NOCO Genius 10 Question

[TJC]

I am not fighting anything because I am not trying to fix anything. I am already running an onboard desulfator. Someday I will adjust the SOC, but not too worried about.

Let me rephrase:

Using it on your Ranger can only help. But you are fighting an uphill battle until you set the SOC threshold higher or unplug the BMS sensor

However, your battery will never maintain an optimal charge. It will top out at 75% SOC.

Your truck's charging system is functioning perfectly within the Ford Engineering design specification.

Using your charger to charge the battery to 100% will be immediately negated as soon as you begin driving the truck. The design will discharge the battery down to the SOC target of 75% to stay within the Ford target SOC.

The same goes for the desulfator, It can only help. but it will not be as active/effective due to the lower battery charge threshold.

A typical 12V auto battery with a SOC level of 75% = 12.37v, which is not enough to trigger your desulfator to begin breakup existing sulfur crystals on the lead plates. Or to even slow the growth of those crystals in the first place. Even at 100% SOC or ~12.60v, cyrstal growth still occuring, but at a much slower rate.

Raising your SOC threshold will insure your alternator output consistently stays above 13V, which slows crytal growth and runs the desulfator 100% of the time when the engine is running.

This all said, you are doing all you can do with a SOC threshold at 75%.

No offense intended.

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[dtech]

" However, your battery will never maintain an optimal charge. It will top out at 75% SOC. "

Is that really true - as I understand how the bms and intelligent alternator work is charging the battery to higher levels than the 75% when the engine is off load - ie coasting, braking. When this charges the battery then the alternator is essentially switched off and energy is drawn from the battery, hence some amount of fuel savings.
In theory bms and intelligent alternator are good ideas, except driving patterns vary greatly, so for some instances for example someone whose daily commute involves a downhill stretch close to home - that battery may be near or fully charged upon shutdown.
This explains why some batteries last longer with the bms and soc with factory settings.

 

[TJC]

Disclaimer: This is my experience. Yours may differ.

The BMS drops the charge to 75%, then overcharges when coming to stop or braking. The 25% cushion is to prevent overcharging the battery when the spike voltages occur.

I believe that you are correct in that driving conditions do affect outcome. If you coast more than accelerate you'll win. But in real world suburban driving or long haul interstate cruising I think you lose more often than not. Esp if you have ASS turned on.

My typical driving pattern is 10 - 20 miles between engine shutdown, and restarts. My monitoring over a year showed my battery always at or below (sometimes well below) 75% SOC when BMS was set to stock Ford specs. I did see the low power warnings occasionally. I did not and do not drive my vehicles every day. I own three primary vehicles and each has a task, and all are driven 2 twice a week on average.

I saw a big jump in Battery health and SOC when I unplugged the BMS Sensor (or set SOC in Forscan to 95) and another big jump when I disabled the telematics, and a few other bells and whistles that minimized dark power drains. I have not seen a low power warning since I made the changes over 2 years ago. And the truck has sit unused up to two weeks at a time without an issue.

I no longer even think about topping off my 2020 Ford Ranger battery. It was a weekly occurrence until I made the changes that I have suggested to others.

You pick your poison and go with it. What works for one doesn't necessarily work for others.
One size definitely doesn't fit all... and that makes life all the more interesting.

 

[dtech]

Well I disco'd the bms over 2 yrs back - tuning out the gloom and doom prognostications from this very board - oh your battery will explode and so on.
The worst case scenario is should someone's regular driving pattern have the battery at 70% on shutdown - for a few days or even overnight - the SUBSTANTIAL parasitic draw coupled with a 70% SOC is going to be a battery killer. Ford's "solution" to this is to send alerts and turn off some stuff, but it's not a good prognosis for the battery. My solution - cut the cord.

 

[got3fords]

Let me rephrase:

Using it on your Ranger can only help. But you are fighting an uphill battle until you set the SOC threshold higher or unplug the BMS sensor

However, your battery will never maintain an optimal charge. It will top out at 75% SOC.

Your truck's charging system is functioning perfectly within the Ford Engineering design specification.

Using your charger to charge the battery to 100% will be immediately negated as soon as you begin driving the truck. The design will discharge the battery down to the SOC target of 75% to stay within the Ford target SOC.

