Charging opinions

[rjenson54]

Been researching online but haven't found much regarding two scenarios. Anyone have information and/or opinion?
Drive 40 miles daily
Plugged in at the house every night whether charging or not
When I charge; I charge to 90% on schedule so charge is ready at 8am daily departure.
Daily I am using about 15% of charge range so car is parked nightly at 75% charge remaining.
Question I have is..Is it better to charge daily from 75% to 90% or every third night from 45% to 90%?
Fewer charge cycles in the latter case. Greater range for unexpected daily travel miles in the former.
Or does it not matter?
Thank!

 

[user212_nr]

You should be plugging in every time you return home. It is better for the battery to have shorter cycles.

I would leave it at 80% limit if you don't have any longer trips or sudden changes in plans.

 

[jjrandorin]

Been researching online but haven't found much regarding two scenarios. Anyone have information and/or opinion?
Drive 40 miles daily
Plugged in at the house every night whether charging or not
When I charge; I charge to 90% on schedule so charge is ready at 8am daily departure.
Daily I am using about 15% of charge range so car is parked nightly at 75% charge remaining.
Question I have is..Is it better to charge daily from 75% to 90% or every third night from 45% to 90%?
Fewer charge cycles in the latter case. Greater range for unexpected daily travel miles in the former.
Or does it not matter?
Thank!

If you are interested in what the manufacturer (tesla) recommends, their recommendation is for your question is specifically in the manual. If you search your tesla manual for the term "about the battery" and read that section, you will find a statement in that paragraph that specifically states:

"......there is no advantage to waiting until your battery's level is low before charging. In fact, your battery performs best when charged regularly" (Page 155 of the manual that I currently have).

If you read TMC or other online tesla sites like it, however, you will be convinced you need to:

1. plug in every other day, except when the temperature is below 59.58 degrees, and there is a gentle light shining on your car.

2. In the above case of the gentle light, then you need to set your charging percentage to 82.34825 % using a third party app, and download the graphs daily to monitor (to make sure the gentle light is warming the battery adequately)

 

[GZDongles]

If you are interested in what the manufacturer (tesla) recommends, their recommendation is for your question is specifically in the manual. If you search your tesla manual for the term "about the battery" and read that section, you will find a statement in that paragraph that specifically states:

"......there is no advantage to waiting until your battery's level is low before charging. In fact, your battery performs best when charged regularly" (Page 155 of the manual that I currently have).

If you read TMC or other online tesla sites like it, however, you will be convinced you need to:

1. plug in every other day, except when the temperature is below 59.58 degrees, and there is a gentle light shining on your car.

2. In the above case of the gentle light, then you need to set your charging percentage to 82.34825 % using a third party app, and download the graphs daily to monitor (to make sure the gentle light is warming the battery adequately)

To be fair though, Tesla is more concerned with making sure their customers don't "overthink" the battery care and charging. Their recommendation in the manual doesn't mean that's the absolute best thing for the battery. I think a lot of people here are the type that like to "overthink" and optimize things like battery longevity (myself included)! However, I agree that for most keeping it in the 20-80% or 10-90% range is fine for most people!

 

[jjrandorin]

To be fair though, Tesla is more concerned with making sure their customers don't "overthink" the battery care and charging. Their recommendation in the manual doesn't mean that's the absolute best thing for the battery. I think a lot of people here are the type that like to "overthink" and optimize things like battery longevity (myself included)! However, I agree that for most keeping it in the 20-80% or 10-90% range is fine for most people!

I agree with you

/e soapbox on

I think its absolutely true that, at least right now, the type of people attracted to tesla's in the first place are people who are "into" technology on some level. Lots of engineers, lawyers, IT people, and many other professions where people enjoy digging into the details of "stuff".

The problem comes, because tesla is growing "past" that "niche" market, and is now attracting more "regular" people who just want a good car. Where those people who viewed a BMW 3 series or a Merc C class as their "I have made it" car, now a model 3 sits in that market too.

Many of THOSE people just want a nice car, that is easy to take care of, and drives good. They start researching tesla,s and find pages and pages and pages (and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages), of people doing "deep dives" into battery technologies, how to maximize, etc... and get all wound up thinking they HAVE to do all that or their car is going to "break".

For those that enjoy the data, its great, but there are tons of people on here who bought the car, then got convinced they needed to sign up for teslafi and comb through data, and are completely stressed out about how their car registers 6 less miles than it "used to"...when there are people (like myself) who just plug it in and charge to 90%, and leave it set there, who have less "shown" range loss than people micro managing it.

For those that enjoy the micro managing (and there are a lot) its great, but "regular" people dont need to do this to make the car work fine, but many are convinced they need to, by reading all the data from those who enjoy doing so.

/e soapbox off

 

[toolman335]

As my wife likes to tell me:
"You think too much."

TMC can drive you batty trying to come up with the best way to drive, charge, wash, maintain this car. There's too much information out there. For the first month I was paranoid about every little thing.
Now I'm ten months into it and I've long stopped thinking about the car. It is a fantastic vehicle and no one in here is going to own this car in ten years. None of us.
So live, drink, charge however the #$%# you want, and be merry!

 

[rjenson54]

Thanks all. Learning. Short charge cycles are better for one. I know on a 15% daily charge range going from 65% to 80% may be a bit better for battery longevity than 75% to 90%. Going with a daily scheduled charge to 90% ready at departure. Slight upper end power edge and get the range correction. Thanks again!

 

[hgmichna]

Some of the advice in this thread is a bit strange.

Actually, if you only need very little energy in everyday use, the best thing you can do is charge every night, but only to 60%. Charge more when you know you'll do a longer drive. 60% is the sweet spot below which Li-ion batteries live almost forever.

