2020. I've ALWAYS simply plugged them in just about every night to a level 2 charge station. I've never lost even 1 bar on the battery capability scale.

Go here to learn the facts about charging lithium_based_batteries:
https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
 
And my Great Aunt smoked all her adult life, but lived to be 88. (She died of lung cancer.) Since the above poster likes Battery University, this quote is from them (I emphasized the bolded parts.):

Table 2: Cycle life as a function of
depth of discharge.* A partial discharge reduces stress and prolongs battery life, so does a partial charge. Elevated temperature and high currents also affect cycle life.

Note: 100% DoD is a full cycle; 10% is very brief. Cycling in mid-state-of-charge would have best longevity.

When discussing how to prolong lithium battery life, what works for most people is what's usually suggested - not what works for a few only.
 
ridera2 said:
Disregard the charging to 75%; it's nonsense. Probably came about because Teslas and Bolts batteries are prone to catching fire when they are charged over 90% on a hot day. Bolt sent a firmware to limit at 90% for, as I recall, their 2018/2019 models'

I've had 2 previous Leafs and currently have a 2020. I've ALWAYS simply plugged them in just about every night to a level 2 charge station. I've never lost even 1 bar on the battery capability scale.

Go here to learn the facts about charging lithium_based_batteries:
https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

I think a caveat should go with that advice. If you drive it everyday for any significant time, charging at night to have 100% by the morning when you daily drive is not going to hurt the battery in the grand scheme of things. Now, charging the battery to 100% and just forgot about it for a week or two, probably don't want to do that. Charging to 100% and go on a 1 month vacation, definitely don't do that. Just came off a 500 mile road trip and 2 QC sessions later, let the battery cool off for a couple of hours before charging back up. Basically be kind to the battery when you can and all other times, treat it like a car! ;)
 
ridera2 said:
Disregard the charging to 75%; it's nonsense. Probably came about because Teslas and Bolts batteries are prone to catching fire when they are charged over 90% on a hot day. Bolt sent a firmware to limit at 90% for, as I recall, their 2018/2019 models'

I've had 2 previous Leafs and currently have a 2020. I've ALWAYS simply plugged them in just about every night to a level 2 charge station. I've never lost even 1 bar on the battery capability scale.

Go here to learn the facts about charging lithium_based_batteries:
https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
The bolded "advice" is terrible and should be ignored. There is 0 evidence to suggest that li-ion batteries like being at high SoC esp. for extended periods of time.

And, your probably nonsense came way before Bolt and before Model S even shipped.

From the '11 Leaf manual at https://owners.nissanusa.com/content/techpub/ManualsAndGuides/LEAF/2011/2011-LEAF-owner-manual.pdf page EV-23:
NISSAN recommends you use the following
driving and charging habits, where possible, to
help maximize the battery’s useful life:
...
Avoid exceeding 70-80% state of charge
when using frequent (more than once per
week) public Fast Charge or Quick Charging.

Allow the battery charge to be below at least
80% before charging
...
NISSAN recommends charging the batteries
using the long life mode unless the
vehicle is going to be driven a long distance.
See “Charging timer” in the “CH. Charging”
section.
This person in a SUPER MILD climate was down 6 capacity bars on their '13 Leaf a year ago: https://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=31297&p=587653. They had a crap chemistry but I suspect if they took better care of their battery, they'd have been down only 3 or 4 bars by that point in time.

The person in the super mild Pacific NW was down 7 capacity bars by Dec 2017: https://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=552809#p552809. FB post at https://www.facebook.com/groups/seattlenissanleaf/permalink/1757297620968334/. As I said, I doubt his charging habits did him any favors.

I gave a bunch of example hints at https://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=587653#p587653 along with other more recent industry practices to help keep li-ion batteries from being at high SoC for longer than needed at https://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=595245#p595245. Bolts (even well before the fire recall that you mentioned) are shipped to dealers w/not much charge and I pointed to the hint in the manual at https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/new-bolt-owner-in-ferndale-wa-a-bit-north-of-bellingham-has-a-charging-question.38173/#post-599953 about longer term storage. The Bolt's battery "gauge" has 20 bars and they want people to discharge to 2 or 3 bars left.
Since you quoted the below:
ridera2 said:
Go here to learn the facts about charging lithium_based_batteries:
https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
Notice it says "Lithium-ion suffers from stress when exposed to heat, so does keeping a cell at a high charge voltage." OP can also look at "Table 3 demonstrates capacity loss as a function of temperature and SoC."
 
Coming from a 2012 Leaf to now a 2021 SV Plus and driving habits about the same, what I've found useful is setting timer 1 at 100%, setting time 2 at 4 hours (6.6kW). Normally, I'll leave it set on timer 2 and plug it in every few days - or when it reaches approx. 25% capacity. This results in about 70-75% fill. If I'm planning a trip, I set it to timer 1 and plug it and forget it.
 
When I first got my Leaf, I had no choice but to plug it in every night, as the only charging mode available to me was Level 1, through the portable charging station. (As I've said in other threads, I'd planned on having the full infrastructure -- 30A 240V socket moved to near the garage door, Grizzl-E purchased and installed, charging cable passed through the garage front wall, and the plug-hook mounted on a cable rack behind a bush -- in place by the time I took delivery, but life intervened, and I was limited to Level 1 for about a week.

When I installed the Grizzl-E, I continued to plug it in every night, until I learned that (1) it wasn't necessary, (2) keeping the battery at or near a full charge was more stressful than letting the charge level drop down, and (3) a lower average charge level meant more capacity to put dynamic braking energy back into the battery, rather than into whatever a Leaf uses to dissipate excess dynamic braking energy.

So then, I switched to charging on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday evenings: this works well with driving into Carson every Saturday for my docent shift at the Printing Museum (a minimum of 50 miles, round trip, usually longer), and still gives me plenty of capacity for running errands. And for driving into Long Beach, to catch the Blue Line into Los Angeles on concert nights. But I still had it set to charge immediately, rather than enabling the charge timer.

At the beginning of the "air conditioning season," I used the charge timer for the very first time: I set a window of 11:30 PM to 6:30 AM, because we only have a 100A main breaker, with a 50A 240V circuit for central air conditioning, and a 24A 240V charging load, and I didn't want a compressor start, with the car plugged in, and appliances running, to trip that main breaker.

But I wondered: I typically get home well after 11:30 PM on concert nights. What happens if I plug in after the charging window I'd set had already begun?

This past Saturday Evening was the Tchaikovsky Spectacular at Hollywood Bowl. Bramwell Tovey conducting, with cellist Sterling Elliott playing the Rococo Variations. Marvelous concert (preceded by a marvelous prime rib dinner at Musso & Frank). It was at least 12:30 before I got home, an hour into the window. Would I have to hit the "timer override" button?

NO, I did NOT. With the charging window already in progress, charging began immediately.

And that, in itself, is a very useful thing to know, and it should eliminate any qualms anybody has about using the timer.
 
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