The same goes for the desulfator, It can only help. but it will not be as active/effective due to the lower battery charge threshold.

A typical 12V auto battery with a SOC level of 75% = 12.37v, which is not enough to trigger your desulfator to begin breakup existing sulfur crystals on the lead plates. Or to even slow the growth of those crystals in the first place. Even at 100% SOC or ~12.60v, cyrstal growth still occuring, but at a much slower rate.

Raising your SOC threshold will insure your alternator output consistently stays above 13V, which slows crytal growth and runs the desulfator 100% of the time when the engine is running.

This all said, you are doing all you can do with a SOC threshold at 75%.

No offense intended.

With mutual respect, please stop trying to help. My OP was the operation of the NOCO. I am well aware of everything you are stating. However, I never said I intended to use it on the Ranger, nor was there an issue I was trying to address. I never said I wanted to charge my battery to 100%. Not sure where you got that.
My desulfator operates at least 90% of the time. How do I know? Because I have a voltmeter plugged into the 12V accessory port all the time. I am quite often charging near 15V. I am rarely below the 13.5V threshold. It's one reason I have procrastinated on raising the SOC. (which I don't know where it is currently set)
I did say however, that I intend to use it occasionally on my Wife's Edge because she doesn't put many miles on it. And on my lawn mower battery.
Peace out.

 

[got3fords]

Look people, I did not intend to start another BMS, SOC should I or shouldn't I thread. I just wanted to make sure I knew how to operate the NOCO Genius. Please stop and use the multiple previous threads for charging crap.

 

[Frenchy]

Look people, I did not intend to start another BMS, SOC should I or shouldn't I thread. I just wanted to make sure I knew how to operate the NOCO Genius. Please stop and use the multiple previous threads for charging crap.

Fair request. Same idea with one of my recent threads. I don't recall exactly what you were using the charger on, just curious about certain operation.

With that said did you try to reach out to NOCO about it yet? If so what was the response?

 

[Frenchy]

Better yet, looking at the user manual, is icon 5 the one thats.lit up when repair.mode completes?

 

[got3fords]

With that said did you try to reach out to NOCO about it yet? If so what was the response?

No I actually got good advice and a link to the operating manual, so pretty satisfied with most of the help here.

 

[got3fords]

Better yet, looking at the user manual, is icon 5 the one thats.lit up when repair.mode completes?

Yes, 5 comes on with a dull yellowish color. I would have assumed it would automatically go into charge/maintain mode.

 

[Frenchy]

Yes, 5 comes on with a dull yellowish color.

Just for kicks, run the charger on normal mode and see what it does. Perhaps it is to indicate it is complete?

 

[got3fords]

Just for kicks, run the charger on normal mode and see what it does. Perhaps it is to indicate it is complete?

If I run it on normal mode, it cycles through the charge status LED's (I think 6 in your pic) and the last, biggest LED stays lit green, along with the white 12V mode LED.

 

[Frenchy]

If I run it on normal mode, it cycles through the charge status LED's (I think 6 in your pic) and the last, biggest LED stays lit green, along with the white 12V mode LED.

Interesting ?. Assuming you can't get the answer soon, I would recommend reaching out to NOCO about this. I suspect normal operation, but knowing normal operation can be tricky sometimes.

 

[got3fords]

Interesting ?. Assuming you can't get the answer soon, I would recommend reaching out to NOCO about this. I suspect normal operation, but knowing normal operation can be tricky sometimes.

Agree, from everything I have seen, it looks normal. If I find out differently, I'll update the post. Right now I have to deal with installing a new dash cam.

 

[TJC]

With mutual respect, please stop trying to help. My OP was the operation of the NOCO. I am well aware of everything you are stating. However, I never said I intended to use it on the Ranger, nor was there an issue I was trying to address. I never said I wanted to charge my battery to 100%. Not sure where you got that.
My desulfator operates at least 90% of the time. How do I know? Because I have a voltmeter plugged into the 12V accessory port all the time. I am quite often charging near 15V. I am rarely below the 13.5V threshold. It's one reason I have procrastinated on raising the SOC. (which I don't know where it is currently set)
I did say however, that I intend to use it occasionally on my Wife's Edge because she doesn't put many miles on it. And on my lawn mower battery.
Peace out.

Done

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