100% trickle charge gets me 67 miles. Day 3

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Mauileaf

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 8, 2012
Messages
89
AlOha

I live in Maui and will enjoy everybody's help and experiences. Just as the title says. I don't have it set to 80% as my last leg home is an uphill climb for ten minutes and it charges fully every night and only shows me 67 guessed miles. However I quickly gain it to 100 coming down the hill right off the start. Normal battery, trickle charging behavior?

I haven't gotten the level 2 yet.

Thanks,

Mauileaf
 
Mauileaf said:
AlOha

I live in Maui and will enjoy everybody's help and experiences. Just as the title says. I don't have it set to 80% as my last leg home is an uphill climb for ten minutes and it charges fully every night and only shows me 67 guessed miles. However I quickly gain it to 100 coming down the hill right off the start. Normal battery, trickle charging behavior?

I haven't gotten the level 2 yet.

Thanks,

Mauileaf
Welcome to the forum.

L1 vs. L2 has nothing to do with what you are seeing at the Guess-O-Meter. A charge to 100% is a charge to 100% with either.

The computer predicts range based on recent driving. So, ascending your hill results in a low miles/kWh, and the computer assumes you will be driving like that in the future. Ergo, 67 predicted miles. But, you start out going down hill, using no power or little power, resulting in a high miles/kWh. The computer now predicts range based on that higher miles/kWh.

There is probably more involved in the computer logic, but basically, it is previous style to predict the future.
 
I'm in the same situation as you: I live uphill. But I have L2 charging and I observe the same behavior every single day for the past 1 1/2 year. The car computer gives you an estimate driving range based in the guess that you will continue to drive uphill. Hence the nickname "GOM". Experience and Tony Williams range chart http://lovemyleaf.com/ are much more helpfull to determine how far you can drive than the car's "Distance to Empty" display.
 
If you start downhill like I do, charging to 100% overrides the normal regen braking downhill. Regen wont kick in at all until you are under 90-95%. Since the batteries are fully charged, there is no place for the charge to go. If you have a place to recharge away from home, I would charge 80% outbound and 100% inbound since you have a steep climb at the end.
 
If you are able to trickle charge to 100% overnight (presumably that means in less than 15 hours), you must not be using the bottom part of the battery range at all. I'm betting that you can charge to 80% at night and make it home without adding any charge during the day. As gfederas pointed out, you can't get any regen when you are at 100%. Depending on the steepness and height of your hill, you may discover that if you start down with 10 bars you will have 11 when you get to the bottom. If you are now getting home with - say - three bars, you might then get home with two bars instead.

Cycling between 10 bars and 2 bars (with a brief peak at 11) is going to be better for your battery than cycling between 12 bars and 3 bars. Some people might disagree with me, but I think the same rule still holds if you are currently getting home with only two bars: Cycling between 12 bars and 2 bars will wear your battery out faster than cycling between 10 bars and 1 bar.

This is really debatable, but I think dropping down to Low Battery warning is not much harder on the battery than charging to 80%, and charging to 100% is more like dropping a bit past Very Low Battery warning.

Ray
 
I'd check the nikpix Nissan Leaf Range Estimator as well. It lets you use google maps to get the elevation changes and uses Tony's chart to do the math for you. Android version:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nikpix.LeafRangeCalc&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5uaWtwaXguTGVhZlJhbmdlQ2FsYyJd" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good luck.
 
I'll echo those who suggest charging below 100% for those of us who head down steep hills from home. How much lower than 100% depends on how big the hill and how long the typical drive. For short trips, there is no reason to charge to more than 80% (Nissan says that charging to 80% is better for battery life than 100%). For long trips that might stretch the range of the car, charging past 80% might be necessary.

A lot depends on the details of your driving, but if you don't really need more than 80% I suggest just setting an end-time-only charge timer. You can set the time for when you plan to leave or even later if you don't need the full 80%. If you need more than 80% you could set the timer to end early in the morning then charge for an additional amount of time before leaving home using the timer override button. This is a lot easier to do with L2 charging than the very slow L1, so it may not work for you.

But, please don't charge to 100% before heading down hill. With a lower state of charge you will pick up some charge via regen on the way down. How much depends on your circumstances.

I'm about to head out on a 70 mile trip, involving 2500 feet of elevation change, which will take more than 80% to complete. I charged to 80% this morning via end-time-only timer and then just added an additional 45 minutes at L2 (it would take ~2.5X longer on L1). This will give me some regen going down hill but will leave me plenty of charge to make the long trip.

Good luck and enjoy your new LEAF!
 
First of all, thank you for all the replies. I will start to do the long life span battery mode to 80%. I did notice going downhills on 100% nothing was regenerating. Makes sense now.

I'm considering the level 2 upgrade for the charging station I was given with the LEAF from...Phil?

Any input on those and why I shouldn't shell out a grand for a home 240v kit? I rent and its already hooked up to have a second dryer outlet near the garage door.
 
ksnogas2112 said:
I'd check the nikpix Nissan Leaf Range Estimator as well. It lets you use google maps to get the elevation changes and uses Tony's chart to do the math for you. Android version:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nikpix.LeafRangeCalc&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5uaWtwaXguTGVhZlJhbmdlQ2FsYyJd" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good luck.

Interesting
 
Mauileaf said:
ksnogas2112 said:
I'd check the nikpix Nissan Leaf Range Estimator as well. It lets you use google maps to get the elevation changes and uses Tony's chart to do the math for you. Android version:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nikpix.LeafRangeCalc&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5uaWtwaXguTGVhZlJhbmdlQ2FsYyJd" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good luck.

