Long Term Storage of Powerboost Hybrid

[mongolodeon]

I just took delivery of a Powerboost Hybrid F-150, with a 7.2Kw Pro Power Onboard (not sure if this runs off the main battery or a different one).

The vehicle has to sit for the first 3+ months of its life. On a gas vehicle I'd hook up a battery tender/trickle charger, but with a hybrid I've read some bad results of doing that.

The owner's manual is pretty scant on instructions. Does anyone here know how best to handle storage of a hybrid for an extended period like this? I don't want to screw up or degrade the life of these batteries from the get-go.

TIA

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[SuperRaptor]

What are you seeing where you can't put your 12v system on a tender? Mines been on one for the past week...

 

[Blueshound]

As long as your tender is compatible with the AGM 12v battery, the truck will be none the wiser. Plenty of people using tenders to keep battery voltage up so that updates come through.

 

[Oxford_Powerboost]

Idk about not keeping the 12V system on a tender. Personally, I would. Better than having to replace 12V batteries (2!) when they die from sitting too long. Here’s the only thing I would do and idk if it’s necessary - before storage I’d drive it around get it good and warm and then when you go to park it for storage, set eco idle to on and let it idle in EV until the engine starts to charge the battery. Let eco idle complete a full charge cycle (so till the engine turns off again) and then turn the truck off and hook up your tender.

Reasoning for my suggestion - the hybrid battery is a lithium ion pack in these trucks. Li-ion batteries like to be stored around 50% capacity. Eco idle should ensure it gets to 50%, maybe higher. I think the middle range is good, the truck won’t charge past ~72% and even that would be fine to store it. I just wouldn’t necessarily want to store it at the bottom end of the charge ~42%.

All that said, it’s probably fine to store without any of that lol

EDIT: I was partially right, partially wrong. Here’s what the owners manual has to say:


Hybrid Battery Systems
We recommend the following actions for your vehicle:

• When storing your vehicle for greater than 30 days the state of charge should be approximately 50%. Additionally we recommend disconnecting the 12V battery which reduces system loads on the HV battery.

 

[SuperRaptor]

Idk about not keeping the 12V system on a tender. Personally, I would. Better than having to replace 12V batteries (2!) when they die from sitting too long. Here’s the only thing I would do and idk if it’s necessary - before storage I’d drive it around get it good and warm and then when you go to park it for storage, set eco idle to on and let it idle in EV until the engine starts to charge the battery. Let eco idle complete a full charge cycle (so till the engine turns off again) and then turn the truck off and hook up your tender.

Reasoning for my suggestion - the hybrid battery is a lithium ion pack in these trucks. Li-ion batteries like to be stored around 50% capacity. Eco idle should ensure it gets to 50%, maybe higher. I think the middle range is good, the truck won’t charge past ~72% and even that would be fine to store it. I just wouldn’t necessarily want to store it at the bottom end of the charge ~42%.

All that said, it’s probably fine to store without any of that lol

EDIT: I was partially right, partially wrong. Here’s what the owners manual has to say:


Hybrid Battery Systems
We recommend the following actions for your vehicle:

• When storing your vehicle for greater than 30 days the state of charge should be approximately 50%. Additionally we recommend disconnecting the 12V battery which reduces system loads on the HV battery.

Well my charger (NOCO) is rated for AGM batteries, I'll let you know in a year if it goes bad. My truck sits for 2-3weeks at a time a few times a year and I see no reason to not keep it on a tender.
Interestingly when I put it on there it showed the battery as only 50% full and took a few hours for it to go up to 75 and then 100% and start 'tending'. Truck is brand new but has been on a couple of multiple hour drives and had only been parked for 2 days. Hope the stock battery didn't get discharged as it sat around waiting for chips.

 

[Oxford_Powerboost]

Well my charger (NOCO) is rated for AGM batteries, I'll let you know in a year if it goes bad. My truck sits for 2-3weeks at a time a few times a year and I see no reason to not keep it on a tender.
Interestingly when I put it on there it showed the battery as only 50% full and took a few hours for it to go up to 75 and then 100% and start 'tending'. Truck is brand new but has been on a couple of multiple hour drives and had only been parked for 2 days. Hope the stock battery didn't get discharged as it sat around waiting for chips.

I just quoted what the manual has to say. Personally, I’d still leave mine on a tender. I think the manual assumes you won’t have a tender, in which case disconnecting the battery would be a good idea.

Personally I’m more worried about the high voltage battery. I wonder what effect leaving the battery hooked up has on the hybrid battery

 

[FrankThompson]

I just quoted what the manual has to say. Personally, I’d still leave mine on a tender. I think the manual assumes you won’t have a tender, in which case disconnecting the battery would be a good idea.

Personally I’m more worried about the high voltage battery. I wonder what effect leaving the battery hooked up has on the hybrid battery

Shouldn't be hard to tell, hook up something like Torque and get a reading before storage and then again after storing it. I would think that it doesn't use the hybrid battery that much during storage. Keeping it stored around 50% would be optimal. Too bad they don't give you a way to know when you're at 50%.

You should expect some loss in charge over time, but not that much. For my long term storage of my backup phone, I lose about 10% a year. I pull it out and charge it back up to 50% and store it again. I can't guarantee it's the same exact situation, but it should be close.

 

[Snakebitten]

One thing for sure on mine is if ~50% SOC is a good thing, mine is rarely far off from that. Lol. (my feeble attempt to use humor regarding the narrow range Ford has this battery working in)

So the manual calls for disconnecting the 12V battery. Only one of them?

 

[Oxford_Powerboost]

One thing for sure on mine is if ~50% SOC is a good thing, mine is rarely far off from that. Lol. (my feeble attempt to use humor regarding the narrow range Ford has this battery working in)

So the manual calls for disconnecting the 12V battery. Only one of them?

It makes no mention of both. I have to assume it’s both, but who really knows?

 

[SuperRaptor]

It makes no mention of both. I have to assume it’s both, but who really knows?

I would assume disconnecting both. I know the small battery still powers the computers/accessories from what I've read.

If you let your truck idle until it shuts off it should be around a 65% SOC also from what I've read.

 

[mongolodeon]

Thank you for all the helpful responses so far. Boy this is a real rabbit hole I've gone down.

The dealership says all I need to do is run my vehicle a bit to get the battery to around 50%, as some of you advised. However I can't see what the battery % is without the Ford app (I think Ford Pass?). However I am trying to register that app and am having challenges as I am not with the actual vehicle (the whole reason for my initial question).

Can anyone kindly walk me through the most straightforward way to register the app to my vehicle, when all I have is a non-tech saavy friend who can sometimes access the truck? I am also apparently needing this app to register my FordPass Rewards for purchasing the vehicle. I don't know if these points are worth accumulating but it says I only have 60 days to claim them for the purchase and in order to do that I need to enable some sort of modem.

Gah, this is very difficult at every step. Thanks to anyone who can help me make sense of all this. I used to buy a truck and put the key in and go. These days there are so many things to set up!

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