Cannot get SOC to 100%

Hi,
I'm charging on 110V until I get my charger installed and for the life of me, I cannot get the charge to 100% by way of leafspy.
It shows that I have SOC at 92.1 as my max.

Is this the limit for my current battery condition:

12/24 21,777 miles
SOH 83%
HX 67.65%
SOC 92.1
17.4kwh
54.52 AH
224 GIDs 79.7%
Quick charge 2
I know I shouldn't be charging to 100% everyday but my current commute is 32 miles with a 1500 ft elevation climb at the end of the return trip. I travel freeway for about 20miles anywhere from 30-65 mph depending on traffic.

I end the day with 2 bars.

You bought a used LEAF. So 92% is your 100% SOC.

Very impressed you have leafspy. Good job.

Thanks so much!

Go ahead and charge to 100%. it's OK as long as you don't leave it there for days on end. An hour or two, or a few hours at 100% won't kill your battery, and you'll have less stress during your usual driving day. Enjoy!

Probably, your cells will be better balanced, and you'll be doing your battery and yourself a favor by charging to 100% every day.

For what it's worth (neither of us are electrical engineers) I was told by the salescritter (just yesterday) that a reason to NOT 100% the battery is so that the regenerative juice has somewhere to go.

89%-93% SOC is full on 2011/2012 Leafs. SOC on these cars is "internal" and wasn't exactly intended by Nissan to be shown to the user. There's buffer on top and bottom of the pack which is unusable. About 8% on the top and 5-8% on the bottom.

DaylanDarby said:

For what it's worth (neither of us are electrical engineers) I was told by the salescritter (just yesterday) that a reason to NOT 100% the battery is so that the regenerative juice has somewhere to go.

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That's true. Ans since it's downhill for them on the way in, that would help.

JeremyW said:

89%-93% SOC is full on 2011/2012 Leafs. SOC on these cars is "internal" and wasn't exactly intended by Nissan to be shown to the user. There's buffer on top and bottom of the pack which is unusable. About 8% on the top and 5-8% on the bottom.

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Yes, the "100%" SOC shown on the dash of the 2013 and newer LEAFs is adjusted from the 95% or so actual SOC and will stay that way even as the battery degrades over time. The aftermarket meters, such as LEAF Spy, are showing actual SOC percent.

According to Ingineer, the 2011/2012 LEAF "100%" charge is actually about 94-95% and 80% is really 80% (which means the drop from "100%" to 80% represents less charge than it would otherwise appear). When we see lower numbers, such as 92-93%, with aftermarket meters, it might be due to the battery being unbalanced. Or a measuring error introduced by battery degradation.

Letting the battery balance by leaving it at "100%" for several hours once in awhile might improve the full charge %SOC a bit. I do notice a slight increase in battery capacity (in Amp•hours) after a balancing charge in warm weather [at cold battery temperatures the capacity tends to stay at a fixed number until the weather warms up again]. But I don't pay much attention to the %SOC number since I only care about Gids, an actual energy unit (1 Gid = 80 watt•hours) that tells me how far I can get.

dgpcolorado said:

According to Ingineer, the 2011/2012 LEAF "100%" charge is actually about 94-95% and 80% is really 80% (which means the drop from "100%" to 80% represents less charge than it would otherwise appear). When we see lower numbers, such as 92-93%, with aftermarket meters, it might be due to the battery being unbalanced. Or a measuring error introduced by battery degradation.

Click to expand...

I've seen as low as 89% on a full charge, but then 91% the next charge. I haven't seen above 92% in a long time. I think it's related to the increase in impedance as the cells age. This causes the LBC to stop charging prematurely due to hitting the max cell voltage threshold. The 2013+ cars clearly have a better algorithm that looks at the cell voltages at rest before terminating charge.

When Ingineer was first mentioning of SOC, he probably was getting to 95%.

JeremyW said:

I've seen as low as 89% on a full charge, but then 91% the next charge. I haven't seen above 92% in a long time. I think it's related to the increase in impedance as the cells age. This causes the LBC to stop charging prematurely due to hitting the max cell voltage threshold. The 2013+ cars clearly have a better algorithm that looks at the cell voltages at rest before terminating charge.

When Ingineer was first mentioning of SOC, he probably was getting to 95%.

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That would certainly explain the gradual decline. I haven't looked at mine in a while since I pay no attention to %SOC. Since you've made me curious, I'll try to remember to check it the next time I do a full charge.

Got home at 15 Gids today, which is the lowest I've gone since getting my meter a year and a half ago. Lowest cell-pair was in the 3.51 V range; don't really like taking them below 3.6 V. And that was with adding 43 Gids at a public charge station on the 73 mile trip plus 2500 feet of elevation change. The cold weather range isn't what it used to be...

OP...at 54.52 AHr you should emotionally and mentally prepare yourself for loosing your first capacity bar. It will happen soon.

mwalsh said:

OP...at 54.52 AHr you should emotionally and mentally prepare yourself for loosing your first capacity bar. It will happen soon.

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Yes.. I'm definitely ready.. the leafspy really helped me face reality.

JeremyW said:

I've seen as low as 89% on a full charge, but then 91% the next charge. I haven't seen above 92% in a long time. I think it's related to the increase in impedance as the cells age.

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I think your car is unique (do you still have that really weak CP?).

While there is a lot of variation in the SOC% on my LEAF, I've seen the following percentages the last 8 times I've charged to 100%:

89.2% 93.2% 93.9% 93.6% 95.6% 95.1% 95.5% 94.9%

The first one seems to be a bit of an outlier, the GID count was also low by about 10 GIDs for some reason.

If charging to nearer 100% SOC on 2013 LEAFS (vs. a 2012 LEAF) is due to a better charging algorithm, why can't the software on a 2012 LEAF be upgraded be upgraded to include that new algorithm?