How much trickle charging is too much?

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sdittm1

Active member
Joined
Mar 20, 2012
Messages
35
Just got my Leaf over the weekend.

The manual states trickle(110v) charging isn't recommended as the primary source, but I didn't see any details regarding how much total time using 110v is too much.

How much trickle charging would be too much in combination with a L2 charger?

Thanks in advance.

Steve
 
sdittm1 said:
Just got my Leaf over the weekend.

The manual states trickle(110v) charging isn't recommended as the primary source, but I didn't see any details regarding how much total time using 110v is too much.

How much trickle charging would be too much in combination with a L2 charger?

Thanks in advance.

Steve
Do all you like. The only reason they don't recommend it as the primary source is they think it's so slow you'll be dissatisfied with the car. It won't hurt anything.

Besides the slow speed, the only other disadvantages are 1) inconvenience of unpacking and repacking the L1 EVSE every day, or the risk of being without it some time you need it away from home if you just leave it in the garage; and 2) slightly worse charging efficiency so you'll use a little more electricity from the wall to put the same electricity into the battery.
 
get a milkbox from the supermarket and keep the EVSE in there, if you use the EVSE daily.

Just wind it into it like a snake.
very convenient. much better than putting those velcro straps on it and stuffing it into the little napsack.
 
As stated, there is no problem with L1 charging. But, if interested, you can upgrade your Nissan supplied EVSE to L2 (240 volts) for less than $300.

Check: http://www.evseupgrade.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

Bill
 
If using L1 alot were a problem after 14 months and 400+ L1 sessions, I would be in a world of hurt. I think major temperature swings and extended high/low states of charge are a far more important concern. IMHO, heat is the number one thing to avoid. So far the LEAF pack design has been remarkably stable in temperature for having no active thermal management system.
 
If you don't have easy access to 240V, such as a dryer outlet, and would like to do L2 charging at some point, this thread is worth reading through as well:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=102463" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
The Leaf easily meets most of my driving needs. I've only L2 charged twice (at the dealership) in nearly 9 months. I leave the Nissan-provided cable plugged into the 120 VAC plug pretty much all the time. I've had only a couple of out-of-town excursions where I brought the cable with me. It may be years before there are any commercial L2's within 60 miles of me. There's a dealership in Walla Walla so that's one, kinda. Ellensburg is the next closest (100-120 mi uphill 2000 ft and upwind, good luck hypermileing into that).

L1 is easy if you average less than 50 mi per day or only have an occasional 70+ mi trip.

Reddy
(out in the sticks of Eastern WA State).
 
.... and I bet there is a large percentage of Americans, if were to take a guess as high as 50%+ who fit that driving pattern, who can easily get by on a Nissan supplied L1, with a secondary ICE car just for those occasional trips..

Everyone of my friends were surprised to know that I could charge this without an expensive additional charger expense.
 
It's funny but I wonder if Nissan has sorta discouraged some potential EV buyers by constantly showing Aerovironments L2 everywhere the LEAF goe?! It's optional and people like simple and like to save money. I think Nissan should start emphasizing these three advantages... and with 6.6 coming, charging options are well covered.
 
TRONZ said:
It's funny but I wonder if Nissan has sorta discouraged some potential EV buyers by constantly showing Aerovironments L2 everywhere the LEAF goe?!
They did their best to drive us off with their clever sales-prevention campaign in which they forced us to schedule a company to come out to our house to give us a quote for an overpriced EVSE installation. Then they failed to show up on the date. We wrote off Nissan and the LEAF at that point.

Really, who needs a $2500 EVSE installation if you haven't even gotten to see the car, yet?

Nissan is fortunate that we did not like the Chevy Volt and that our local dealer had a LEAF that suited us in stock and a VERY gracious salesperson to hear me out when I came through the door in my ire! :evil:

And the sales person who sold us the demo LEAF said I was the second person who told him the EVSE people were no-shows. He also told me only one of the four customers who bought LEAFs from him already had the EVSE installed at the time of delivery. AND he had no record of our interest in the LEAF forwarded to him from Nissan.

Yeah, I'll guarantee they lost customers over this issue!
 
Reddy said:
I leave the Nissan-provided cable plugged into the 120 VAC plug pretty much all the time. I've had only a couple of out-of-town excursions where I brought the cable with me.
Reddy is right. Dragging an EVSE with you everywhere you go is another symptom of inappropriate range anxiety. I was so sure I would need it that I got a second one, upgraded to 240v. What a waste. The upgraded one is all I ever use. I have plugged the original 120v EVSE in twice in 11 months, and neither was at all necessary. I just wanted it to look like I had a good excuse for taking an EV parking space that didn't have a J1772.

Ray
 
I started out with L1 charger my first couple of months of ownership, but noticed that for the amount of driving I was doing L2 was necessary. I would have days when I get home late with 10 miles left, and by morning I would only get back up to half-charge... With L2 it does not matter if I get home in a turtle mode at midnight, by 7 am next morning I have a full charge again.

I also noticed that having L2 at home reduces my desire to mess with an opportunity charging during the day because I know that as long as I can limp home I will have a full charge in the morning.
 
I have used mine twice. Once, very early on, when there were few public L2s: It was late and I needed a small boost to get home, and there were no nearby open Nissan dealers where I could use their L2. The second time was very recently when we had our severe rain and weather here and I knew I'd need to charge while at work due to the dramatically reduced range.

planet4ever said:
I have plugged the original 120v EVSE in twice in 11 months, and neither was at all necessary. I just wanted it to look like I had a good excuse for taking an EV parking space that didn't have a J1772.
 
I sleep better with the L2's beefy #8 and #10 wires. The plug was getting warm on the L1 plugged into a 15A circuit. Not good for me.
 
I've had the car for 10 months and about 12.5k miles, I charge at my carport 95% of the time, all using Level 1 trickle charging. I've had no problem thus far.

One recommendation: Get a short, high current pigtail connector to plug into the EVSE to reduce the wear and tear when you have to plug/unplug the EVSE.

Leaf's EVSE is engineered to take this repeated punishment, but I heard the Volt's EVSE is not as robust and repeated pulling of the plug can cause wear and tear.
 
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