Daily drain-- critical issue

[kennybroh]

So I parked my model X a garage at JFK while I'm out of the country. When I checked about 24 hours ago I had about 65 miles-- more than enough to make a stop at a supercharger on my way home when I return on Friday.

But when I checked a few minutes ago the range was down to 54 miles. At that rate I will run out of charge before I get home.

I assume "always connected" has something to do with that but I see no way to turn that off In the app.

Really worried. Any ideas?

 

[rfmurphy81]

Can you call/email Roadside Assistance and see if they can recommend anything? I'm curious about what the response could be in an issue like this. Maybe they can remotely turn off Always Connected or there's another solution available?

877-798-3752 or [email protected]

 

[TexasEV]

Stop checking. That wakes up the car and increases the vampire drain. It's Tesla's version of the Hawthorne Effect, that the act of observing a phenomenon changes it. (No, it's not named after the location of the Tesla design studio and SpaceX.).

 

[andrewket]

Stay/keep connected (I forget the exact language) doesn't cause that much vampire drain. Turning off energy savings does. Concur with the advice of others: stop checking using the app.

 

[EV-lutioin]

There is a setting that allows you to turn off the background energy use. I can't remember if it is the "Power Off" setting or a different one. Maybe someone wiser than me on this issue can describe where the setting is that reduces vampire drain...

 

[travwill]

You may have to find a 110v in the garage and plug it in when you get back, even with a 12 gauge extension cord if needed (only next about 3-4mph charge though). hopefully it still has a little range on it. It'll eventually go into a mode where you can't use the app any longer and protect itself - remember, the rate range isn't true 0% of the batter, there is about 7kWh reserved at the bottom always.

Check up on it less as well as wakes the car up and drains it faster.

 

[Shateam]

I assume you mean JFK airport in Queens, NY. There's a supercharger there so you can probably charge up before you leave for your drive.

Not the greatest supercharger according to this thread but better than nothing...

JFK Superchargers

 

[kennybroh]

I assume you mean JFK airport in Queens, NY. There's a supercharger there so you can probably charge up before you leave for your drive.

Not the greatest supercharger according to this thread but better than nothing...

JFK Superchargers

Yes, JFK airport. After I started the thread I checked online and saw the JFK supercharger is only .3 mile away. Presumably if the car is even remotely alive when I get back I can get there, yes? If there is a small reserve that should be all I need. But I will call Roadside Assistance and see what they say.

I have used the 110 volt charger before, not for an emergency, but because I was staying in a cottage on Cape Cod and just plugged it in for the greater part of a couple of days, and ended up with a nice charge. But if the car is really dead, I don't know how i'd even get to an outlet....

 

[kennybroh]

FYI, Tesla Roadside says checking the car via the app causes insignificant battery drain.

 

[aesculus]

Is it just me or has the vampire drain increased in the last few updates? Mine lost 1-2 miles per day up until a few weeks ago, now it looses more like 6-8 miles per day with all the energy savings turned on.

 

[Electric700]

Is it just me or has the vampire drain increased in the last few updates? Mine lost 1-2 miles per day up until a few weeks ago, now it looses more like 6-8 miles per day with all the energy savings turned on.

That seems excessive, so you might want to contact [email protected] about it.

 

[kennybroh]

Apparently not. While I was away my car lost 8-10 miles a day. Tesla roadside said the expected range was 6-10. They said most of it comes from maintaining battery temp. When I got back today I had 5 miles left Fortunately the supercharger was only .5 miles away, but another day and I would have been toast. As the rep said when I called from overseas to see if they could do anything to reduce the loss remotely that I couldn't do (which they could not), "This is a lesson you only need to learn once."

 

[Rocky_H]

FYI, Tesla Roadside says checking the car via the app causes insignificant battery drain.

