What is “normal” vampire drain?

[Jughead135]

New 2020 MSLR+, my first Tesla. Loving it!!

Keeping it plugged in, it charges right up to +/- 313 mi where I have it set (80% of 391, so right on the numbers).

However, it seems to lose a mile or so every few hours. I haven’t been monitoring it long enough to figure out a daily rate, but that seems excessive compared to the “~1 mi / day” rate I’d expected from reading here.

I’ve made sure that Sentry Mode is off. I’ve tried locking it (I notice the charging screen stays on when unlocked, I thought maybe that was the source of the drain). I can’t “see” anything working that would’ve an obvious power draw.

What’s going on? Is this normal?

Follow-up question: at what point will it start charging again? If I unplug & plug it back in after a few miles have disappeared, it “knows” it’s low & starts charging. At what point does it figure that out & resume charging on its own if I just leave it plugged in? (Yes, I can find this out myself—but, so far, I haven’t been able to make myself avoid driving it long enough!! )

Thanks for any noob pointers!

 

[VaztheDad]

My S90D typically sees 1-2% per day.

There are a few variables that account for this drop.

• Continuing to check the app, which keeps the car from going to sleep.
• Cabin overheat protection
• Walking by the car with your key and it unlocking (extending handles)

Since I don't have sentry, expect these loses without that feature.

Enjoy!

 

[GeorgeM]

One thing to get used to is that with Tesla YMMV. Everyone's car seems to be different or react to software versions differently. My 2020 MS Perf. loses about 1 mile per day +/-. The only way to judge is to charge the car, unplug and let it rest. No checking via the app for 48 hours. No going past the car with the fob. Want more accurate? Wait 72 hours. Sentry mode off, and cabin overheat off if you are experiencing hot weather. You will lose most "mileage" when the car is first parked. Once the car fully goes to sleep the drain is much less. You can't base anything on extrapolating from the car sitting idle for 6 hours.

As far as your second question goes. I can only give you a rough estimate. While I was away I left the car plugged in. It would recharge after losing 2 or 3% (didn't check often enough to really any more accurate). But it did bring the charge back up to 80% without fail. Set it and don't worry, it will take care of itself.

 

[geoffmanley]

Sometimes mine will give me the high pitch whine when it's communicating with the mother ship. Those days it loses much more. Normally it only about 3 to 4 miles per day.

 

[r1200gs4ok]

I left my wife's 2019 (Jun) Model 3 with 150 miles and left for Spain....gone for 3.5 weeks......got home and had 128 miles.....we checked the car via the app about every 3rd day.....no problems....

with the new Model S (jan) 2020, we had a little higher vampire drain......car was on 2019.40.50.7 and was ok....then got 2020.8 and things went to hell in a hand basket......car would not sleep for 4-16 hours......lose about 3 miles/hr and when I updated to 2020.8.1, ......drain was horrible.....them I got 2020.12 and the car developed a whining up front that was the pump......ran 4-6 hours......then a miracle happened......2020.12.1 came along......no more whining......no more drain and car sleep 36 of 38 hours with less than 1.5 miles of range loss......car runs great now and my max range is 391 with the capped battery at 98%......I am very satisfied with this new update.......I guess next one will be to increase effort on FSD

 

[FatherTo1]

Make sure Summon Standby is disabled (if you have FSD) and also disable Smart Conditioning. Our Raven S will not lose any range for 17 straight hours while unplugged in the garage. Once I start checking the app the car wakes and will lose 1 or 2 miles per 24-hour period. It used to lose 12 miles a day until the 2019.40.x update.

 

[TravelFree]

I have 8.2 and with sentry and overheat protection off, I am seeing 2-3 miles range loss in 12 hours. really bad with Sentry and Overheat on (20-25 miles loss). I never hear the whine sound people talk about. I understand the next 12.5 will add a sentry player.
I am disappointed in how long it takes Tesla to roll out these updates.

One thing to get used to is that with Tesla YMMV. Everyone's car seems to be different or react to software versions differently. My 2020 MS Perf. loses about 1 mile per day +/-. The only way to judge is to charge the car, unplug and let it rest. No checking via the app for 48 hours. No going past the car with the fob. Want more accurate? Wait 72 hours. Sentry mode off, and cabin overheat off if you are experiencing hot weather. You will lose most "mileage" when the car is first parked. Once the car fully goes to sleep the drain is much less. You can't base anything on extrapolating from the car sitting idle for 6 hours.

As far as your second question goes. I can only give you a rough estimate. While I was away I left the car plugged in. It would recharge after losing 2 or 3% (didn't check often enough to really any more accurate). But it did bring the charge back up to 80% without fail. Set it and don't worry, it will take care of itself.

I did one test with leaving the J1772 low power plugged in over night and the next day I got a warning to avoid this practice as it may shorten the battery life. Some claim you should not keep topping the battery off, but OK to charge to 100% before planning a long trip.

 

[GeorgeM]

@ TrevelFree - "I did one test with leaving the J1772 low power plugged in over night and the next day I got a warning to avoid this practice as it may shorten the battery life. Some claim you should not keep topping the battery off, but OK to charge to 100% before planning a long trip."

I'm not clear as to the source of the warning you got - a car generated warning or a forum generated warning. If it was the car you might consider calling service to have them remotely check your car. Per page 162 of the owner's manual "Model S has one of the most sophisticated battery systems in the world. 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 S for several weeks. When plugged in,Model S wakes up when needed to automatically maintain a charge level that maximizes the lifetime of the Battery." (Emphasis is theirs). I have heard reports that the car will occasionally overcharge or charge past the set limit but I have never experienced this and think the best practice is to follow the factory recommendation.

