Battery Equalisation/Balancing MGS5 second attempt

[Joningy]

Equalisation success.
My MGS5 is now 8 weeks old, Time for battery maintenance.
A previous attempt to Equalise the traction HV battery failed, with no apparent reason I could find.

2 weeks ago I attempted the equalisation with the battery at 15% on home "OHME" charger, probably didn't let the battery charge % go low enough, also possibly didn't set-up the scheduled charge correctly as it strangely stopped at 71%, no explanation I could see.

However on the second attempt last night, all worked fine.

I drained the HV battery to 8%, by driving home from shopping last night in the dark, heated seats and steering wheel heater (it was parky) Climate control, lights and everything electric turned on, but didn't quite get below the 10% mark, so needed to drive around without wifey after reaching home, to get the battery to 8%
We are remote and need to plan the equalisation charge when we don't have to go out early next day.

Plugged in and set the Ohme wall charger to 100% just in case of a conflict, then the MG iSmart app to "Scheduled Charging" for 12 hours from 23.30 (Octopus cheap night rate)
Kept checking near to the end of charge at around 09.00, the equalisation carried on charging for around 20 minutes after reaching 100%.

Job done, but as I'd read and self confirmed, the remaining charge appeared to need to be below 10% and MUST be carried out on an AC charger i.e. 7kW home charger or a normal granny charger from a wall socket. Equalising will not work at on a DC charger, the ones you find in service stations etc.

 

[Jazzyboy]

Equalisation success.
My MGS5 is now 8 weeks old, Time for battery maintenance.
A previous attempt to Equalise the traction HV battery failed, with no apparent reason I could find.

2 weeks ago I attempted the equalisation with the battery at 15% on home "OHME" charger, probably didn't let the battery charge % go low enough, also possibly didn't set-up the scheduled charge correctly as it strangely stopped at 71%, no explanation I could see.

However on the second attempt last night, all worked fine.

I drained the HV battery to 8%, by driving home from shopping last night in the dark, heated seats and steering wheel heater (it was parky) Climate control, lights and everything electric turned on, but didn't quite get below the 10% mark, so needed to drive around without wifey after reaching home, to get the battery to 8%
We are remote and need to plan the equalisation charge when we don't have to go out early next day.

Plugged in and set the Ohme wall charger to 100% just in case of a conflict, then the MG iSmart app to "Scheduled Charging" for 12 hours from 23.30 (Octopus cheap night rate)
Kept checking near to the end of charge at around 09.00, the equalisation carried on charging for around 20 minutes after reaching 100%.

Job done, but as I'd read and self confirmed, the remaining charge appeared to need to be below 10% and MUST be carried out on an AC charger i.e. 7Kw home charger or a normal granny charger from a wall socket. Equalising will not work at on a DC charger, the ones you find in service stations etc.

That is one hell of a post

 

[Joningy]

Not sure what you mean, @Jazzyboy good or bad?

 

[Jazzyboy]

Good. You have a deep passion which I love. Love learning from people with your experience and letting everyone know so we don't make the same schoolboy mistakes

 

[Joningy]

Thanks @Jazzyboy, I can tell you my biggest learning curve in life eminates from school boy mistakes

 

[Guinea Pig]

Does equalisation charge have to be done from a low percentage SOC?

 

[Jazzyboy]

I don't believe so. Just change the app to 100% as 80% it states health mode

 

[Alb]

Does equalisation charge have to be done from a low percentage SOC?

No

 

[Joningy]

Does equalisation charge have to be done from a low percentage SOC?

I tried it from 20% and it didn't want to work, every thing I understand from a new life experience (@Jazzyboy and @Guinea Pig) AND LOADS OF OTHERS, leads me to believe that it definitely works from 8% (under 10%)remaining battery, I'm ready to be adjusted in my understanding.
it;s quite uncomfortably tricky to get as low as under 10%.
if @Alb is right, it would make better sense, not to have to be on a knife edge, I'll try it another time soon at a higher % remaining charge! I'll be back, so long as I'm still breathing .

 

[LenEV2016]

I tried it from 20% and it didn't want to work, every thing I understand from a new life experience (@Jazzyboy and @Guinea Pig) AND LOADS OF OTHERS, leads me to believe that it definitely works from 8% (under 10%)remaining battery, I'm ready to be adjusted in my understanding.
it;s quite uncomfortably tricky to get as low as under 10%.
if @Alb is right, it would make better sense, not to have to be on a knife edge, I'll try it another time soon at a higher % remaining charge! I'll be back, so long as I'm still breathing .

LFP batteries it's more important from a low state of charge.
NMC batteries are different, I do mine normally from just under or over 20% once a month.

