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Post by melzy83 on May 4, 2015 15:25:18 GMT 11
Hi guys :-) I'm confused and was wanting some advise. When I brought my leaf a month ago I was told to charge it to 80 per cent to get most out of battery. Now I was just talking to a guy that sells the j1172 type charging station and cord and when I told him I'm having to charge every night only to 80 % he asked why I told him what I was told about extending the life out of the battery etc and he said that's wrong that I can be charging it at full and it won't harm the battery. Now my question is to the leaf owners who charge at 100% always how is your battery?
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2015 15:53:56 GMT 11
Even tesla owners are advised to charge to 80% Only charge to100% if you need the range
Unfortunately Imiev can only charge to 100% all the time.
Volt only uses 10.5kwh of its 16.5kwh battery I3 has 22kwh pack but only 18.8 kWh usable
Lithium ion batteries work best between 20 and 80%
I don't have a leaf But I have Imiev Volt I3
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Post by Phoebe on May 4, 2015 16:05:56 GMT 11
Hi guys :-) I'm confused and was wanting some advise. When I brought my leaf a month ago I was told to charge it to 80 per cent to get most out of battery. Now I was just talking to a guy that sells the j1172 type charging station and cord and when I told him I'm having to charge every night only to 80 % he asked why I told him what I was told about extending the life out of the battery etc and he said that's wrong that I can be charging it at full and it won't harm the battery. Now my question is to the leaf owners who charge at 100% always how is your battery? Hi melzy83. Welcome to the forum. I have had my LEAF since Nov 2012, I always charge to 100% and I still have 12 bars on my battery. However I do not charge every night, I only charge when I am getting very low so that means that, in fact, my battery is somewhere between 20% and 80% most of the time. Until our batteries start failing we really aren't going to know the answer to your question or whether using a fast charger wears out the battery. I have never used a fast charger. Some forum members have lost a bar off their battery, but I'm not sure if they charge to 80% or if they use a fast charger at all.
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Post by Feng on May 4, 2015 16:42:56 GMT 11
Hi Melzy83, welcome to the forum and congrats on your purchase. Newer model LEAFs overseas don't even have the option to stop at 80% although some believe Nissan did this to claim longer driving ranges (something to do with how it's measured as an average). My guess is charging to 100% all the time won't hurt as long as you don't leave it at full charge for long periods (eg, set the timer to stop at 100% in the morning, shortly before you leave for work). I play it safe and charge to 80%, but that's because I can charge at work if I know I need to go somewhere after hours. As a small side bonus you get a bit more life out of your brake pads because brake regeneration doesn't work for the first few kms after a full charge.
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Post by lesmando24 on May 4, 2015 16:47:31 GMT 11
I only fill to 100% if I need the range. Otherwise I keep it in longlife mode (80%). I think if you fill to 100%, you generate heat, which is bad. Also, if you fill to 100%, then don't use it, then the internal chemistry will start eating itself. 80% is recommended in the manual, so I have been following it.
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Post by caskings on May 4, 2015 19:31:52 GMT 11
I charge to 100% every night as I need the range. The service tech has a bleat to me about it everytime I take it in for a service. Otherwise I didn't notice any issues on my first leaf over 22,000km and 9 months.
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Post by dholms on May 4, 2015 20:26:19 GMT 11
Even tesla owners are advised to charge to 80% Only charge to100% if you need the range Unfortunately Imiev can only charge to 100% all the time. Volt only uses 10.5kwh of its 16.5kwh battery I3 has 22kwh pack but only 18.8 kWh usable Lithium ion batteries work best between 20 and 80% I don't have a leaf But I have Imiev Volt I3 Does the bmw manual state 80% too?
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Post by datsunleaf on May 4, 2015 20:40:22 GMT 11
I also charge to 100% because I need the range .... have just clocked up 30000 kms. Lost 1 bar at around 20000 kms. Am finding I need a top up now if I am doing a round trip of more than say 105 kms
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2015 21:07:46 GMT 11
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Post by EVangelist on May 5, 2015 13:29:04 GMT 11
I play it safe and charge to 80%, but that's because I can charge at work if I know I need to go somewhere after hours. As a small side bonus you get a bit more life out of your brake pads because brake regeneration doesn't work for the first few kms after a full charge.
I had a "d'oh!!" moment yesterday. Since setting up the charge timer not long after buying my Leaf, I've only charged to 80%. On Sunday night I deliberately charged to 100% to 'stretch the cells' a bit (I don't know if it is fact or fallacy that you should occasionally charge to 100% to keep the cells balanced and healthy).
