[t1638]

Hi all,
I just got my 2017 used Bolt this weekend and its fun car to drive, I love it !

Problem came last night when I first time plugged my 110v home charger, its saying charging and will be completed by 4:45am using 8amp setting. But this morning I saw it says " charge completed " but the power bar was like only 3/4 ( 75%) ( showing on the left side ).

I already set hilltop reserve off and didn't set any special time charging, is this something wrong with the car or just my setting ?

I call the dealer who sold me the car, sales man has no idea at all and I call Chevy authorized dealer and the Bolt technician was off today.

Looking for some quick answer so I can try charging again tonight and see what happen, thanks !

 

[SlickRickTheWizard]

It takes forever to charge at 110 V, 8A. Are you sure it was set to be complete today at 4:45 am. If you have 24+ hours to charge sometimes it can get confusing because it means it will finish 4:45, but not the day you think. What was your starting percent? Because 12 hours of charging at that level will only raise you about 15%, or about 10 kWHr.

 

[t1638]

It takes forever to charge at 110 V, 8A. Are you sure it was set to be complete today at 4:45 am. If you have 24+ hours to charge sometimes it can get confusing because it means it will finish 4:45, but not the day you think. What was your starting percent? Because 12 hours of charging at that level will only raise you about 15%, or about 10 kWHr.

Thank you so much, I will try again tonight and mark down some number to figure this out. I didn't mark last night and was only get charged for about 8hours somewhere from 50% - 60%, maybe you are correct and that should be the 2nd day morning not overnight.

I am waiting for the level 2 installed which may takes couple weeks to be done, so I am living with level 1 charger for now and luckily I had 2nd car as backup and looks like will be a true backup now.

Thanks again and hope this is the issue so the Bolt has no battery problem, I love driving it and can't skip a day.

 

[SlickRickTheWizard]

Let us know how it works out. Interested in hearing the outcome.

Also, if you have a 20 amp breaker and the Bolt is the only thing plugged into the circuit, you can bump it up to 12A

 

[t1638]

Let us know how it works out. Interested in hearing the outcome.

Also, if you have a 20 amp breaker and the Bolt is the only thing plugged into the circuit, you can bump it up to 12A

Sure will keep you posted, I got only 15A breaker.

 

[calmarkmcdougal]

If there isn't anything else running on your cricut, and it's only 15 amp, you might still be able to get away with 12 amp. Worse that could happen is you'll trip the breaker and hve to go back down to 8 amps.
But, I'm confused - did the car indicate it was full? (Steady green light, instead of blinking?) If so, you may have 75% specified on the Percent-To-Charge-To slider - assuming it's like my 2019 Bolt.

 

[t1638]

If there isn't anything else running on your cricut, and it's only 15 amp, you might still be able to get away with 12 amp. Worse that could happen is you'll trip the breaker and hve to go back down to 8 amps.
But, I'm confused - did the car indicate it was full? (Steady green light, instead of blinking?) If so, you may have 75% specified on the Percent-To-Charge-To slider - assuming it's like my 2019 Bolt.

Thanks for your info, I can't remember but should be solid green on the dash. Otherwise I will know its still charging and also the screen did say was completed, that was the question I had this morning and posted here.

Where you see that setting " Percent-To-Charge-To slider " as I had been playing around the setting twice at the weekend but didn't notice there is an option like you mentioned above, please let me know where and I will try to find it shortly when I get off work.

 

[calmarkmcdougal]

Again, this is from my 2019 Bolt: Press "Energy" (lower left bottom of touch screen) then select the "Target Charge Level" tab. On mine, there's a slider - I have mine set at 90%.

Hope this helps!

 

[The Other Tom]

Again, this is from my 2019 Bolt: Press "Energy" (lower left bottom of touch screen) then select the "Target Charge Level" tab. On mine, there's a slider - I have mine set at 90%.

Hope this helps!

I'm pretty sure this option is only on the 2019 models. The OP has a '17 which has a function called "hill top reserve" that stops charging at 80%. So it doesn't fit with his 75% observation.

 

[calmarkmcdougal]

Okay, I was hoping someone would chime in if the '17 was different.... Well, 75% is pretty close to 80%... is it possible it stopped at 80%, then sat long enough to lose 5% or something? Or might the 80% cutoff not be precisely reliable?

 

[Rick CH]

I'm pretty sure this option is only on the 2019 models. The OP has a '17 which has a function called "hill top reserve" that stops charging at 80%. So it doesn't fit with his 75% observation.

Again, this is from my 2019 Bolt: Press "Energy" (lower left bottom of touch screen) then select the "Target Charge Level" tab. On mine, there's a slider - I have mine set at 90%.

Hope this helps!

2019 models have the user selectable variable charging stop. All others only have Hilltop Reserve, which stops at 90%.

 

[The Other Tom]

Okay, I was hoping someone would chime in if the '17 was different.... Well, 75% is pretty close to 80%... is it possible it stopped at 80%, then sat long enough to lose 5% or something? Or might the 80% cutoff not be precisely reliable?

My guess is the OP was estimating the 75% (he said it was something like 3/4) so maybe it was really 80%. So, to the OP, check to see if you have hill top reserve activated.