Yours not working the first time isnt an equalisation issue, that's just something went wrong between the car, charger.

Using your ohme you shouldn't have anything set up in the car or app for scheduled charging

 

[Jto]

I think you all are going over the top worrying about this, the car battery management will decide if a balance needs to be done, if you only charge to 80% all the time a message will come up to say the battery needs balancing then you need to do a 100% charge. Over the year I have been driving my ZS is that I found if your away from home and doing public charging that it take a couple of home charges to get the range back up and I seen it do a balance too. I have a LFP battery and charge about every two weeks to 100%. Go practice if you charge to 80% all the time once a month do a charge to 100% when you driving the car the next day.

 

[Data]

Equalisation success.
My MGS5 is now 8 weeks old, Time for battery maintenance.
A previous attempt to Equalise the traction HV battery failed, with no apparent reason I could find.

2 weeks ago I attempted the equalisation with the battery at 15% on home "OHME" charger, probably didn't let the battery charge % go low enough, also possibly didn't set-up the scheduled charge correctly as it strangely stopped at 71%, no explanation I could see.

However on the second attempt last night, all worked fine.

I drained the HV battery to 8%, by driving home from shopping last night in the dark, heated seats and steering wheel heater (it was parky) Climate control, lights and everything electric turned on, but didn't quite get below the 10% mark, so needed to drive around without wifey after reaching home, to get the battery to 8%
We are remote and need to plan the equalisation charge when we don't have to go out early next day.

Plugged in and set the Ohme wall charger to 100% just in case of a conflict, then the MG iSmart app to "Scheduled Charging" for 12 hours from 23.30 (Octopus cheap night rate)
Kept checking near to the end of charge at around 09.00, the equalisation carried on charging for around 20 minutes after reaching 100%.

Job done, but as I'd read and self confirmed, the remaining charge appeared to need to be below 10% and MUST be carried out on an AC charger i.e. 7kW home charger or a normal granny charger from a wall socket. Equalising will not work at on a DC charger, the ones you find in service stations etc.

Ok, good work! You got your state of charge down to a decent level. BUT...did you turn off SMART CHARGING in the Octopus app? If you did not the car will not have equalised even though you might think it has. You say it has equalised but didn't mention anything about smart charging being off. So just checking. It often gets forgotten. It is vital to turn it off BEFORE attempting an equalisation charge. Many folks don't realise that. You can turn it off in the Octopus app. If you leave it on Octopus will switch off the charge as soon as your battery reaches 100%. You don't want that. The car MUST be in charge of the equalisation charging not Octopus. Switched off & the charge will continue untill the car stops it at the end of equalisation.
So just mentioning this incase you didn't do that & so others who haven't yet equalised will also understand what to do. You may have switched off smart charging & all is well, not saying you haven't. But good on you. It's well worth doing regular equalisations. It keeps the battery healthy. The only way to do it properly is by going to 100% as you have done. Lower soc equalisation doesn't do a proper job as your manual says

 

[Joningy]

Ok, good work! You got your state of charge down to a decent level. BUT...did you turn off SMART CHARGING in the Octopus app? If you did not the car will not have equalised even though you might think it has. You say it has equalised but didn't mention anything about smart charging being off. So just checking. It often gets forgotten. It is vital to turn it off BEFORE attempting an equalisation charge. Many folks don't realise that. You can turn it off in the Octopus app. If you leave it on Octopus will switch off the charge as soon as your battery reaches 100%. You don't want that. The car MUST be in charge of the equalisation charging not Octopus. Switched off & the charge will continue untill the car stops it at the end of equalisation.
So just mentioning this incase you didn't do that & so others who haven't yet equalised will also understand what to do. You may have switched off smart charging & all is well, not saying you haven't. But good on you. It's well worth doing regular equalisations. It keeps the battery healthy. The only way to do it properly is by going to 100% as you have done. Lower soc equalisation doesn't do a proper job as your manual says

I don't use Smart Charging, I use the the MG iSmart app, set to switch on at the normal cheap energy rate starting at 11.30pm, but for the equalisation charge I set it for 12 hours and not the normal 5.30am (6 hours) stop time for normal charging.

I'm pretty sure the equalisation took place as the battery was still charging for approx 30 minutes after the charge reached 100% gradually decreasing the charge value over that time, I was able to track it using my Octopus app and my solar inverter app to see where the charge was going.

 

[Data]

Does equalisation charge have to be done from a low percentage SOC?