 

[TravelFree]

The source was Tesla on screen the next day. I wonder if it was triggered because I had the maximum set for 100% to see what it would charge to. Maximum is 392 miles. In the future I plan to set it for 90%.

 

[ShawnA]

Hi TravelFree,

The message you got was as a result of charging to 100%.
You will always get this message when charging to 100%.

It is common to charge to 100% before trips in spite of the message...

An alternate plan might be to charge to 95% overnight and change to 100% first thing in the
morning before shower, shave, breakfast...
I do this and maybe it gets to 100% before I leave, maybe not...
I still get the lower battery life message...

Shawn

 

[Dario_75D]

Something that you may also want to check to reduce the vampire drain is that you are not registered to any polling service like Teslafi, Tezlab, etc.
At one point I was registered to many of them at the same time and I could see my car losing about 2% a day, which is a lot.
So I decided to change my tesla password to disable them all together and now I'm back to normal (about 1-1.2% a day).

In these days of confinement I don't really need it anyway...

 

[TravelFree]

With everything shut down I lose 1 mile range in 12 hours. Don't even use the phone app to wake it during the 12 hours. This last test went from 385 miles range to 384 miles. Big difference compared to Sentry and cabin overheat protection on.

Too bad the sentry mode uses so much power as it would be nice to have on when parked at a cruise port long range parking for 15 days.
I'm still on 2020.8.2 so maybe the next update will fix that. Would be nice to be able to check sentry cameras on the app while parked long term and not drain the battery so bad.

 

[tstafford]

Basically 1% a day more or less on my 2018 100D .

 

[Jughead135]

I guess part of what I don’t understand:

Why is there ANY vampire drain when plugged in? AIUI, it’s supposed to use shore power when plugged in—so, shouldn’t all the various features that make up vampire drain be fed by the grid power and not the battery, so long as it’s available??

 

[TravelFree]

I guess part of what I don’t understand:

Why is there ANY vampire drain when plugged in? AIUI, it’s supposed to use shore power when plugged in—so, shouldn’t all the various features that make up vampire drain be fed by the grid power and not the battery, so long as it’s available??

Is it that your plugged in Tesla is fully charged, no longer charging, and now you can have Vampire drain until the battery drops to a level the charging comes back on?

Not too much experience here but when I did charge at home the charging stopped when I got to the maximum battery setting.

 

[cucubits]

I left it unplugged with about 70% SoC a long time ago and if I don't keep checking I see 1% drop every 2-3 days only.

 

[Jughead135]

Is it that your plugged in Tesla is fully charged, no longer charging, and now you can have Vampire drain until the battery drops to a level the charging comes back on?

Not too much experience here but when I did charge at home the charging stopped when I got to the maximum battery setting.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying (I'm using 80% as my target stop). It charges to 80%, goes to "Charging Complete"... then slowly (not as slowly as I'd like!) drains down about 3% or so, then starts charging again. Wash, rinse, repeat....

Why is it draining down while it's plugged in??

 

[TravelFree]

Why is it draining down while it's plugged in??

Because being plugged in doesn't mean the charger is turned on. The electronics in the car is on draining the battery, but the AC to DC charger is turned off until the battery gets down to some preset level. I don't believe we have access to that preset. Then it turns on and charges up to your shutoff point.

The least amount of vampire drain I have seen is about 1 mile range drop per 12 hours, not plugged in to the home charger. If I allow the Teslafi software to put the car to deep sleep, that vampire drain is zero. That's with my sentry on and nothing triggering it. After the recording stops from Sentry it will go back to sleep. Teslafi may not be necessary but I haven't had the car long enough on 12.5 to do more testing. Everytime wake the car up it begins to use battery power. I think Teslafi gives one more control over how deep the sleep mode is than just Tesla access.

In my situation it is not convenient to keep the car plugged in all the time as I park outside. As long as I have enough battery to do my typical driving each day, I don't plug it in every night. Now with the quarantine I sometimes go 2-3 days not driving at all so with the range of the S charging is just not necessary constantly.

 

[Jughead135]

Because being plugged in doesn't mean the charger is turned on. The electronics in the car is on draining the battery, but the AC to DC charger is turned off until the battery gets down to some preset level. I don't believe we have access to that preset. Then it turns on and charges up to your shutoff point.

Yep, I think you're describing this exactly correctly--thank you again.

I guess I just thought the part about running on shore power when plugged in meant that "all" the power needs would come through the charger. I've observed that the Mobile Connector (still waiting on an electrician and COVID-19 to get my Wall Connector hooked up) turns off (solid green "TESLA" lettering) when the car has finished charging. If I wake the car up by opening the door it wakes up: the charging screen still reads "Charging Complete," but the Mobile Connector wakes up (cycling through the "TESLA" lettering), with 0 kW on the charging screen, with variation from 3 - 10A and 120V of power draw. I guess it boils down to the logic of when the power needs are "big enough" to draw from the charger connection? Or, maybe the logic just looks at "car on? use shore power; car off? use battery [i.e., vampire]"....

Thanks for the discussion. I look forward to not exposing myself as a noob with every post... sooner or later!!

 

[Jonnymack74]

I had 13 miles drained overnight on my 2019 75D Model S
I did have sentry mode on, but no sentry activations. Is this normal?

I also set up that Tessie app some time ago, but i deleted that today having not used it at all. Is that enough or do i need to change password as well?

What's the point is having sentry mode off all the time when if for example, you want to leave it at the airport, the point is to have SM on??

I've got everything else switched off. Is 13 miles overnight acceptable with SM on?

I'll see what happens tonight with SM mode off.