MG4 balancing/equalisation charge

[JimmyTwotimes]

Hey everyone

Saw a vid on YouTube on battery balancing for the MG4 so wondered how important it is.

I've never done it nor was I advised by the dealer to do it (had the car about 4 months from new). Did a search on here but only found info related to the ZS.

So:

1. Should I do it for my MG4 Trophy?
2. How often?
3. I use intelligent octopus Go and a Zappi charger. The charging will stop when it hits whatever percentage I've set it for, so how do I force the charge to keep going past the set amount for charge, to achieve the balancing?

Any info appreciated or links to a thread if one already exists.

Thank you.

 

[dwoop]

So potentially using intelli octopus go might stop it balancing.

If so, you could once a month just plug the car into the 13A socket with the supplied lead.

dwoop

 

[JimmyTwotimes]

OK so that didn't quite go to plan last night!

• The car was at 18% charge
• I set the car to accept a 100% battery charge
• I set 'Intelligent Octopus Go' to add 80%, assuming it would stop at 98% and so i could do the last 2% during daylight hours so i could see if the car showed a 'Balancing Battery' notification
• Checked the car in morning but it had charged to the full 100%
• I tried to force a charge to see if i could get the battery balancing screen to show but the Zappi kinda started to charge then stopped. The car did not say it was charging and nor did the Zappi app (or the Octopus app) HOWEVER the car looked like it was accepting a trickle charge which bounced all over the place between 0.2kwh and 1.4kwh, up then down then up again. But it deffo did not say it was in a state of charge.

I was hoping to see a 'Battery Balancing' notification on the car in the battery section but it didnt, whilst the strange mystery charge appeared to be going on, only showed the battery being at 100%.

So I dont know whether it's done it, or it was trying to do it or it hasnt done it!

Baffling.

 

[Matt x power]

The battery will only balance if it needs to

 

[AndyL61]

OK so that didn't quite go to plan last night!

• The car was at 18% charge
• I set the car to accept a 100% battery charge
• I set 'Intelligent Octopus Go' to add 80%, assuming it would stop at 98% and so i could do the last 2% during daylight hours so i could see if the car showed a 'Balancing Battery' notification
• Checked the car in morning but it had charged to the full 100%
• I tried to force a charge to see if i could get the battery balancing screen to show but the Zappi kinda started to charge then stopped. The car did not say it was charging and nor did the Zappi app (or the Octopus app) HOWEVER the car looked like it was accepting a trickle charge which bounced all over the place between 0.2kwh and 1.4kwh, up then down then up again. But it deffo did not say it was in a state of charge.

I was hoping to see a 'Battery Balancing' notification on the car in the battery section but it didnt, whilst the strange mystery charge appeared to be going on, only showed the battery being at 100%.

So I dont know whether it's done it, or it was trying to do it or it hasnt done it!

Baffling.

It doesn't say it is balancing (certainly not on the app so I'm assuming not on the car either). It simply carries on charging at a very low rate (well below 1kw). It does this for quite some time ( sometimes can be over an hour) until it stops charging completely. This is the balancing.

 

[JimmyTwotimes]

See this vid here on you tube



Here is a screenshot

 

[AndyL61]

Yeah never looked at the car screen, only the app which doesn't (or certainly didn't) show this.

 

[JimmyTwotimes]

I wasn't getting that screen this morning when trying to force a charge, either it didnt need it or I'm doing something incorrect.

 

[Martinonline]

I'll have to have a look when I next balance. It may be that non-UK cars have this feature but not those in the UK.

 

[PeteC]

HOWEVER the car looked like it was accepting a trickle charge which bounced all over the place between 0.2kwh and 1.4kwh, up then down then up again. But it deffo did not say it was in a state of charge.

That's how my Trophy behaves when it is balancing. The charge rate jumps around similar values to yours and then eventually settles a bit at lower readings, although those also keep fluctuating. It can take a long time - anything up to an hour - before it eventually stops charging and the green lights in the charging port turn off

I was hoping to see a 'Battery Balancing' notification on the car in the battery section but it didnt, whilst the strange mystery charge appeared to be going on, only showed the battery being at 100%

I've never looked for a message on the car. There's definitely nothing stated in my app. The battery reading does remain at 100% and the range also remains the same throughout the balancing process.

It's just a matter of giving it enough time. The first time I tried a balance charge I got confused by the varying charge rate going on for some time and manually stopped the charge. Now I know just to leave it going for as long as it takes and wait for the car to stop the charge.

 

[JimmyTwotimes]

That's how my Trophy behaves when it is balancing. The charge rate jumps around similar values to yours and then eventually settles a bit at lower readings, although those also keep fluctuating. It can take a long time - anything up to an hour - before it eventually stops charging and the green lights in the charging port turn off


I've never looked for a message on the car. There's definitely nothing stated in my app. The battery reading does remain at 100% and the range also remains the same throughout the balancing process.