 

[Rick CH]

Stopping at 80% won't be due to Hilltop Reserve; the Hilltop setting stops at 90%.

 

[GregBrew]

Stopping at 80% won't be due to Hilltop Reserve; the Hilltop setting stops at 90%.

...which is 18 of the 20 green bars lit at the left on the dashboard screen. Each bar represents 5% SOC.

 

[calmarkmcdougal]

Stopping at 80% won't be due to Hilltop Reserve; the Hilltop setting stops at 90%.

Yup, 90% is appreciably different....

So, for argument's sake (prolly really need to be there to diagnose) - some of the things that could stop the charging might be - one of the wires got too hot (there's an automatic temp sensor in the charging system), overload of the circuit (you'd have noticed the breaker thrown), the plug in the (house) wall socket not completely inserted, or bumped, or degradation of the battery (unlikely, from what I've heard about the longevity of the battery units) or a malfunction in one of the sensors in the internal charging system (that would be a bummer, at least still under warranty.) Prolly some other causes I haven't thought of.

 

[t1638]

Thanks for all your guys help, I had re-check all my setting last night before plug in. I don't know why it show the charge completed at yesterday morning, maybe something wrong with the setting but anyways it looks like its working now.

And here is the figure and I can't live with level 1 for sure, its very disappointed result but I still love the Bolt, waiting for level 2 to be install a.s.a.p.

At 6pm on 3/25 ( 126miles on 13 bars) plugged in and tells me " charge complete by 12:30am" and I checked this morning at 8am on 3/26, it's showing still charging at (162miles on 16 bars ).

So with the charge time of 14hrs at 8amp setting, I got only 36 miles back....that's really slow! I was expecting level 1 has 4miles/hr charge rate, but with 2.5miles/hr charging rate its like nothing. Especially now its in spring (was like 30F last night), what happen if in winter time with level 1 charger its useless.

 

[Curt]

L1 at 120V 8A is super slow but should still be better than 36 miles in 14 hours. I suspect that because of the sub-freezing temps, some of the energy is used on battery conditioning (check your Energy status).

A full charge of 60 kW nominally takes ~75 hours at 960W. (At any rate, there seems to be a 20% time penalty on top of what you'd expect if you divide 60000 by the volts and amps.) The charge complete time indication is nonsensically misleading.

If you set it to draw 12A then the time for full charge is reduced to 50 hours. You can also set Location Based Charging to your home location so you don't have to select it manually each time, although this will revert to 8A every 90 days. Still very slow.

If you can get 240V to the charger that comes with the car (Google "kawal volt adapter"), then you can double the rate and get a full charge in 25 hours. It will automatically draw 12A each time. Some people have created an adapter that goes to two 15A 120V outlets that are on opposite AC phases, a very cheap option. That would really have been enough for me, except I was interested in taking on a personal project of installing an L2 station.

The next higher option is the 30A dryer plug, with which you could get an EVSE for 16A or 24A (19 hours or 12.5 hours, respectively). IMO this is a very intrusive option, except possibly good for renters.

I ran a 50A circuit to a new NEMA 14-50 receptacle in order to support an EVSE of 32A (9.5 hours) or 40A (still 9.5 hours, but a little more future-proof).

 

[240vPlug]

As others have stated you have a really slow charge rate due to L1 at 8amps. Adding to that you need battery conditioning when its cold which will take away some energy when it cycles. Mine seems to pull about 0.5 kwh from the L2 charger when the battery heating cycle runs its course. This can go up to nearly 1 kwh when its really cold outside. This is with my car in an unheated garage too.

What type of L2 charger are you going with? The Bolt will charge at a max 32amp so I recommend something that can charge at least that. I have a JuiceBox Pro 40 installed and connected to a NEMA 14-50 outlet on a 50 amp circuit. L2 charging is a must with this car especially if you live where it gets cold.

Congrats on the vehicle. I am sure you are enjoying it already aside from the slow charging situation.

 

[t1638]

As others have stated you have a really slow charge rate due to L1 at 8amps. Adding to that you need battery conditioning when its cold which will take away some energy when it cycles. Mine seems to pull about 0.5 kwh from the L2 charger when the battery heating cycle runs its course. This can go up to nearly 1 kwh when its really cold outside. This is with my car in an unheated garage too.

What type of L2 charger are you going with? The Bolt will charge at a max 32amp so I recommend something that can charge at least that. I have a JuiceBox Pro 40 installed and connected to a NEMA 14-50 outlet on a 50 amp circuit. L2 charging is a must with this car especially if you live where it gets cold.

Congrats on the vehicle. I am sure you are enjoying it already aside from the slow charging situation.

Finally I see a " Fully charged" msg this morning after 2 nights but the miles 207 only ? Shouldn't Bolt has about somewhere 230 at full charge ?

I am going for the Clipper Creek 24amp L2, thanks.

 

[SlickRickTheWizard]

The GOM (guess-o-meter) can varie widely depending on past driving and current temp. In fact I have left the house with 198 range on the GOM and gotten home with a range of 170 after driving over 80 mi. That day was warmer and I had a tailwind on the way home. Your fine. Just wait until summer!!!