My Rivian completely dead from ~40% vampire drain after a month long vacation

[HarisonAltDelete]

I keep looking for a 12 volt manual battery charger that's not on some sort of cart wheels and costs almost $200. But that appears to be a very niche market. The ones I do find seem flimsy. And all the other DIY chargers want to see at least 2 or 3 volts to make sure it's connected correctly.

Get a Noco battery booster. Its small enough to fit in your hand, and has an override if the voltage is 0

Sponsored

 

[rivian_germany]

I couldn't find the specification for the primary and secondary 12V batteries in the current user guide, and wonder if these might be Li chemistry?

C&D Technologies DCS12-18UNC R1T (AGM Deep Cycle, so not lithium)

 

[Rivianation]

All of the other EVs I've owned will only lose maybe 1-2% over that period.

For Teslas, its that amount per day. Says so in their manual.

 

[Yossarian]

I just wrapped up my week long test of vampire drain on my R1T vs the F-150L to see if the latest software updates really had a significant improvement. Overall I found the vampire drain was roughly half of what it was in early January on the R1T. The F-150L has stayed consistent. . .

Overall to me it's a minor drain when we're looking at one vehicle. We're talking roughly 2-3kWh/day. The problem is with multiple cars - as a 3 car household will consume 6-9kWh/day - almost 30% of what a typical household consumes on a daily basis.

Yikes.
If the vampire drain for a Rivian is indeed ~3kWh/day, that will bump our average daily household electrical usage by about 16%. In dollars at our current rate, that means we'll be paying an extra $23 each month just to keep the car alive.

 

[Puttyandnapalm]

Like many others, I just lost 3% in 24 hours with my truck in garage, outside temp in the mid 30s. Didn’t check app at all and gear guard off

 

[Dark-Fx]

For Teslas, its that amount per day. Says so in their manual.

Never owned a Tesla.

 

[Yossarian]

I keep looking for a 12 volt manual battery charger that's not on some sort of cart wheels and costs almost $200. But that appears to be a very niche market. The ones I do find seem flimsy. And all the other DIY chargers want to see at least 2 or 3 volts to make sure it's connected correctly.

Get a Noco battery booster. Its small enough to fit in your hand, and has an override if the voltage is 0

I bought the Victron Blue IP65 Smart Charger to use for my camper and its LiFePO4 batteries. The Victron isn't cheap, but it's well-made and can charge all battery types. It's also fairly compact and has BT, so you can check on things remotely.

I don't yet have my Rivian, so am not in a position to comment on how it works with the dual 12v batteries of the R1. I can however say that it works very well with all of my 12v batteres, from the dual lithium battery bank in the camper to the deep-cycle wet cell on my sump pump back-up system to my motorcycle batteries.

 

[Rivianation]

Never owned a Tesla.

"All the other EVs I've owned" usually includes a Tesla in there somewhere. My bad.

 

[madgrey]

Yikes.
If the vampire drain for a Rivian is indeed ~3kWh/day, that will bump our average daily household electrical usage by about 16%. In dollars at our current rate, that means we'll be paying an extra $23 each month just to keep the car alive.

Try measuring with the Trip meter. Reset when you exit, read when you enter. I've done multi-day tests and average 1.6kWh/day. However, I have seen up to 2.5kWh over the same period (single day only). My R1T sits in my garage locked at around 50F, no other special prep. This is with the previous rev software, I just downloaded the new one.

 

[emoore]

Try measuring with the Trip meter. Reset when you exit, read when you enter. I've done multi-day tests and average 1.6KWh/day. However, I have seen up to 2.5KWh over the same period (single day only). My R1T sits in my garage locked at around 50F, no other special prep. This is with the previous rev software, I just downloaded the new one.

With the limited testing I’ve done I also see an out 1.6 kWh per day with reasonable temps of 40-50 during the day and 20-30 at night. When it gets lower than that is see over 2 kWh per day. My truck is parked outside.

 

[IPTV65]

Maybe we all will get a fat check one day for all the bitcoin they have been mining using the onboard GPU while the vehicles are sitting. Gotta get something in return for all the juice they burn. I would argue the vehicle is never really idle.

 

[jollyroger]

Get a Noco battery booster. Its small enough to fit in your hand, and has an override if the voltage is 0

These boosters may have a problem generating 30A for any significant amount of time. And from what I've seen already, it takes a while for truck to wake up enough to get the charging door and frunk open.

I seem to remember seeing a note that also stated that the charging cables at the hitch do not allow power to be detected. Sure enough, when I put my volt meter on it, it shows 0 volts and my 12v battery is not dead (yet)

So basically you need a charger that will work when it detects 0 volts. Or a spare car battery lying around. We don’t have any ICE cars anymore, so traditional jump is not an option for us.

I have a 30 amp Dewalt smart battery charger. I figure I should just get an extra car battery. Keep that charged. And if I need a jump, connect the car battery to the hitch leads, and attach the charger to the battery.

It's crazy we have to think this way. The manual frunk release procedure is nuts! I feel like it was literally an "oh $@#$" moment by the engineers when someone asked. "What do we do if the batteries die?"

 

[jollyroger]

I bought the Victron Blue IP65 Smart Charger to use for my camper and its LiFePO4 batteries. The Victron isn't cheap, but it's well-made and can charge all battery types. It's also fairly compact and has BT, so you can check on things remotely.

I don't yet have my Rivian, so am not in a position to comment on how it works with the dual 12v batteries of the R1. I can however say that it works very well with all of my 12v batteres, from the dual lithium battery bank in the camper to the deep-cycle wet cell on my sump pump back-up system to my motorcycle batteries.

I think the main problem is when you use the leads at the back of the truck, you are not just charing the battery, but theres a lot of amps going to the vehicle systems. So Rivian is recommending 30 amps to have a chance to allow the vehicle to get some power and be able to charge the 12v primary battery. If it was just charging the battery, I think these small chargers would work.

 

[5cats]

C&D Technologies DCS12-18UNC R1T (AGM Deep Cycle, so not lithium)

Sweet. I'm planning to get the NOCO "Boost X" GBX55 (1750A capability) then.
The local building supplies store carries the GBX75 (2500A), but I don't think that bigger unit will have any greater benefit for this use case.
The trick will be to have it on-hand and not actually in the truck if/when needed.

Edit: May have to re-think these hi-flow jump starters, give the battery datasheet recommends a max charging current of 31A.

 

[cardad]

Is there an EV on the market that wouldn’t drain from 40% to 0 after sitting stationary for 4 weeks straight? Serious question.

Literally none of the other EVs I’ve owned do this. Even newer gas cars go into a “sleep” mode. i have left etron, Taycan, outlander PHEV, and Fiat 500e sitting for 3-6 months and they have had minimal drain with no issues upon start. Rivian clearly runs some intensive hardware that they cannot justify disabling to prevent battery drain.

Sponsored