New to Electric and looking to buy a Leaf

[Dyno1]

Going to be down at the rink again tonight and was thinking of charging again. The car is at about 49% battery , should I let it run lower before charging ? I’d only be charging to 80% . I know the recommendation seems to be 20-80%.

[LeftieBiker]

Don't worry about starting to charge if the car is below 70% or so, especially in cooler weather.

[Dyno1]

OK , great. So charging at 70% or below in cooler weather is safe. How about in the summer time when things are warmer out, what should I be letting the battery get significantly lower than 70% before considering charging? I assume the reason is so that the battery doesn't get to hot.

[LeftieBiker]

Essentially. In warmer weather what matters is how warm the battery is, more than the temperature outside. It's just that a hot battery is much more likely in warmer weather. If you see no more than six temperature bars on the dash (five is better), then charge as you would in the Winter, but only charge to 100% if you need the charge and can time it to reach full soon before you leave - like an hour or so or less. If you see seven bars or more, then try to let the battery cool for a few hours before charging. And if you don't have to charge with the battery at more than 60% in warm weather, don't.

[SageBrush]

^^ Agreed on every point

[Dyno1]

Awesome , thank you very much for all that great information. Much appreciated

[Dyno1]

Good morning,

I have an appointment to get my brake fluid changed today . Since I have a few cells that show high because they were replaced is there dealer able to balance the cells? Do they have something they can do it with or should I just do it on my own ?

[SageBrush]

Keep it polite, Sagebrush.

You know me -- I try.

For future reference, what is the polite and PC way to say 'American' ?

[goldbrick]

The car's electronics will continuously work to balance the cells. In your case, the issue is that some cells are newer so they have more capacity than the other cells. The balancing currents are very small compared to the total capacity of the cells so the balancing will take time and may never completely balance the cells since they are not all equivalent.

Unless it's causing problems, I wouldn't worry about it. The dealer's tools may have a way to balance the cells while they are in the pack but usually the cells are charged before they are replaced to get them to the same voltage as the rest of the cells in the pack. This means the pack starts off balanced. After that, it's up to the programming in the car's electronics to keep them balanced. The balancing is needed since each cell varies a little bit and they lose capacity at different rates over time. In this case, some cells are much different than the others. Hopefully this case was considered by the designers but I don't think there is much you can - or need to - do at this point.

[knightmb]

Keep it polite, Sagebrush.

You know me -- I try.

For future reference, what is the polite and PC way to say 'American' ?

LOL, even that can have some PC issues with the younger generation because it might refer to the indigenous people before that got taken over. But I do take it as a serious culture question, some people take 'American' to only mean the USA where as others apply it to anyone in N. America (Canada, Mexico, etc.) If you are referring to a specific country, Canada and Mexico already have their respective Canadian and Mexican, but for the USA, some use US-American. Depends totally on the generation of the audience you have.