Balancing an LR Trophy

[1ELF]

Just leave it on your house charger ... that's an AC power source, and that's all that's needed. (Just make sure that there are no schedules set, and that your house charge point won't automatically turn off once 100% is reached - it needs to turn off when the car tells it that charging is finished). No need to use the granny lead simply for balancing.

Sorry if the following has been answered, but I can't find a direct answer. Is it effective, for balancing purposes, to charge to 90% using DC, and then swap to a granny charger for the last 10% and balancing? Or to charge to 95% using DC, and then swap to a granny charger for the last 5% and balancing?

 

[Tight Git]

Sorry if the following has been answered, but I can't find a direct answer. Is it effective, for balancing purposes, to charge to 90% using DC, and then swap to a granny charger for the last 10% and balancing? Or to charge to 95% using DC, and then swap to a granny charger for the last 5% and balancing?

Yes - either 90 or 95% then granny charger will be fine.

 

[Rolfe]

Sorry if the following has been answered, but I can't find a direct answer. Is it effective, for balancing purposes, to charge to 90% using DC, and then swap to a granny charger for the last 10% and balancing? Or to charge to 95% using DC, and then swap to a granny charger for the last 5% and balancing?

Yes, for the regular once-a-month balance that is fine. But once every few months (at least every six months) you should run the car right down below 10%, let it sit for a bit to get a good look at the bottom of the battery range, then charge all the way up on AC power and let it balance. This will keep the GOM honest.

 

[MickeySw]

Sorry if the following has been answered, but I can't find a direct answer. Is it effective, for balancing purposes, to charge to 90% using DC, and then swap to a granny charger for the last 10% and balancing? Or to charge to 95% using DC, and then swap to a granny charger for the last 5% and balancing?

Rapid charging is thought to be one of the main reasons why cells become imbalanced in the first place.

The best way to charge purely for balancing reasons would be to use the granny exclusively, however that’s not really a realistic approach. A good compromise would be using level 2 all the way.

To get back to your query, the further away you stop rapid charging and top up with level2/granny the better for balancing purposes.

 

[OriginalBigAl]

My car was at 19% this morning. As I needed to do a 60 km journey in the afternoon I topped the the battery up to 40% around dinnertime. On a 3phase Morec EVSE I put in around 13kw in just over a hour 15mins. The car gave a 13:30 finish time, I went back to the car at 13:25 to see it finish and put away the cable, there was one solid charging light lit and the second section was blinking. On checking the Morec box it indicated it was drawing 0.5 kw and it had already put in the 13kw I was expecting. It carried on with this 500w for another 10 minutes before shutting off. I can only imagine it was performing a balance charge. My normal routine is a charge at night so I am never there to see it finish so I cannot say whether or not it does this at 80%. I presume it does a balance charge at 100%. The GOM had recalibrated itself but it does this after every AC charge. Up until now I was under the impression that I would need a 100% charge as others have recommended to balance the cells , unless of course someone else has any theories as to what's just happened.

 

[nanomad]

You can balance the battery pack at any %, it's just a matter of settings the proper voltage target for the cells of each pack. The charger on board the NMC version is quite smart to do it from 80% onward, although it's best to do a 10 to 100% charge once in a while to keep the calibration data consistent across the whole range of the battery

 

[Martinonline]

Balancing covered at length elsewhere. Argument about only balancing at 100% settled here by graycat with their image:

At least at 90%, the system does balancing for sure.

 

[siteguru]

That doesn't settle the "argument", it merely shows that the car will balance the pack to that state of charge. That doesn't mean that the pack has been properly balanced as per MG's guidance.

 

[Martinonline]

The argument (discussion) in the thread from which the image comes was about whether or not balancing took place below 100%. I should have been more specific.

 

[MickeySw]

That doesn't settle the "argument", it merely shows that the car will balance the pack to that state of charge. That doesn't mean that the pack has been properly balanced as per MG's guidance.

