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What to do if leaving town?

6K views 17 replies 13 participants last post by  Dr. Manhattan 
#1 ·
Curious what is recommended for those summer vacations that involve leaving the ELR in a hot garage for multiple days.
 
#4 ·
The car will cool it's battery when necessary, whether it's plugged in or not - Doesn't it seem really odd that anyone would recommend leaving it plugged in for 'a few days' yet leaving it unplugged for 'months at a time'?

Don
 
#6 ·
Except no one has ever produced any documentation or evidence of a Volt's battery temperature management system (TMS) cooling the battery pack when the Volt was not plugged in.
 
#11 ·
Except I heard mine come on when it wasn't plugged in. Same sound it makes when I plug it in and charging the battery. It's warm (80) but not that warm. Only heard it the once though (so far), had the car almost three months.
 
#9 ·
so when the screen shows 1/2 full the battery is really about 35 %
you may have to charge it a bit to get to the happy lithium 50 % level.

I am going to go cut each end off a blanket and see if the middle is still in the same spot
 
#14 ·
Not sure what that sounds like or where it comes from or why it would come on. The car had been sitting there for some time, it's not like it had just been used. I do know it sounds just like the whirring sound the car makes when I'm charging it.
 
#16 · (Edited)
For just 5 days I would leave it plugged in. I have left mine plugged in for over 2 months, on the belief that it would cool itself during the summer months, but lately I have read that it will only do this for a week or so. After that it won't cool the battery even if it is plugged in. So if I ever have to leave it for more than a week in the future I will drain it to about 50% and leave it unplugged.

I also usually put a "battery tender jr" on the 12V battery, but for only 5 days I don't think that would be needed.

As a result of spending a lot of time away from home in the past, I have only about 25K miles on my 2013. It still feels like a new car.

The battery had been getting around 9.8 kwh / 42 miles per charge but in the last week or so I ran it all the way to zero before recharging a couple of times and yesterday I was up to about 10.3 kwh 44 miles used when I pulled into the garage, with 3 miles remaining. That's with A/C running on ECO set to 73 degrees the whole time. Pretty good for a 5 year old battery.
 
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