new2meleaf
New member
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2019
- Messages
- 1
Hi everyone. Just picked up a new to me leaf about two weeks ago and love the car so far! It’s a 2013 SV that came with 82,200 miles and 11 battery health bars.
I did a lot of research and reading both before purchasing and since purchasing the car to determine how to take care of the battery. The problem I keep running into is the answers posted online and the recommendations by Nissan are vague. That’s kind of what I would expect from a car company, keep the recommendations vague so that no matter what, they can say you didn’t correctly follow their instructions.
So here are my main questions, the answers I found, and the questions I still have that I’d love everyone’s help with:
1. How long can you leave your Leaf charged at 100%?
a. Nissan says not to charge to 100% and then let the battery sit fully charged for a long time. Ok, so how long is a long time? 5 hours? 24 hours? A week? A month?
b. If sitting at 100% is bad for the battery, is the negative impact cumulative or does it “reset” each time the battery is used and then recharged? For example, if my car sits 100% charged for 6 hours a day every day for a year, that’s equivalent time wise to 89 days at 100% charge. Is the every day 6 hours just as bad for the car as 3 months sitting at 100%?
2. How low can you let the battery go before it’s a problem?
a. I will never let the car get all the way to 0%, but how low can I go before it could potentially cause damage to the battery pack? I think the lowest I’ve gotten is 15%, but would running it down to 5% be a bad idea as long as I charge up fairly soon?
3. Is DCQC really that bad?
a. Ok, so according to some independent testing, it was found that only DC quick charging and standard level 2 charging are very similar when it comes to battery degradation with a small hit when using only DC quick charging.
b. It seems that the bigger issue is the heat generated during charging. No DCQC when battery temp is 7 bars or higher, maybe OK with 6 bars, 5 bars you are good.
c. Since heat increases and charging efficiency decreases the closer the battery gets to 100%, keep an eye on battery temp when DCQC and maybe avoid going over 80% DCQC when possible. Is this accurate?
I did a lot of research and reading both before purchasing and since purchasing the car to determine how to take care of the battery. The problem I keep running into is the answers posted online and the recommendations by Nissan are vague. That’s kind of what I would expect from a car company, keep the recommendations vague so that no matter what, they can say you didn’t correctly follow their instructions.
So here are my main questions, the answers I found, and the questions I still have that I’d love everyone’s help with:
1. How long can you leave your Leaf charged at 100%?
a. Nissan says not to charge to 100% and then let the battery sit fully charged for a long time. Ok, so how long is a long time? 5 hours? 24 hours? A week? A month?
b. If sitting at 100% is bad for the battery, is the negative impact cumulative or does it “reset” each time the battery is used and then recharged? For example, if my car sits 100% charged for 6 hours a day every day for a year, that’s equivalent time wise to 89 days at 100% charge. Is the every day 6 hours just as bad for the car as 3 months sitting at 100%?
2. How low can you let the battery go before it’s a problem?
a. I will never let the car get all the way to 0%, but how low can I go before it could potentially cause damage to the battery pack? I think the lowest I’ve gotten is 15%, but would running it down to 5% be a bad idea as long as I charge up fairly soon?
3. Is DCQC really that bad?
a. Ok, so according to some independent testing, it was found that only DC quick charging and standard level 2 charging are very similar when it comes to battery degradation with a small hit when using only DC quick charging.
b. It seems that the bigger issue is the heat generated during charging. No DCQC when battery temp is 7 bars or higher, maybe OK with 6 bars, 5 bars you are good.
c. Since heat increases and charging efficiency decreases the closer the battery gets to 100%, keep an eye on battery temp when DCQC and maybe avoid going over 80% DCQC when possible. Is this accurate?