What % to recharge with level 1 charger?

  • Thread starter Thread starter D s
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It's got nothing to do with you. I never said you were ridiculous. And there's probably only a 20 to 80% chance I'll actually have a stroke.
 
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D s said:
I just don’t want to screw up my new car.
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Hey, don't feel bad. I was a newbie, too, just a few months ago, and asked a lot of the same questions. Lots of experienced and smart people on this forum, and eager and willing to help. Ask away, no such thing as a dumb question, esp when you just got your car.
 
D s said:
I just don’t want to screw up my new car.
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I understand that completely. It's a big purchase and a newfangled machine (for me too). My point is and always has been when confronted by battery zealots (again, not you) is that, as Bill Goldman famously said, "Nobody knows anything". Unfortunately, in regards to battery health there is a certain type of expert who knows everything and your genuine question and innocent post will almost certainly draw them out. So I cringe whenever it comes up. My response has always been, read and follow your owner's manual, do what suits your lifestyle and, most of all, enjoy the car.
 
Yup, and lots of opinions, too. In the end, you will have to decide for yourself how you want to do it. At least there has been lots of discussion on the subject, so no shortage of info.
 
Mywifeskona said:
Ha Ha! I agree GP. I often find myself wondering why people worry about things that seem so insignificant. At the same time however, I enjoy reading all the posts, insignificant or not.

I do believe there is some importance in trying to preserve battery capacity though. Although the battery warranty is lifetime against defects or failure, I don't believe It covers normal loss of capacity over time.
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I enjoy the posts for sure and i have learned a few things here. It's like when people don't drive the car to its full potential because they want to preserve as much charge as they can. I use the whole car I like the paddle stopping and the adaptive cruise they work great. The auto wipers, the auto headlights. Its a great car to drive.
 
Wildeyed said:
as Bill Goldman famously said, "Nobody knows anything". Unfortunately, in regards to battery health there is a certain type of expert who knows everything
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I agree that no one should post with absolute certainty about unknowable minutiae. On the other hand, someone does know something :)

For instance, Hyundai knows quite a bit. There is no chance that the marketing people were allowed to warrantee the battery for [varies by country] without the bean counters getting a VERY DETAILED report from the battery engineers about how long the thing would work (for various definitions of "work") under a crazy array of conditions and use cases. The battery warrantee doesn't have to be *free* of claims, but it has to make more money as a marketing tool than it costs in claims. The analysis they did makes a bunch of assumptions (which we don't know) about how long original owners keep cars, etc.

Fact is, I intend to keep (and enjoy!) the car for longer than most marketing people can imagine (or want me to.) So I'm not going to charge it to 100% unless I know I'm about to leave on a long trip. Doing so would have zero upside and impose a down-the-road cost to me. I'm not telling anyone else what to do, because some people have very unpredictable drives, some people get a psychological payoff for a readout that says 100%, some people wouldn't dream of driving a car after 10 years, many people have the vehicle on a lease, etc.

I look at my outgoing 15 year old ICE car and I can't see why my Kona wouldn't last me 20 years if I'm cycling the battery between 80% and 20% for all but a few times in a year.
 
If I was on a Level 1 charger, I would always get as much charge as possible. The reason is that if one day, you will need more charge, it will be difficult to catch up. Let's say that you run down your charge one day to 15% and then you charge 12 hours over night.. You'll be at like 25% in the morning... You may have to charge outside of your home to catch up in such scenario, so, until you have a level 2 charger, I would recommend to get as much charge as you can out of the Level 1.
 
What you've described is exactly what I feel and am doing. I'm still on level 1 charging until next weekend when my house's level 2 charger will be installed.

I am charging it as high as I can every day because it is so slow (roughly 15 hours per day) and I don't want to be stuck if I need to do an unplanned extended drive.

But starting next week my worries of such a thing will vanish and I'll set it to a stop at 80 or 90 percent and charge up every 2 or 3 days rather than every day.
 
D s said:
Thanks for the reply. I’m not looking for information on what I should set the maximum charge level to, just trying to figure out if giving it small charges every night (back up to 80% from 70%) is not good for the battery. Should I try to do it every other day from 60%-80% or charge once a week for a full weekend for 40%-80%?

I’m just trying to make sure I’m not killing the battery by topping off once a day for 10% or so.

Thanks again.
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I drive 40mi. round trip to work. I generally drive 5 days and then recharge in the weekends. I charge to 90% each charge. Just the plan I use. Hope that helps in some small way.
FYI- I have read and heard that 80-90% around town and 100% for long trips.
 
Kona Bill said:
I drive 40mi. round trip to work. I generally drive 5 days and then recharge in the weekends. I charge to 90% each charge. Just the plan I use. Hope that helps in some small way.
FYI- I have read and heard that 80-90% around town and 100% for long trips.
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Do it once a week let it run down to say 20% then charge it up t0 90 or 100. Do you have level 2 charger
 
Kona Bill said:
I drive 40mi. round trip to work. I generally drive 5 days and then recharge in the weekends. I charge to 90% each charge. Just the plan I use. Hope that helps in some small way.
FYI- I have read and heard that 80-90% around town and 100% for long trips.
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Sounds like that works well for you:)
 
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