It's just a matter of giving it enough time. The first time I tried a balance charge I got confused by the varying charge rate going on for some time and manually stopped the charge. Now I know just to leave it going for as long as it takes and wait for the car to stop the charge.

Fantastic update - thanks for the affirmation that it was probably doing the balancing and I shut it off early!

Will keep eye on the lights on the charge port as this will confirm if its working or not, regardless of what the screen or app might be saying.

 

[siteguru]

When it's balancing you probably won't see the 4th light "pulsing" ... but it should still show Green.

 

[JimmyTwotimes]

Brill will be guided by the lights

 

[Martinonline]

Just charged car to 50% to see if the 'battery balancing' words appear. The app was showing 0.0kW but the green lights were still present. So I powered up the car to see the info display but by the time I got to the charging display it declared charge complete. Now have set the level to 60% and I will power up the car just before that level is reached so I will be able to see the display.

I only charge to 100% overnight just before I go on a long journey so I am unlikely to see the 100% balancing event.

As an aside I did note that the app was showing a higher charge rate than the display when I started the charge to 60%, even after I refreshed the app.

 

[JimmyTwotimes]

Just charged car to 50% to see if the 'battery balancing' words appear. The app was showing 0.0kW but the green lights were still present. So I powered up the car to see the info display but by the time I got to the charging display it declared charge complete. Now have set the level to 60% and I will power up the car just before that level is reached so I will be able to see the display.

I only charge to 100% overnight just before I go on a long journey so I am unlikely to see the 100% balancing event.

As an aside I did note that the app was showing a higher charge rate than the display when I started the charge to 60%, even after I refreshed the app.

Be interesting to see if you get the battery balancing message.

 

[Martinonline]

I charged to 60% last night as one trial and then up to 70% this morning as another. The results were the same - the 'battery balancing' message did not appear during the period between the set level being reached and the car stopping charging. The period was about 1 hour in both cases. For this morning's charge the battery reached 70% at 1108. Later I took 2 photos: one at 1135 where there was a significant charge rate and another at 1200 when the app and car were showing 0.0kW charge rate but the charge port still had green lights. Charging stopped about 10 minutes later.

Perhaps the message only appears when balancing at 100%.

I do not understand the different charge rate figures between the app and the car which I reported on previously and as seen in Photo 1.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Due to a solar roof install at work fencing off 2 of our 3 AC chargers*, I've been using some Tesla Superchargers all last month.

Plugged into the last available charger at work this morning, and set the battery limit "Long-trip Mode" in order to trigger a balancing run.
The app currently reports 92% with a finish time of 16:38, so I'll let you know after that.

* We actually have 5, but 2 are for company cars only.

UPDATE - Car is at 100%, but app still says "Charging", not "Balancing", so I guess it doesn't do that.

 

[sparc00]

I charged to 60% last night as one trial and then up to 70% this morning as another. The results were the same - the 'battery balancing' message did not appear during the period between the set level being reached and the car stopping charging. The period was about 1 hour in both cases. For this morning's charge the battery reached 70% at 1108. Later I took 2 photos: one at 1135 where there was a significant charge rate and another at 1200 when the app and car were showing 0.0kW charge rate but the charge port still had green lights. Charging stopped about 10 minutes later.

Perhaps the message only appears when balancing at 100%.

I do not understand the different charge rate figures between the app and the car which I reported on previously and as seen in Photo 1.

I wish it could do the balancing/equalization charge at set battery levels but unfortunately it can only be done on full charge according to the manual.

I am attaching the related page of the manual.
weblink of the manual https://www.mg.co.uk/sites/default/files/2022-09/MG4_EV_Owner_Manual.pdf

 

[Corindikev]

I normally do my 100% charge early in the month but at off peak rates at night. I'd forgotten to do this due to New Year and holidays. Today is Sunday 14th of January & rates are off peak all day plus I get some power from my rooftop solar. So I decided to find out what actually happens. I have a 7kW single phase ZJBeny EVSE.

I set the slider to 100% and the app said it would be finished by 1:16pm. Anyway the car was charging at 6.59 kW right up to about 95% & then slowed but not below 6kW. At 1:16pm it slowed to 4.4 kW & the app just continued to say charging but with the current time as finish time. I checked the charging screen on the car and it stated Balance charging with no finish time mentioned.

It continued to charge at 4 to 4.4 kW for just over 30 minutes and then finished. From the time it reached 100% all 4 quadrant charging lights were solid green.

So that's how it works on a 64 kWh NMC battery as observed.

 

[Rolfe]

That's very similar to how it works with the LFP battery. When it's balancing the "finish time" always appears as the current time. But it usually balances at about 20 watts, and again takes 30 to 35 minutes.

 

[Surfdog]

I recently carried out a successful balance charge for the first time in 6 months. I charged to 100% on my Ohme charger and after it stopped I switched to granny and got a balance charge at 0.1kw for 40 minutes. As I have previously mentioned my Ohme has been unable to balance since switching to IOG in July (it did before). It appears to close charging when the rate drops to anything close to 1kW.