When to charge....

[I8Binners]

Tonight I will charge the car up as only showing 5 miles left in the battery, tomorrow I could end up using 5 milesish which means that on Tuesday when my next largish journey comes up I won't have a full charge.

So, do I just leave it or do I stick the charger on overnight again?

Does the batteries know when to stop drawing charge?

 

[user 422]

I plug it it when ever I have completed a trip and its on my drive - does not matter whether its completely discharged or only partially used - The cars internal Charger takes care of battery condition and charge.

when it gets colder and you want to your the "Pre-Heat" or "Demist" timer for morning trips having the mains plugged in will ensure that the battery is full even after the Heat/Demist cycle (assuming you have the 4H or 4HS model )

 

[maddogsetc]

I plug it it when ever I have completed a trip and its on my drive - does not matter whether its completely discharged or only partially used - The cars internal Charger takes care of battery condition and charge.

+1

Would far rather have a full charge ready to go and not use it, than half a charge only to find I need more.

 

[I8Binners]

cheers guys!

 

[user 422]

The only time NOT to fully recharge would be when you have to leave the car unused for a considerable period (more than 3 weeks say) for example an extended Holiday....
LI Battery packs prefer to be at 70-80% charge when in storage....

 

[Stu]

when it gets colder and you want to your the "Pre-Heat" or "Demist" timer for morning trips having the mains plugged in will ensure that the battery is full even after the Heat/Demist cycle (assuming you have the 4H or 4HS model )

Be cautious of doing this though, because it's not guaranteed. When it's plugged in the pre-heat still uses the battery, not the mains. If the pre-heat uses enough battery to get it below a certain level then it will re-start the charge itself, but if the battery stays above this level it won't re-start. I think it was around 90%.

There's a more detailed post somewhere, but a forum member suspected it wasn't working the way his dealer had told him (directly from the mains) and did a little experiment to discover how it actually works.

Cheers
Stu

 

[user 422]

I have used "demist" several times in the morning after a charge and as soon as the demist starts the charge point contactor pulls in and the charge restarts.

 

[jaapv]

Tonight I will charge the car up as only showing 5 miles left in the battery, tomorrow I could end up using 5 milesish which means that on Tuesday when my next largish journey comes up I won't have a full charge.

So, do I just leave it or do I stick the charger on overnight again?

Does the batteries know when to stop drawing charge?

Yes - it is different from the average Soccer fan - it knows when to stop drinking... :mrgreen:

 

[user 258]

when it gets colder and you want to your the "Pre-Heat" or "Demist" timer for morning trips having the mains plugged in will ensure that the battery is full even after the Heat/Demist cycle (assuming you have the 4H or 4HS model )

Be cautious of doing this though, because it's not guaranteed. When it's plugged in the pre-heat still uses the battery, not the mains. If the pre-heat uses enough battery to get it below a certain level then it will re-start the charge itself, but if the battery stays above this level it won't re-start. I think it was around 90%.

There's a more detailed post somewhere, but a forum member suspected it wasn't working the way his dealer had told him (directly from the mains) and did a little experiment to discover how it actually works.

That was probably myself. I made another posting about this. It will only use the battery instead of mains to preheat when you have the charge timer set. If you don't use the charge timer then no issue.
Anyone using the charge timer and who insteads to preheat (manually or timer) need to find another way to only charge off-peak instead of relying on the car.
Kind regards,
mark

 

[ufo]

Avensys,

As I mentioned on that tread, you theory is not true or there is some differences between Australian and European model specs in this respect too. I have never used timed charging and every time it starts scheduled heating it immediately starts using the battery and charging also immediately starts to top up the battery. But the amount of juice sucked up from battery is more than what mains can supply. Because of this if I stop charging when 10 min pre-heat finishes, I loose approximately 5 km EV range. I have to keep charging for approximately 30 mins after heating finishes to have full EV range. Again this is all on 10 Amp, there is no 16 Amp option for AU spec models.

 

[greendwarf]

Thank goodness I'm getting a Gx3h so won't have any of these problems

 

[user 258]

Avensys,

As I mentioned on that tread, you theory is not true or there is some differences between Australian and European model specs in this respect too. I have never used timed charging and every time it starts scheduled heating it immediately starts using the battery and charging also immediately starts to top up the battery. But the amount of juice sucked up from battery is more than what mains can supply. Because of this if I stop charging when 10 min pre-heat finishes, I loose approximately 5 km EV range. I have to keep charging for approximately 30 mins after heating finishes to have full EV range. Again this is all on 10 Amp, there is no 16 Amp option for AU spec models.

Hi,
I agree with what you are saying. That's how it should work with a 10A charger.
Kind regards,
Mark