Interesting

The LEAF Energy app for iPad / iPhone also has starting and ending elevation from Google (and uses my range chart for data).
 
Mauileaf said:
First of all, thank you for all the replies. I will start to do the long life span battery mode to 80%. I did notice going downhills on 100% nothing was regenerating. Makes sense now.

I'm considering the level 2 upgrade for the charging station I was given with the LEAF from...Phil?

Any input on those and why I shouldn't shell out a grand for a home 240v kit? I rent and its already hooked up to have a second dryer outlet near the garage door.
Getting your Nissan/Panasonic EVSE upgraded to 240V/16A by Phil (evseupgrade.com) is the most cost-effective way to get L2 charging; many of us use this to charge our cars on a daily basis (see my signature below). If you think that you need to carry the portable EVSE in the car for opportunity charging away from home it could be a bit of a nuisance to have to unplug it and roll it up every day, however.

If you have a dryer outlet available in the garage that would be great. You would need to make or buy a 14-50 to L6-20 adapter, if your dryer takes a 14-50 plug. [I got one from an eBay seller, who also is a member of MNL I believe. It works fine in electric dryer type outlets.] Adapters for other kinds of 240V outlets are also available. An adapter probably shouldn't be used if it is exposed to rain, however.

The information on the evseupgrade.com home page should answer a lot of questions; it is well worth reading.
 
The 14-50 to L6-20 adapter is all I need after an upgrade? I would get a separate meter for fun?
 
Mauileaf said:
I'm considering the level 2 upgrade for the charging station I was given with the LEAF from...Phil?
Any input on those and why I shouldn't shell out a grand for a home 240v kit?
One bad apple got mad at Phil, but there must be hundreds of us here who are delighted with what he has done for us. I went the more expensive route of getting a second EVSE upgraded, but I feel really foolish about having done that now. After 16+ months of driving the car on a daily basis I have never needed to use my original trickle charger. I could have easily unplugged the upgraded EVSE at home on the rare occasion that I thought I might need it. That would mean one less piece of unneeded "junk" filling up the car's storage area 99% of the time.

Mauileaf said:
I rent and its already hooked up to have a second dryer outlet near the garage door.
I hope you're not saying what I'm afraid you might be. Is this second outlet on a separate circuit, or are both of them on the same circuit? Even apart from the fact that every 240v outlet is supposed to be on a separate circuit, and that you could well overload the circuit if you tried to charge while running the dryer, I seem to remember there was some sort of ground vs. neutral problem in dryers that could trip the ground fault logic built into the EVSE.

If it is the same circuit, but you don't use an electric dryer at all, you should remove the other dryer outlet to avoid future problems. After that (or if it is a separate circuit), why not just install an L6-20 instead of a dryer connection at your new outlet?

Ray
 
dgpcolorado said:
Mauileaf said:
First of all, thank you for all the replies. I will start to do the long life span battery mode to 80%. I did notice going downhills on 100% nothing was regenerating. Makes sense now.

I'm considering the level 2 upgrade for the charging station I was given with the LEAF from...Phil?

Any input on those and why I shouldn't shell out a grand for a home 240v kit? I rent and its already hooked up to have a second dryer outlet near the garage door.
Getting your Nissan/Panasonic EVSE upgraded to 240V/16A by Phil (evseupgrade.com) is the most cost-effective way to get L2 charging; many of us use this to charge our cars on a daily basis (see my signature below). If you think that you need to carry the portable EVSE in the car for opportunity charging away from home it could be a bit of a nuisance to have to unplug it and roll it up every day, however.
...

I have also used the evseupgrade for all my home charging, as well as frequent travel charging at friend's homes, RV parks, etc.

The only concern I've had is about durability due to the hard use it gets. There are very few public L2's nearby, so I need to unplug and pack it with me almost every day.

It's been completely dependable, despite having taken a few moderate knocks over the last ~15 months.

About a month ago I noticed that the outer sheathing on the cable where it leaves the EVSE for the wall had a stress crack, so I taped it up, and added a wire reinforcement/hanger over a section of hard sheathing, over those last few inches.

I had planned to either get a second unit from Phil, or another L2 option for home use, but with the possibility of other home charging options in the not-too-distant-future, for the present time, I plan to stick with the upgrade alone.
 
I also use the evseupgrade rev2 for all my home charging needs. The service from them was great, they shipped it back on the same day they received it. Couldn't be happier.
 
If it charges fully every night using L1 then there's no need for anything else.

See if you can get a free blink charger, so that the trickle charger can stay in the car for those unlikely Hawaii emergencies.
 
i will 2nd Ray.

i am a renter so portability was #1 for me. i got the upgraded EVSE and that is all i have to charge my LEAF at home. as far as portability? i, like you will, have multiple public charging options. (a 100 station search on my LEAF probably does not even extend more than 20 miles. wish i could be specific but as you know you can only access the first 20 unlike the old days when you could see them all)

i have taken my trickle charger with me 5 times. once when i had no power and spent night at in-laws and the other times was when camping and of those times, i brought cable but did not use simply because they had a charging station i was unaware of

but for the price, you cant beat it
 
Might as well pile on. Another happy evseupgrade.com user.
Like planet4ever, I also purchased a second upgraded unit. I rent and one of the semi-permanent installations was not an option. I could live without the second unit, but do use it about once a week.

What ever the dryer/240 volt set-up you have, as a renter you are fortunate.
 
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