How far down to run battery before 1st charge?

[rdlink]

I run my battery down to ~10-20% then charge up to 90%. About every three days I charge.

So in other words exactly the opposite of what Tesla tells you to do?

 

[ebmcs03]

So in other words exactly the opposite of what Tesla tells you to do?

Not really. I’m not full charging it and I’m not draining it. The battery is in the middle of its happy working range. We’ll see what happens.
That’s why I wanted the standard range. It takes me too long to need to charge. Too much competition to get Charger daily so every three days will have to do.

 

[xyeahtony]

theres no problem charging multiple times. In fact, the closer to 0% you run your battery when you charge it, the more cycles it will rack up. Keeping the charge between 40-80% is the best way to minimize cycles. it could be 10 or more charges in this range before it equals the degradation of one 0-100% charge cycle.

Not really. I’m not full charging it and I’m not draining it. The battery is in the middle of its happy working range. We’ll see what happens.
That’s why I wanted the standard range. It takes me too long to need to charge. Too much competition to get Charger daily so every three days will have to do.

there are 120V outlets everywhere. at least use that.

 

[ebmcs03]

theres no problem charging multiple times. In fact, the closer to 0% you run your battery when you charge it, the more cycles it will rack up. Keeping the charge between 40-80% is the best way to minimize cycles. it could be 10 or more charges in this range before it equals the degradation of one 0-100% charge cycle.

Why is there more cycles when charging lower than 40%? Isn’t one cycle essentially 0 to 100% ( yes I know one would never run to 0%) but isn’t 0 to 100 one full cycle. And 40-50% equal 1/10 cycle and same as 10-20% and 70-80% arnt those all considered 1/10 of a cycle?

So meaning if I did a 10-90% is the same as charging 50-60% 8 times?

I’m trying to understand why it’s better to charge 50-60% 8 times than it is to charge 10-90% one time.

 

[xyeahtony]

Why is there more cycles when charging lower than 40%? Isn’t one cycle essentially 0 to 100% ( yes I know one would never run to 0%) but isn’t 0 to 100 one full cycle. And 40-50% equal 1/10 cycle and same as 10-20% and 70-80% arnt those all considered 1/10 of a cycle?

So meaning if I did a 10-90% is the same as charging 50-60% 8 times?

I’m trying to understand why it’s better to charge 50-60% 8 times than it is to charge 10-90% one time.

Tesla battery expert recommends daily charging limit to optimize durability

But the main one: https://batteryuniversity.com/index.php/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

Because the closer you get to 0% state of charge, the more damage it does to the permanent chemistry of the cell. Same logic with the closer you get to 100% state of charge. Doing your best to avoid those extremes will keep the battery at the longest. Its called "depth of discharge," the furthest away from the extremes you can get, the most cycles you can get. they estimate only discharging your battery 10% will get you over 15,000 charges as opposed to say discharging it 80% at a time, which only gets you 900 charge cycles.

So when you wait til your battery gets to 10-20% and charge to 90%, you're essentially using up 70% of the battery with every charge, which is more stressful than having to replenish say 10-20% charge daily used. That is the most common charging behavior people use for cell phones, which is also why cell phone batteries rarely last over 2 years.

 

[rdlink]

Not really. I’m not full charging it and I’m not draining it. The battery is in the middle of its happy working range. We’ll see what happens.
That’s why I wanted the standard range. It takes me too long to need to charge. Too much competition to get Charger daily so every three days will have to do.

Yes, really. Exact text from Page 111, "About the Battery" section of the Model 3 owner's manual (The emphasis is Tesla's):

"The most important way to preserve the Battery is to LEAVE YOUR VEHICLE PLUGGED IN when you are not using it. This is particularly important if you are not planning to drive Model 3 for several weeks. When plugged in, Model 3 wakes up when needed to automatically maintain a charge level that maximizes the lifetime of the Battery.

There is no advantage to waiting until the Battery’s level is low before charging. In fact, the Battery performs best when charged regularly."

Now, you may not believe Tesla. You may think you are "doing it better" than their instructions. But you are most definitely doing the opposite of what they're telling you to do.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

Yes, really. Exact text from Page 111, "About the Battery" section of the Model 3 owner's manual (The emphasis is Tesla's):

"The most important way to preserve the Battery is to LEAVE YOUR VEHICLE PLUGGED IN when you are not using it. This is particularly important if you are not planning to drive Model 3 for several weeks. When plugged in, Model 3 wakes up when needed to automatically maintain a charge level that maximizes the lifetime of the Battery.

There is no advantage to waiting until the Battery’s level is low before charging. In fact, the Battery performs best when charged regularly."

Now, you may not believe Tesla. You may think you are "doing it better" than their instructions. But you are most definitely doing the opposite of what they're telling you to do.

Especially considering the 2170s are different than the 18650s, so the 3's BMS is different than the S and the X. What might have worked well in a previous Tesla may not work as well here.

 

[xyeahtony]

Especially considering the 2170s are different than the 18650s, so the 3's BMS is different than the S and the X. What might have worked well in a previous Tesla may not work as well here.

Taken from the Model 3 owners manual, and i've already explained that the more you discharge your battery, the more it ages. Battery chemistry may be different but overall science behind Li-ion batteries remains the same.

 

[TexasEV]

Especially considering the 2170s are different than the 18650s, so the 3's BMS is different than the S and the X. What might have worked well in a previous Tesla may not work as well here.

The battery section of the Model 3 manual has exactly the same text as in the Model S and X manuals. Every Tesla owner has been given the exact same instructions since 2012, but some choose not to follow it because they think they know better, or think Tesla is just saying that so it’s less likely you run out of charge and has nothing to do with battery health, or because of something they remember reading or hearing somewhere about batteries.

When the Model S first came out there was a card inside with a reminder to plug in whenever you can that said “A connected Model S is a happy Model S”. I wish Tesla had continued that— it would save a lot of questions and prevent misinformation from spreading.

A connected Model S is a happy Model S

 

[dhrivnak]

I run my battery down to ~10-20% then charge up to 90%. About every three days I charge.

That is NOT the recommended practice. But it will be interesting to see if charging practices have any significant bearing on battery life. I charge to 90% daily as I know in the Roadster if you only charged to 80% the battery would never balance which also causes problems.