After charging complete won’t start charging again. Normal?

[Lsutiger]

hi all. I’ve had my 3 for 5 days now and it’s an amazing car.

When I plug it in at night it chargers to 70% where I have it set and then stops charging. In the morning on the app it shows around 68%. Shouldn’t it keep itself at 70% since it is plugged in? Also if I try to increase the charge percent from the app it doesn’t start charging until I unplug and plug. The app just says stopped charging. Lights are all green on the charger.

 

[gtmotor]

Mine does the same thing...

 

[Need]

My MX does that too, although I charge to 90%. I read somewhere that it has a 3% threshold. So if you set to 90%.. it will charge to 90% and stop. If you left it plugged in, it won't start again unless the charge drops to 87% or maybe 86%. My laptop does the same thing. I left it plug in 24/7. It will charge to 100% and than use battery only until about 94.. and charge back up (I can see the lightning symbol as charging indicator).

 

[Lsutiger]

My MX does that too, although I charge to 90%. I read somewhere that it has a 3% threshold. So if you set to 90%.. it will charge to 90% and stop. If you left it plugged in, it won't start again unless the charge drops to 87% or maybe 86%. My laptop does the same thing. I left it plug in 24/7. It will charge to 100% and than use battery only until about 94.. and charge back up (I can see the lightning symbol as charging indicator).

I get the 3% threshold but what about the app not starting the charge when I increase the percent.

 

[Need]

I get the 3% threshold but what about the app not starting the charge when I increase the percent.

That I have no idea. Because I read that in order to avoid getting the idle fee for supercharger, you could increase the limit (from 90 to 100) after you get the TXT telling you to unplug the car or get charged idle fee. That means it should start charging again if you increase the limit. But maybe it will only do that on a supercharger. I noticed that supercharger has a different rule than home charging. For example, my car is schedule to start charging at 10pm. If I plug it in at home in the middle of the day, it won't charge. But it will charge any time if I plug it in at a supercharger.

 

[gaswalla]

That behavior of charging is not 'healthy' for the battery.
If you insist, you can unplug the car, plug back in and charge up the gap

 

[Rocky_H]

Yeah, two things here:
As @Need mentioned, for Superchargers, it always charges as soon as it's plugged in; it won't do scheduled charging. But for AC charging, you can have the charge time set. If that's enabled, it will wait until the next scheduled time.

Second thing: Here's how this is on the Model S/X, and I would think the 3 is the same. For safety purposes, when the car is off, they want the 400V main battery not energized throughout the car and not having 240V live in the charging cable all the time. So it will not constantly keep charging the main battery to keep it exactly at your target of 70%. The threshold is about 3% I believe, and then it will either start a charge session at that moment, or wait until the next scheduled time if that is turned on.

 

[TexasEV]

Not only that, but there would be unnecessary stress on the charging system components if they’re running frequently to keep the car at exactly 70% charge or whatever you set it for. When vampire drain drops the charge level by 3%, the car will start charging again. If a difference of a few percent of charge level matters to you, you’re either setting the charge level too low or you bought the wrong car for your needs.

 

[xyeahtony]

My laptop does the same thing. Charges to 100% plugged in, then it drops to 98% and stays like this.

 

[Darthbenji]

So in winter if I set it to charge to 80% when I go to bed but then want the final 10% say for when I leave so that the battery is warm I have to go out and physically remove and reply the car in??? You can’t restart charging from the app once there’s been a charging session?

 

[brkaus]

I noticed that supercharger has a different rule than home charging. For example, my car is schedule to start charging at 10pm. If I plug it in at home in the middle of the day, it won't charge. But it will charge any time if I plug it in at a supercharger.

Scheduling doesn’t work for superchargers.

It is also location based. So your home schedule doesn’t keep the car from charging at work

 

[tga]

If you are using scheduled charging and you are outside of the window, you will need to hit the start charging button in the app after adjusting the slider.

 

[Rocky_H]

So in winter if I set it to charge to 80% when I go to bed but then want the final 10% say for when I leave so that the battery is warm I have to go out and physically remove and reply the car in??? You can’t restart charging from the app once there’s been a charging session?

It may not have been clear that @tga was replying to your comment, but you don't have to go out to the car for that. If your car is still plugged in, you can use the mobile app for all this. Increase the charging limit, and then press the button that says "Start Charging".

 

[Darthbenji]

Ok thanks.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

So in winter if I set it to charge to 80% when I go to bed but then want the final 10% say for when I leave so that the battery is warm I have to go out and physically remove and reply the car in??? You can’t restart charging from the app once there’s been a charging session?

Another option might be to schedule charging to start in the morning so that it ends about the time you expect to leave. If your commute varies or you want to ensure you have exactly 80%, there are third party apps which will handle this for you.

When I charged at home the first winter, I would just schedule my car to start charging at 6 am and it would finish or be close to finishing when I would leave the house at 7 am.

 

[Darthbenji]

Had this issue this morning. Charged to 80% with scheduled charging and planned to add another 5% before I left since the mornings have been cool. Couldn’t wake the car from the app and had to walk out to it and open the car to wake it. Once I did, I hit start charging after moving the slider a bit. It wouldn’t start and gave me an error on screen that charging failed to start and to unplug. I did and it worked fine, although completely defeating the purpose of doing this from inside the house. Any ideas?

 

[aerodyne]

after multiple charge port door lock/unlock cycles on the Telsa app, was able to start charging again. But by using Teslafi, only had to bump the charge level up one percent and it started charging remotley Tesla App sent me a text confirming.

Easier than moving the slider on the tesla app. Car was locked at the time.

 

[skylander]

I have the similar situation. I have my model 3 charged to 90% (279 miles). But I didn't drive for two days. It dropped to 274 miles. The car wanted to scheduled to charge at 10:30PM tonight. I feel this is charging a bit too frequent as it has dropped only 5 miles. I unplugged it. I remember I had a similar situation for charging less then 8 mile two weeks ago, the charge mile didn't go back up to 278 only (instead of 279). I don't know if that matter but it feel charging too frequently is not healthy to the battery.. I could be wrong.

 

[eprosenx]

I charge my car to 80% every day when I get home at 6:30. It takes about an hour at 48 amps since I only drive 30 miles a day.

I have noticed in the winter that most mornings it has dropped to 78%. I suspect this is more due to the battery cooling (and voltage dropping) than it is due to vampire draw. If I leave it not driven for multiple days then I see it drop to 77% sometimes. I presume it kicks in charging again at 76%.

I have never set any kind of scheduled charging. I change the target charge level from my phone often and if it is a higher target than the battery it has always stated charging for me immediately.

I really should change to charging in the AM so that the battery is warmed up before I leave.

I do turn on the heat in the AM remotely and while this does not kick battery charging back in, it does use shore power to heat the interior and I think perhaps the battery too.

 

[TexasEV]

I have the similar situation. I have my model 3 charged to 90% (279 miles). But I didn't drive for two days. It dropped to 274 miles. The car wanted to scheduled to charge at 10:30PM tonight. I feel this is charging a bit too frequent as it has dropped only 5 miles. I unplugged it. I remember I had a similar situation for charging less then 8 mile two weeks ago, the charge mile didn't go back up to 278 only (instead of 279). I don't know if that matter but it feel charging too frequently is not healthy to the battery.. I could be wrong.

Well you could go by your feeling or you could go by what Tesla’s battery engineers have determined is best. I suggest leaving your car plugged in as Tesla recommends, let the battery management system manage the battery, and just enjoy your car.

If you haven’t read the owners manual, especially the battery section, now would be a good time to do so.