Charging 100% thoughts?

[Davem]

I’ve had my F150 lightning flash for approximately a year 2025 model. I have been consistently charging it only to 90% but recently I’ve been thinking about charging it to 100%. I have a friend who has a 2022 model and he has consistently charged it to 100% as he drives a lot. I was wondering, what are your thoughts on charging to 100%? Either way I have the 10 year warranty so is it that big of a deal?

Sponsored

 

[RickLightning]

Dozens of posts on this.

90% is recommend for battery life, 100% for a trip.

Sure, you have a warranty, the battery will be at least 70% at the end of your warranty. Do you plan on keeping it longer? Do you want 71% battery capacity, or 89%?

When you drive, the more capacity the further you can go. My 2022 has 100% SOH. My 2022 Mach-E has 94%. In the winter, that could matter.

 

[Davem]

Potentially stupid question on my part but what do you mean when you say You’re 2022 has 100% SOH?

 

[Zprime29]

Potentially stupid question on my part but what do you mean when you say You’re 2022 has 100% SOH?

Ignore State of Health %'s, they're useless. My truck reports 95.5% SOH but when I charged to 100% last week I had 129.1 kWh useable. That's 98.5% of stated original capacity (after 4 years and 62k miles). However, search is your friend here. Lots of threads about this topic (charging to 100%).

 

[bmwhitetx]

Yes there is a warranty but it's 70%. To me that means I could potentially own a SR when I bought an ER. I want an ER for all 8 years, especially for road trips. Some will say degradation is not a thing but why chance it if you don't need to.

To me, the answer is simple, if I don't need to charge to 100% then I don't. When I have a road trip, I charge to 100%.

P.S. If you want data go look at the posts by @MickeyAO - he tested them for a living (example) .

 

[K6CCC]

Most of the time I charge at home to 85% every few day overnight. If I am expecting to be doing a longer drive, I will change that to 100%. I do not leave the truck charged at 100% for more than a couple hours before driving off. For example, I had a 260 mile + detours for GeoCaching drive planned last Thursday, so I charged to 100% which finished at 0740. I left the house about 0915. Stopped for a 14 minute charge at a SuperCharger in Lancaster (1t 105 degrees) to add a little range by charging from 42 to 66%. I arrived home at 32%, so I would have made it without the SuperCharger stop, but would have been at 8% - which I prefer to avoid...

 

[potato]

Potentially stupid question on my part but what do you mean when you say You’re 2022 has 100% SOH?

State of health is a number reported by the truck when you use an OBD reader. Not visible in the truck or the app normally.

It's supposed to give an idea of how much degradation the battery pack has, but nobody knows how it is calculated so it's of questionable value. In my opinion.

I charge to 80% daily. I go to 100% before a longer trip.

 

[El Duderino]

Lots of opinions on this topic...

My 2 cents: charging to 100% a few times a year when needed for a long drive is a good thing. It balances the cells.

 

[RickLightning]

My 2022 had 131.07 available on Saturday.

 

[Theredshift]

I’ve had my F150 lightning flash for approximately a year 2025 model. I have been consistently charging it only to 90% but recently I’ve been thinking about charging it to 100%. I have a friend who has a 2022 model and he has consistently charged it to 100% as he drives a lot. I was wondering, what are your thoughts on charging to 100%? Either way I have the 10 year warranty so is it that big of a deal?

I commute daily and charge daily with my primetech. It regulates it. Ive had zero problems and mine is 2023 lariat extended.

 

[Dspade]

I’m new to this but I’ve paid attention to the 100% posts pretty close. Things I’ve remembered. Once you hit 80%, your charge rate is reduced significantly. So to go from 80 to 100 will take about as long as 40 to 80 +/-. They say to stay between 80 and 20 for best longevity. Then they also mention your battery may need reconditioning periodically. To accomplish that you need to run it down to 20 or lower and then recharge to 100 and do that a few times. That apparently balances all the batteries out so the charge and discharge evenly.
I love my Flash! Have a great day.

 

[Calvin H-C]

My wife's Lightning is charged to 90% at home, which is most of its charging. The exceptions to this when it is charged to 100% are:

• The night before a specific need for 100% - either starting a long trip or a planned very busy day for running around
• When at a place with FREE AC charging (if it's free, why stop early if you're going to still be there?)
• Once every month or two if none of the above occurs

This last one is to ensure the battery management system can do a full cell rebalance.

I strongly suspect regular rebalancing goes a long way towards battery longevity. I base that on 8.5 years of charging my FFE about 2100 to 2500 times, almost every charge to 100% because a lower target cannot be set.

 

[Peddyr]

I have charged mine to 100% 4 times a week since I purchased it in 2022 because my commute is 100+ miles round trip. Recently had the truck to the dealership for a few recalls and my SOH shows 99% according to them. I'm slightly skeptical, but I think running the battery down to 10% every week has helped.

 

[Calvin H-C]

So to go from 80 to 100 will take about as long as 40 to 80 +/-.

That is for DC fast charging.

For AC charging, the charge rate is pretty constant until a little before it is finished when it will ramp down at the end (see end of last night's charge below, EVSE was set to deliver 30A).

When charging to 100%, it will get to 99% ramp down to a lower power level for an hour or two while the battery management system performs a full cell rebalancing.

 

[RickLightning]

So to go from 80 to 100 will take about as long as 40 to 80 +/-.

Actually, much longer. The last 5% will take the better part of an hour.

Sponsored