Level 2 Charging Best Practices?

[John Becker]

My goal is to charge weekly, but when new OTA's or FP App updates roll out I will break that rule, also if I have a road trip (monthly) then I have to do more, this week I charged on Wednesday & Sunday.

How low do you let your SOC go?
What level do you charge it to?

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[rdr854]

How low do you let your SOC go?
What level do you charge it to?

I charge as needed, meaning it could be a few times a week or once every few weeks. My target is to keep the truck between 50 and 80% SOC. I will plug her win when super cold and will charge to 100% if going on a trip.

 

[TaxmanHog]

How low do you let your SOC go?
What level do you charge it to?

As low as it may go, but no lower than 20%
90% is regular stopping point unless preparing for a road trip, then 95%

 

[John Becker]

From the beginning, my standard practice has been to maintain my SOC between 50% and 60%.

I used to plug in everyday. I dialed that back to maybe 5x weekly and don't plug in until at or below 50%. That was because it appeared that short charging cycles were inefficient.

My reasoning for the 50%-60% range was to maximize battery life and to follow Ford's ABC dogma.

I park in a fully insulated garage and drive fewer than 10,000 miles annually. My system has always worked well for me.

Based on what I've learned from this forum is that the traction battery is far more resilient than originally believed. Therefore, my practice of maximizing battery life has had a negligible effect if any.

Unless I hear some strong opinions to the contrary, my new practice is going to be charging it to 90% (maybe 1x or so per week.)

I'll use 30% as my new minimum. Much less than that won't get me far in my SR Lariat.

My theory is that fewer, but longer, charging cycles will be more efficient without impacting battery life in a meaningful way.

By "efficiency," I'm referring to electrons consumed. Plugging it in less frequently will also save me a few seconds everyday.

For the newbies:
SOC = State of charge
ABC = Always be charging
SR = Standard range (as opposed to extended range (ER))

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