What will 110V do in the cold

[sylvius]

In thinking about taking some trips e.g., to stay with a friend for the weekend, I have a question. If the CT is parked outside and it is very cold out, will keeping the truck plugged into a 110V outlet be enough to at least get the battery and the cabin fully preconditioned so range when leaving is the same or marginally higher as range when arriving? I think the R1T gets like 1 mi/hr charging on 110V so I wouldn’t expect gaining much range but curious how low the temp can go without losing ground while it sits there.

Sponsored

 

[Outdoors]

The car will draw from the battery. Your 110v won't be enough once you turn on preconditioning. Prior to that you may pick up a modicum of charge. The onboard heater draws more than the 110v.

 

[Crissa]

However, the basic granny plug will power the electronics, Sentry mode, and add a few miles while reducing the loss from preconditioning by a little bit.

In most conditions, the 120v will supply what the Tesla needs to do its thermal maintenance.

-Crissa

 

[Outdoors]

A strategy such of this requires a little diligence. Not just a Tesla. One if in colder temps needs to come into location and begin charging while battery is still warm. Leave the car alone. Turn off the bluetooth and stop checking it. We really don't know what we are going to get in this situation yet, as I haven't seen it in they truck.

I do travel to many VRBO's across ski country each year for years and got by plenty good with a 110v in a garage after my daily runs. On both S and 3. Important thing is plug it in as soon as you get back and start charging. Once the whole car cools and at some point the car will stop charging and go to the maintain from 110V.

Kick your friends out. Use the garage. You are more important.

 

[sylvius]

Thanks all. Was hoping that if I roll in on a Friday night and plug in when I arrive and the let it sit until I leave on Sunday that it would be ready to roll with about as much charge as when I arrived. Sounds like this might be true down to pretty low temps but we shall see.

 

[TexasRaider]

The car will draw from the battery. Your 110v won't be enough once you turn on preconditioning. Prior to that you may pick up a modicum of charge. The onboard heater draws more than the 110v.

Agreed.
Experience: A 110v plugged into my MS in -3 degrees outside barely delivered 1mi per hour.

 

[Gigahorse]

Thanks all. Was hoping that if I roll in on a Friday night and plug in when I arrive and the let it sit until I leave on Sunday that it would be ready to roll with about as much charge as when I arrived. Sounds like this might be true down to pretty low temps but we shall see.

If you turn off sentry mode you may be able to stay about the same without preconditioning, looking at current sentry draws and idle draws it may be close but better than nothing, definitely would make sure you have a good % of your battery before parking it in cold.

 

[ÆCIII]

If you can use your Universal Mobile Connector (UMC) with a 20 amp 120VAC outlet instead of 15amp, you'll get a little bit more, but still maybe not enough. You have to make sure to buy the UMC adapter for that though.

I know with my Model 3 once at a place with 120VAC outlets, that was more than enough to keep up and slowly recharge, but it was not that cold there at the time.

Keeping Sentry turned off if you're in a safe area, would be a must in that situation too.

It's hard to know exactly how 110VAC charging will do, until we find out what the Cybertruck battery consumption is when parked/idle in warm or cold temperatures. Hopefully someone will be testing that for us soon. I wish someone would range test the CT in Hyper-mileage driving too, but that's another subject.

However, even in the cold, a trickle charge will still slow the rate of discharge, even if it doesn't keep up or recharge. So even the basic 110VAC will give some benefit from that perspective. Your battery won't be quite as low compared to being totally disconnected and not charging at all.

If your friend has a 220VAC outlet in the form of like a NEMA-50 in a garage, or a dryer outlet they could spare when not in use, then that would be best. But you'd want to have a special 220VAC extension cord made up with you for that purpose, as well as the particular adapter for your UMC. Might be worth it if you plan to visit them often.

The 220VAC options would definitely keep up and give you a some charge in addition.

- ÆCIII

 

[EVOverlanding]

Did a trip back in November of 2022 with the Rivian and stayed up at 10000 ft at 20 degrees with a 110v charger only. It was able to pull 1-2 miles of charge per hour on that. Hoping the CT can do the same.

 

[Crissa]

A strategy such of this requires a little diligence. Not just a Tesla. One if in colder temps needs to come into location and begin charging while battery is still warm. Leave the car alone. Turn off the bluetooth and stop checking it. We really don't know what we are going to get in this situation yet, as I haven't seen it in they truck.

The temperature the battery needs to Level 1 charge is much, much lower than Supercharging, so it'll take very low (like -30C, -22F) temperatures for the car to require to be plugged in and not be able to add miles at all.

When it's that cold, you'll need to provide more charge or consume battery or put it into hibernation.

-Crissa

Sponsored