This is not perfectly true if you charge with high current. If you use a powerful charger, you could go to the lowest setting, 50%, as long as you are sure that you don't need more the next day.

 

[jjrandorin]

Some of the advice in this thread is a bit strange.

Actually, if you only need very little energy in everyday use, the best thing you can do is charge every night, but only to 60%. Charge more when you know you'll do a longer drive. 60% is the sweet spot below which Li-ion batteries live almost forever.

This is not perfectly true if you charge with high current. If you use a powerful charger, you could go to the lowest setting, 50%, as long as you are sure that you don't need more the next day.

It would be even better for the battery if you set it at 50% and never drove the car. How much better will it be, exactly, for the battery if you set the charge to 60% rather than 80 or 90%? would you have 3 extra miles range over 5 years? 10? 50?

 

[XLR82XS]

Some of the advice in this thread is a bit strange.

Actually, if you only need very little energy in everyday use, the best thing you can do is charge every night, but only to 60%. Charge more when you know you'll do a longer drive. 60% is the sweet spot below which Li-ion batteries live almost forever.

This is not perfectly true if you charge with high current. If you use a powerful charger, you could go to the lowest setting, 50%, as long as you are sure that you don't need more the next day.

See page 156 of the owners manual.

 

[SigNC]

See page 156 of the owners manual.

I assume you mean page 179 that talks about leaving the car plugged in. https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/model_3_owners_manual_north_america_en.pdf

 

[jjrandorin]

I assume you mean page 179 that talks about leaving the car plugged in. https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/model_3_owners_manual_north_america_en.pdf

Depends on which manual you have, lol. the one you linked to is for 2020.20 (thanks btw as I did not have that one). The somewhat older ones have the charging information on page 155 or 156.

 

[smatthew]

Thanks all. Learning. Short charge cycles are better for one. I know on a 15% daily charge range going from 65% to 80% may be a bit better for battery longevity than 75% to 90%. Going with a daily scheduled charge to 90% ready at departure. Slight upper end power edge and get the range correction. Thanks again!

If you only charge to 80 percent your battery will never correct brick imbalances, leading to reduced range. The battery must be above 85% SOC and asleep to to begin brick balancing. It also takes forever to correct brick imbalances. If you use scheduled departure you will eventually see reduced range, because the battery will not spend enough time in the correct range with the car asleep to balance.

To be clear - this is not permanent. It's fixable. You would have to see something like 15% battery capacity reduction from imbalancing (independent of the battery capacity loss from age) before the car isn't able to fix it without outside help from Tesla.

 

[Bob M]

Some of the advice in this thread is a bit strange.

Actually, if you only need very little energy in everyday use, the best thing you can do is charge every night, but only to 60%. Charge more when you know you'll do a longer drive. 60% is the sweet spot below which Li-ion batteries live almost forever.

This is not perfectly true if you charge with high current. If you use a powerful charger, you could go to the lowest setting, 50%, as long as you are sure that you don't need more the next day.

I am sure these questions will have been covered somewhere, but I am going from about 65% to about 80% (I don’t think it shows exact% anywhere) daily and charge at 32amps. Lately I have lowered the charge rate to 20 amps. Any thoughts on that. Lower rate should mean inside battery lower heat. Also, my full battery mileage has been creeping downward over the last 6 months from about 219 to 202 Is this a real loss or a brick thing?

 

[jjrandorin]

I am sure these questions will have been covered somewhere, but I am going from about 65% to about 80% (I don’t think it shows exact% anywhere) daily and charge at 32amps. Lately I have lowered the charge rate to 20 amps. Any thoughts on that. Lower rate should mean inside battery lower heat. Also, my full battery mileage has been creeping downward over the last 6 months from about 219 to 202 Is this a real loss or a brick thing?

thoughts are, it makes almost no difference because ALL home charging is "slow charging" for a tesla. Some people swear by it, but for a car which can charge at 150amps or faster, the difference between 48 and 32 is nothing.

 

[dmurphy]

Seriously - the easiest thing to do ... Set the car to 90%, and plug it in when you get home. If you're going on a really long trip, go ahead and kick it up to 100% if you need the extra range.

Otherwise... that's, uh, it.

Save the brain cells you would've used to "manage" charging and "manage" the battery and pretending you're smarter than the software ... Use them to enjoy a good bottle of wine instead.

 

[HyperionMark]

Seriously - the easiest thing to do ... Set the car to 90%, and plug it in when you get home. If you're going on a really long trip, go ahead and kick it up to 100% if you need the extra range.

Otherwise... that's, uh, it.

Save the brain cells you would've used to "manage" charging and "manage" the battery and pretending you're smarter than the software ... Use them to enjoy a good bottle of wine instead.

Some people enjoy figuring this stuff out and trying different things. Just because it's easiest for you doesn't mean everyone should do it that way.

 

[dmurphy]

Some people enjoy figuring this stuff out and trying different things. Just because it's easiest for you doesn't mean everyone should do it that way.

You do you. I said it was the easiest thing to do - didn't say "but you can't do it any other way!!!", did I?

 

[jjrandorin]

Some people enjoy figuring this stuff out and trying different things. Just because it's easiest for you doesn't mean everyone should do it that way.

I actually covered this, in this very thread even. Conversely, just because "digging into this stuff" is something that quite a few tesla owners like to do, it doesnt mean that everyone should do it... but these forums will give people the impression that they need to do that stuff to "make their car work" and they absolutelly 10000% dont.

 

[HyperionMark]

You do you. I said it was the easiest thing to do - didn't say "but you can't do it any other way!!!", did I?

Kind of implied based on the words and tone of your post.