Charge Cord removal while charging -

[Neil]

I read the following post from the 'My Ford Mobile' site.  I thought it was fairly interesting, so I decided to re-post it here.

 

***************************

 

Several months ago I was concerned about the proper method of stopping the charge cycle in the MIDDLE of a charge operation.

 

I was concerned about just pulling the PLUG from the CHARGE PORT while maximum current was flowing, possibly causing arcing at the connector pins and over time when this was done several times leaving the pins severely damaged.

 

Since the owner’s manual DID NOT address this I called the Ford Customer Relationship Center (800 392-3673) and posed the above question including the “arcing” concern. Even though they did not have an answer immediately, they thought the arcing concern was a valid one. So they put me on hold and contacted someone else to provide an answer. After a long wait I was told that this DID NOT pose a problem and simply removing the connector should be OK.

 

A few days later I decided to get a second opinion and called my dealer and asked the same question. The service manager did not have an answer so he contacted one of the technicians and after another long wait I was told that removing the connector DID NOT pose a problem.

 

Although I RARELY remove the PLUG while CHARGING, I realized that sometimes this situation may arise, and although my concerns were somewhat satisfied, I still had the arcing question in the back of my mind.

 

This past week I stumbled across some official Ford documentation that addressed this situation. It stated that while the vehicle is charging, the “release” button on the charging cord should be pressed and held for about 2 seconds. The vehicle will sense this and STOP the charging cycle. This can be verified by listening to the vehicle closely and you will hear the sound of the “contactor/relay” disengaging. THEN the cord can be safely removed from the charging port WHILE continuing to press the button.

 

I verified this indeed does occur by monitoring the 120v AC charging current with a Kill-A-Watt meter and the current does go to about .07 amps from the normal charging current of about 11.5 amps when the button is pressed BEFORE removing the cord.

 

Another method than can be used is while the vehicle is charging, either from the MyFordMobile website or the vehicle MyTouch screen change the “Charge Profile” to another that does NOT provide for charging at the current time. This will also stop the charge cycle and the charge cord can be removed safely when no amperage is flowing in it.

 

I find it strange that Ford DOES NOT address this in any of their OWNERS MANUALS for use by their customer.

 

[blars]

The post started here...

 

http://www.fordfusionenergiforum.com/topic/1978-charge-cord-removal-while-charging/