@sorka - a brand new 85 kWh battery would cross the 90 kw threshold at 45%. This I know for a fact. You crossed it at 42%. Slightly premature, but it looks pretty normal for age.
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It is a cool system. (Pun intended). But in no mode can I see where the small twin radiators pass any coolant liquid to the battery pack.
Are you saying that maybe the battery line in the 1st photo is passively cooled as air flows by the twin radiators? It doesn't appear that any lines from the battery actually physically pass thru the small twin radiators.
Battery coolant is passively cooled only through the center radiator.
The two radiators on the side are CONDENSERS for the HVAC system which have refrigerant in them. This refrigerant after is is cooled under compression undergoes expansion which causes it to rapidly fall below freezing.
The battery coolant then passes through a heat exchanger that brings the the super cooled refrigerant in contact with the coolant via small fins(not actual mixing of the two liquids. This is the chiller. This is how you *actively* cool the battery vs passively.
The system can actively heat the coolant, do nothing at all, passively cool it, or actively cool it. It all depends on how the diverting valves and flow valves are switched or opened and closed.
Thank you guys for those explanations! I haven't been able to find any diagrams of the chiller interacting with the battery as you say, however I know you are right. I'm trying to learn how the system operates and what could cause such slow charging speeds. Thanks!
SeminoleFSU
Voluntaryist
SeminoleFSU
Voluntaryist
Do you know what your battery temperature was? Were your cooling louvers open?
SeminoleFSU
Voluntaryist
I was driving from Tallahassee, FL to Macon, GA in mild summer temps... It was plenty warm to supercharge- that's for sure. I've driven in near freezing weather for less miles and gotten decent temps right off the bat. Driving on the highway at speed especially the lower the voltage of the pack the warmer it gets.
As for my louvers, I checked them on the way down when I hit the SpC in Tifton, GA and both were open... That charging session tapered faster than when I first got the car but was NO WHERE near this, which is obviously pretty awful (60kW at like 10% charge). I did not check the louvers in Macon though because we didn't stay very long... we were ready to get home and I left with 9% buffer.. was hoping to get more than that though.
This got me thinking a little- I wonder if Tesla is either looking at the distance to your home from the SpC you're at and throttling if you're within a certain range of home to deter the local charging folks that aren't using the network for long distance travel... or could they be looking at your destination in the nav and once the nav says you have enough to get there (especially if the address matches your home address or matches an address you've charged at) they drop the charging rate to something painful to ween you off the SpC tit.... I could have tested the 2nd theory by changing my destination, unhooking/rehooking up... but it didn't occur to me until after we left.
I will say that if they're doing the 2nd thing I speculated on, the algorithm needs to be adjusted because I was hitting 60kW before I even had 1% extra in the batt.... Let alone 10% that I think is "safe". I ended up staying (painfully) until we hit 10%, which is good because I arrived with between 6-7% at home. I don't typically like to drive on less than 5% since people have seen the car drop rapidly to 0% when you get into the lower ranges strange things can happen especially with changes in outside temp
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This has been discussed endlessly in other threads. This wouldn't deter locals. Most of them are apartment or condo dwellers that don't have access to home charging. A throttled supercharger is still going to be faster than any level 2 charger anywhere else.
There's a guy in Santa Cruz who has a Leaf and he goes to the Knob Hill off of Park Ave and plugs into the one Clipper Creek charger they have there (free) and he sits there for 3 hours in his car every night charging.
Also, if Tesla were doing that kind of throttling they'd have no incentive to do it and cause lines with long waits for those traveling through the area (non locals) yet we see this all the time at busy super chargers as well.
SeminoleFSU
Voluntaryist
Yea I hear what you're saying @sorka it was just strange to me that I started at 110-115 and within minutes it dropped to 60... not 58,59, or 61... a nice round 60.... almost like it was hardcoded. Did this twice (first time I plugged in and 2nd time when I moved to another spc cabinet hoping to see a regular taper)
The fact that it didn't do it in Tifton is interesting too, especially considering I stopped with the roughly the same LOC in my pack and neither time was I paired. Temps roughly the same, etc
The fact that it didn't do it in Tifton is interesting too, especially considering I stopped with the roughly the same LOC in my pack and neither time was I paired. Temps roughly the same, etc
SeminoleFSU
Voluntaryist
I should also add- AC was running pretty loud at Tifton when I was adding juice at a semi-normal rate. I could barely hear it at the Macon charger....
SeminoleFSU
Voluntaryist
How can I check batt temp? If I have to get into the CANN bus or whatever I doubt I'm going to bother with that...
SeminoleFSU
Voluntaryist
yuk... so you used that tool to see your pack temp was 115+ and then checked the louvers and noticed that both weren't open during SpC sessions? Both of mine were open in Tifton on the way down... unless one or both are sticking I should be ok I would think.... Do the louvers open on every spc session?
Yes. But the louvers aren't the only things that can and do fail in the cooling system.
YellyYeti
Member
Can I also suggest taking the temperature of the charging cable handle using an infrared thermometer too? On a road trip in July I experienced the same symptoms (start high, drop to 60-80) at Tifton and Macon, maybe Lake City. In all cases the handle was extremely hot to the touch. I haven't taken a road trip since, but my plan for the next one was to take an infrared thermometer along, and gallon zip lock bags with ice.
SeminoleFSU
Voluntaryist
Handle wasn't extremely hot in either charging session (Macon or Tifton)... I've felt them much hotter in the past.
SeminoleFSU
Voluntaryist
Yes but shouldn't Tesla get alerts and call me proactively if my pack is having cooling issues? /Sarc
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