[caseous]

Hi, everyone. I've seen a few things in the archive about how leave the Volt for a month or longer. I'm going away on business for a month and trying to find the best way to leave my 2015 Volt. I found the method below form a few years back. Is this still viable? Any recommendations?

Thanks,

C.

" Run the main battery down.
Plug into the "slow" charge cord (supplied with the car).
Set the charge scheduler to recognize only Sat and Sun as allowable charge days by telling it to only charge off-peak and set those days as "off peak".
Set the charge timer to 15 minutes.

Now the car will *want* to get charged (its empty), but it can only charge for 15 minutes each day for two days a week (30 min/week total). While the main battery is being charged, the 12v battery will be topped off too. Because the car takes 10 hour to fully charge using the slow charge cord, you could keep the car and it's 12v battery "trickle charging" like this for 20 weeks of vacation (10 hrs/.5 hrs per week = 20 weeks). At week 20 the main battery will be fully charged and the 12v will no longer be maintained by the main battery."

 

[TennesseeJoule]

I like this idea, however where I live I would have concerns about possible thunderstorms during the month I was away. Maybe I'm silly but I always unplug prior to an impending electrical storm. I never plug-in at work if I know that thunderstorms are in the forecast.

 

[HVolt]

This should be covered in the owners manual, at least it is for my 2014. I would just follow the manufactures instructions and not over-think it. The engineers already have.

 

[canehdian]

The scheduling thing won't work - perhaps if you have an older volt, but one user described their situation where the car was set to delayed charge but would immediately charge anyway.
The program is apparently smart enough to know that it won't complete charge for the next x cycles and overrode the schedule to compensate.

Either discharge to 50% (not empty) and leave it unplugged, or just leave it plugged in and let the car take care of itself as needed.

 

[Chris TX]

The 12V battery would be my concern. If it's outdoors, I use a solar charger that keeps the battery topped off. It plugs into the obd2 port which has unswitched power, unlike the 12V lighter sockets.

 

[colchiro]

Assuming you don't want to leave the EVSE plugged in the entire time you're gone, I'd put a trickle charger (or a battery maintainer) on the 12 volt and leave it at that.

 

[edaniel]

Earlier this year I was gone for a month, so I bought a Battery Tender Junior which seemed to have done the job. Battery tender has a waterproof model they recommend for EV's, but my car is in a garage and seems to have worked fine.

 

[Loboc]

A month is too short of time to worry about any car. Maybe a 12v battery tender.

Fire it up when you get home to check everything out.

 

[Fred_B]

What I did with my 2013 was to discharge the traction battery to about 50%, leave it unplugged and attach a battery tender jr. to the 12v terminals (without disconnecting the 12v battery).

 

[Henryf]

My2013 was left in the garage for a month when I went to Hawaii. I left the 110 charger plug in and everything was and is great. It won't over charge this car is engineered by some of the best.

 

[Fred_B]

If I am going to store my 2013 for several months (garaged in hot weather, garage has air vents and a radiant barrier), would it be better to 1) leave it plugged in to the L2 EVSE, or 2) discharge the main battery to 50% and unplug from L2 EVSE, and also have a battery tender jr. with a quick disconnect connected directly to the 12V battery (with a 7.5 amp fuse on the + wire).

I am wondering if the L2 EVSE (a Clipper Creek LCS20) trickle charges the 12V battery even when the main traction battery is not charging. When the main battery is full, the EVSE has a green light that goes off. I assume the relays inside the EVSE have disconnected the 240V from the Volt at that point, so there would be no way for the EVSE to trickle charge the 12V battery, right? However, in this state I have measured 13V across the 12V battery terminals and when I unplug the EVSE, this drops to 12.5V. So I am wondering if there is some sort of trickle charge going on even though the green light on the EVSE is off.

I can leave the battery tender connected to the 12V battery, but I wonder if this will cause any problems if the L2 EVSE is plugged in at the same time?

 

[canehdian]

If it gets too hot, TMS should activate and would trigger a charge on condition, which should also keep the 12V happy.
I'd leave it plugged in and not give it another thought.

If the EVSE light is off, no power is going through except the communication signal, waiting for a 'Charge me!' request.

 

[linkim]

During my walks around the neighborhood, I often pass this old ICE vehicle. A few days ago I took this pic. This car has more problems than a dead 12 V battery. No caring Volt driver would leave his/her vehicle on the street for this to happen. Even with the drought, California streets still welcome weeds and some types of flowers.

 

[anzael]

This should be covered in the owners manual, at least it is for my 2014. I would just follow the manufactures instructions and not over-think it.