Anyways, for the first few km I thought something was a bit odd - the braking felt stiff and I was only getting 1 dot of regen at best. Then I metaphorically slapped the forehead "d'oh!!" - of course, if the batteries are 100% charged then regen can't happen because there is nowhere to dump the generated power!!
Braking didn't feel normal again, with 5 dots of regen, until the battery was down to 80%.
So for me that is the ultimate reason as to why you should charge to 80%, and charge to 100% only if essential for a specific trip.
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Post by southernvolt on May 5, 2015 14:49:18 GMT 11
If the battery in the car is bigger than what we are allowed to use I.e. Software stops us using the full capacity then aren't we always charging to less than 100%? Or does it not let us go down to 0%?
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Post by Feng on May 5, 2015 15:01:10 GMT 11
On a full charge it stops at about 95% SOC and turtle is just under 5% so there's a reserve at either end of the scale.
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Post by melzy83 on May 5, 2015 19:41:21 GMT 11
Thanks to everyone for your helpful suggestions and experiences :-) and I agree it is in the manual to charge to 80% to get the best out of the battery so that's what I've been doing. It just means that I do need to charge every night m-f while I'm working but thought it would of been even better to charge it at 100% and then charging every second night but the upside is plugging in only takes me seconds where is if I had to go fill up at servo that's 10 out of my night so I'm winning ha ha :-) also I'm due my first service Monday which is good as it started popping up on my dash maintenance other 1 so there must be settings set which is pretty awesome :-) I'm loving driving the leaf it's so comfortable and zippy :-)
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Post by jeffjl on May 7, 2015 15:52:53 GMT 11
The other benefit of charging every night is the reduced depth of discharge. The less the depth of discharge the better it is for your battery. i.e. 2 lots of 80 to 60% is better than one of 80 to 40%.
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Post by Phoebe on May 7, 2015 16:54:58 GMT 11
The other benefit of charging every night is the reduced depth of discharge. The less the depth of discharge the better it is for your battery. i.e. 2 lots of 80 to 60% is better than one of 80 to 40%. I've never heard that before! All I've heard is that it's better to keep the battery between 20% and 80%.
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Post by Feng on May 7, 2015 17:05:17 GMT 11
My understanding is somewhere in between (no pun intended): Keeping it a bit under half charge is optimal, so if you're going to deviate more for longer outside of that it'll be worse for the battery. Also deeper charges generate more heat. Much of a muchness really.
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Post by jeffjl on May 8, 2015 13:38:23 GMT 11
The other benefit of charging every night is the reduced depth of discharge. The less the depth of discharge the better it is for your battery. i.e. 2 lots of 80 to 60% is better than one of 80 to 40%. I've never heard that before! All I've heard is that it's better to keep the battery between 20% and 80%. My error. I just went and checked my facts. It appears to be the same. Disregard my last.
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Post by melzy83 on May 9, 2015 3:03:44 GMT 11
Also another question can when I got my leaf a month ago I was 140 of the 170 charging it to 80% not this past week Im only getting 121 of the 170 and still charging to 80 % I'm going to work taking tge same route nothing has changed but don't understand why it's alot less? I've got first service Monday and have been writing it all down as the amount of battery I'm using to get to work from one night to the next differs from 40 to 59. Is this all normal? I'm really surprised that say you do 30 km the amount of the battery for me is about 10/15 more :-)
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Post by Phoebe on May 9, 2015 10:18:48 GMT 11
That is all normal. The range is only a GOM (Guessometer), it is not accurate and depends on all sorts of things, even a windy day can make a difference.
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Post by Feng on May 9, 2015 12:15:45 GMT 11
It might be also learning its true capacity over time. I don't think you had a dodgy done to you, it probably starts at full when taken out of delivery mode. Ours was like that too. There was a woman in the US who bought a used LEAF with full capacity bars and lost two within weeks (or something like that). Turns out the dealer reset the battery management system before it was sold and she was able to return it.
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Post by leafboi on May 9, 2015 18:35:45 GMT 11
Also another question can when I got my leaf a month ago I was 140 of the 170 charging it to 80% not this past week Im only getting 121 of the 170 and still charging to 80 % I'm going to work taking tge same route nothing has changed but don't understand why it's alot less? I've got first service Monday and have been writing it all down as the amount of battery I'm using to get to work from one night to the next differs from 40 to 59. Is this all normal? I'm really surprised that say you do 30 km the amount of the battery for me is about 10/15 more :-) It's very normal. Remember range is also affected by the conditions. A slight head wind you don't notice will affect the range noticeable. Same with rain although its affect is more noticeable. You will learn how far the car can go with your driving style and in different conditions soon enough. Enjoy more than worry.
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