Not necessarily. But the only way to properly equalise the battery is to take the SOC down to the battery low SOC warning & preferably just under that to make sure all battery cells drop below the low SOC threshold. Otherwise a full equalisation may not happen. On my ZS EV this happens at around 20% soc. But the exact time the warning sounds may vary slightly depending on how out of balance your battery is.
If you don't balance your battery for a long time it will get out of balance even on just home charging. The actual act of just driving it also unbalances the battery aided by regen braking & fast acceleration. This leads to loss of range & eventually faster battery degradation.
You can partially balance the battery at lower soc's but bear in mind if you do that all the time the battery will start to lose range & eventually start to degrade that bit faster. So a full 100% soc equalisation is much better every now & then depending on mileage. High mileage means more often. Low mileage less often for most folks from what dealer has told me.

I don't use Smart Charging, I use the the MG iSmart app, set to switch on at the normal cheap energy rate starting at 11.30pm, but for the equalisation charge I set it for 12 hours and not the normal 5.30am (6 hours) stop time for normal charging.

I'm pretty sure the equalisation took place as the battery was still charging for approx 30 minutes after the charge reached 100% gradually decreasing the charge value over that time, I was able to track it using my Octopus app and my solar inverter app to see where the charge was going.

So it sounds like you don't have Octopus Intelligent Go Tarrif. If you just have Octopus Go, that's fine. It's not smart.

 

[Joningy]

So it sounds like you don't have Octopus Intelligent Go Tarrif. If you just have Octopus Go, that's fine. It's not smart.

I do have Intelligent Go tariff @Data, Dynamic charging is turned ON.

 

[Jto]

Ok, good work! You got your state of charge down to a decent level. BUT...did you turn off SMART CHARGING in the Octopus app? If you did not the car will not have equalised even though you might think it has. You say it has equalised but didn't mention anything about smart charging being off. So just checking. It often gets forgotten. It is vital to turn it off BEFORE attempting an equalisation charge. Many folks don't realise that. You can turn it off in the Octopus app. If you leave it on Octopus will switch off the charge as soon as your battery reaches 100%. You don't want that. The car MUST be in charge of the equalisation charging not Octopus. Switched off & the charge will continue untill the car stops it at the end of equalisation.
So just mentioning this incase you didn't do that & so others who haven't yet equalised will also understand what to do. You may have switched off smart charging & all is well, not saying you haven't. But good on you. It's well worth doing regular equalisations. It keeps the battery healthy. The only way to do it properly is by going to 100% as you have done. Lower soc equalisation doesn't do a proper job as your manual says

I have to say I believe you are not correct, only this week I have seen my car @100% and still taking 1.1 Kw reducing over 30 minutes then stop. Have Ohme pro and octopus intelligent go and not turn off smart charging in the octopus app. The BMS will tell the wall box when it finishes not the app or the wall box.

 

[Data]

Oh that's interesting. There may be instances where you are right. So it must depend on whether the car is in charge of the situation or the wall box. I have my wall box as the primary listed device with Octopus, not the car. At the time of wall box fitting Octopus said my car could not be the primary device as they didn't list a 2025 ZS EV (my new car). Of course they did but my wall box installer didn't realise it was the 2024 model that they do list. He is the one that set it up. Anyway during setup it was my wall box put forward as the primary device. However, the wall box must not be in charge during an equalisation charge, it must be the cars bms. That can't happen if smart charging is on. So it may depend how you have your wall box configured. My wall box is always in charge, not my car. So I have to turn off smart charging which hands control of the equalisation over to the cars bms. It just doesn't equalise otherwise. If the car is listed with Octopus as the primary device, it may be different as you say. So for me to equalise smart charging has to go off which is the case for everyone I know on Octopus Intelligent Go. They probably have the wall box listed as the primary device like me.

So this is interesting. Blimey, that all sounds complicated!!

 

[Jto]

Which wall box do you have?

 

[Data]

Jto, I have the My energy Zappy.

 

[Jto]

It’s complicated as one person say do it this way then someone would say no do it this way. My understanding after many years watching installs set up of wall boxes never seen the way you say ( I am not saying you are wrong ) is that the wall box is a power supplier, this can be programmed at the box to switch on and finish time of on off peak power or now control by a energy supplier over the net. The ZS is not on the list to tell smart charge app through the wall box state of charge of the car eg. So intelligent go will give a schedule list when the box will supply power to the car, so say from 00.01 am to 5.30 am so if the car reaches 100% before the 5.30am it’s the car that shuts off but if you where to put on the precondition the car to warm up you will see it pull power from the wall box to do this. So our ZS can not be interrogate by the wall charger or the smart charge in the app. All that smart charge does is tell the charger if the car is plugged in to offer power to the car and that the car is fully charged by the time you set. I plugged my car in at lunch time and see it charging between 3pm and 4pm as there been low demand on the grid, as the cars battery gets full it’s the BMS will lower its demand on the kilowatts it needs to charge the car.