Ideally the car should be balanced at any SoC, most MG models are only capable of doing this after being charged to 100%.
With the MG4 being the exception it would make most sense to balance the cells closest to an (individual owners’s) average SoC.

 

[Udders71]

I've had my trophy lr just over a month. I do mixed driving, and after 100% charge, the max range is showing 228 miles, which is well below book. I've just completed balancing and now got 229 miles. Booked into dealer this month to find out if there is an issue.

 

[OriginalBigAl]

Is that with the AC and heater turned off, and in eco driving mode? It does change things.

 

[Loveclose]

I'm getting much the same range... almost identical.
I'm waiting for the temperature to rise significantly which should bring the range up.
I'm not expecting it to go much beyond 250 though.....

 

[emmadragon]

Yep, me too. Temps around here variable between 6 and 12 degrees at the moment. I'd call that a normal range at this time of year for a Trophy.

 

[Udders71]

I'm getting much the same range... almost identical.
I'm waiting for the temperature to raise significantly which should bring the range up.
I'm not expecting it to go much beyond 250 though.....

Shouldn't make a huge difference. Last check was used 2kw on hvac! I try and drive on eco (when.i remeber) but brochure says 270+. What a joke. Ive watched the videos about heat pump/no heat pump, and so much as makes little dufference. My eNiro was bang on, every time. 280+ after every charge, winter summer no matter (however this did have a heat pump!!). Bearing in mind it was never built as an ev (not like the latest models). what disappoints me most is this is an ev built from scratch, so how can it so flawed??? Should have pushed back against the Mrs more and got the tesla!

 

[emmadragon]

I think in the brochure the crucial wording is 'up to', not guaranteed.

 

[Jomarkh]

I've had my trophy lr just over a month. I do mixed driving, and after 100% charge, the max range is showing 228 miles, which is well below book. I've just completed balancing and now got 229 miles. Booked into dealer this month to find out if there is an issue.

Have you reset the trip counters and turned everything off and put in eco mode?

 

[Udders71]

Have you reset the trip counters and turned everything off and put in eco mode?

Yes reset trips. And why would I switch everything off. Its a car to use as required?

 

[QLeo]

Feel the need for a little clarification on this, as the word 'balancing' had now tested its head in a few threads I've watched......
Until now, I've not known about balancing....
Not discussed at all during the purchase process.

So in a nutshell, what is the correct procedure to achieve balancing... absolute laymans' terms!!!!

I am searching the forum for this - if there's a link that covers this at basic level, I'd be happy to use it.

Cheers!

Someone on this forum suggested that, after chatting to a technician, one should stop worrying about how to do what, when. There may be something to that idea. Our car has just had its 1st service. We can't charge at home, so either fast-charge or occasionally use a destination charger (11kW on our LR, but actually only get about 9kW) I only found out about this discharge then fully recharge every 6 months a couple of months back, when we had a chance to do just that. On a handful of occasions, we have left the car on a charger for a period of time at 100%, when I assume it does a balance.

The battery State of Health at the first service was given at 100%. We'd done about 8000 miles at that point. Yes, I'm a happy bunny about that.

So if that counts as anecdotal evidence, it suggests trying to do the right thing, but not to get too stressed about it all. I'm no expert, but that experience suggests it's OK to top up the car to 100% and leave it there from time to time, don't let it sit at 100% (unless you have a SR), run the battery down to less than 10% once in a longish while, when you can, and slow charge it back up, and realise with gratitude that the battery management system almost certainly knows how to look after the battery better that I do.

Oh, one more thing - the car isn't a laptop and it's not a phone. I don't think we can learn a lot by comparing our car batteries with consumer goods' batteries, although the urge to do so, because we understand those things so much better, is strong.

 

[Jomarkh]

Yes reset trips. And why would I switch everything off. Its a car to use as required?

It is the only way I can ever get the MG GOM figure unless I am doing 4.5m/kWh.
What is yours?