That is a case where they are answering something else that is not the actual question. Someone either didn't ask the correct question or they did not understand the question. They were talking about just the act of checking the car with the remote app in a regular ordinary situation, where you have been away from the car for just a little bit. That's just a momentary use of electronics when the car is still on, so sure it's insignificant, but that's not what your situation is.

The vehicle needs to be LEFT ALONE for significant amounts of time for it to go into deeper and deeper sleep modes for leaving it parked for a long period of time. During the first several hours, there is one form of idle, and then sometime around 24-48 hours, it should go into a much deeper sleep mode. But, if you wake it up by checking on it with the app, you have powered it back up and prevented it from going into those sleep modes and reset that idle timer back to 0, so it will be "active" again for the next 24+ hours. Do you see the difference? It's not that remote checking USES a lot of power; it's just that it keeps poking the car, so it's staying awake, using more power on all the other stuff.

 

[SDMPdM]

Stay/keep connected (I forget the exact language) doesn't cause that much vampire drain. Turning off energy savings does. Concur with the advice of others: stop checking using the app

That is a case where they are answering something else that is not the actual question. Someone either didn't ask the correct question or they did not understand the question. They were talking about just the act of checking the car with the remote app in a regular ordinary situation, where you have been away from the car for just a little bit. That's just a momentary use of electronics when the car is still on, so sure it's insignificant, but that's not what your situation is.

The vehicle needs to be LEFT ALONE for significant amounts of time for it to go into deeper and deeper sleep modes for leaving it parked for a long period of time. During the first several hours, there is one form of idle, and then sometime around 24-48 hours, it should go into a much deeper sleep mode. But, if you wake it up by checking on it with the app, you have powered it back up and prevented it from going into those sleep modes and reset that idle timer back to 0, so it will be "active" again for the next 24+ hours. Do you see the difference? It's not that remote checking USES a lot of power; it's just that it keeps poking the car, so it's staying awake, using more power on all the other stuff.

Thank you Rocky_H, very good to know!

 

[hiroshiy]

Glad to hear the OP came back with a few miles left!

That said, don't rely on the customer service if it's not errors nor need roadside assistance. They sometimes have less information than typical owners. My advice to reduce vampire drain:
- When you arrive at the airport, open My Tesla in the browser on your smartphone and change your password. This will make ALL third party services that call Tesla API stop working.
- Open the control panel on your car and turn ON energy saving, and turn OFF Always Connected. If you have some miles left you can keep Always Connected on. This has small effect. Energy Saving mode ON is super important.
- Don't check your car with the app while you are away. At most once a day. Even that might contribute 1-2 miles of range.
- Do you have any car accessories that use 12V constant power, such as always-on dashcam? If so check the power consumption. Mine is BlackVue DR650S-2CH dashcam and it has 400mA. On paper it should consume approx 1 mile per a day.
- In winter or at very hot locations be extra careful and try keeping at least 30 miles on the day you come back to your car. Cold climate reduces the battery efficiency and reduce range. When it's hot, car sometimes turn on fan or even AC to cool your battery, which then cause further drain.

Don't worry too much about it! If you are sure you're not using any of the third party software (TeslaLog, TeslaFi, Firmware Update Tracker, etc) you can skip the first step.

 

[kennybroh]

update: took a trip last week and left my car at the airport. Drain was 1 mile per day at most. I may not be signed in to Teslalogs anymore so that might be a factor. But that is a vast improvement.

 

[Saghost]

update: took a trip last week and left my car at the airport. Drain was 1 mile per day at most. I may not be signed in to Teslalogs anymore so that might be a factor. But that is a vast improvement.

I don't remember Teslalogs being part of the initial discussion, but that's undoubtedly a big part of it - the way those third party websites build their log is by repeatedly polling the car through the web link and saving the data from that. All that polling keeps the car awake, just like it would if you were constantly checking the phone app.

 

[hiroshiy]

Unfortunately TeslaLog contributes to vampire drain in a big way. However TeslaFi doesn't. I use TeslaFi instead.