H8 Battery Upgrade May Not Quite Be the Solution That I Hoped For

[FirstFord]

I thought I had a pretty good solution to an ongoing problem, but I just had some surprises....

Background:
- Truck is a '22 Lariat 3.5 EB. It is rarely driven daily - it is driven when I need a truck (which means sometimes it is driven daily, but most times it sits for a week... or two... or maybe a little longer).
- To put a stop to the low-charge warnings I was getting regularly, I kept the truck on a 10A battery maintainer (daily).
- As a more permanent solution to the above (and getting the battery OFF of the maintainer), in January of last year, I upgraded my battery from an H7 size to an H8.
- Prior to installation, I fully charged the battery to bring it all the way up (100%).
- After installation, I reset the BMS.
- After upgrading the battery to an H8, it solved all of the electrical warnings I was previously getting .
- It hasn't been on a maintainer/charger since - until now...

I finally got around to utilizing some of the OBD Fusion PIDs to display on the Sync 4 screen (Cool! - I wish I did it a long time ago!). One of the PIDs that I chose to display was SOC.

After the truck had been sitting idle for almost two weeks, I drove it yesterday to perform some tasks. I was shocked when I saw the SOC was at 45% and when I got home, the SOC was up to 68%. Based on this, I put the truck back on the 10A battery maintainer. It was on for about 20 hours and I checked the SOC again - now it was up to 75%. (I'm going to leave it on the maintainer for a few more days.)

On the one hand, upgrading to the H8 did stop all of the annoying warnings, and deep-sleep modes. But on the other hand, it may not have been quite the complete solution that I expected. My whole reason for the battery upgrade was to get the truck off of the battery maintainer. As it turns out, I may still have to put it on a battery maintainer every now and then, but at least it isn't daily.

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[Bryan Simon]

I put an H8 in to replace the second OEM H6 in my 21 XLT.
granted, I do not have all the goodies in my truck, but so far (16 mo), no issues.
I believe the truck’s personal command center wants to see a SOC around 70%, and frequently lower.
i deactivated my A-S-S so I don’t get that failure to operate anymore, and no more weird electrical gremlins have me scratching my head.
i have had a few instances where it struggled a moment cranking before starting.
Bigger battery is just more capacity so you get longer times between freak outs.
I’m kinda hard on my batter, about 2 hours daily on accessory listening to radio and reading.

 

[Kodiak]

I think for these tech loaded vehicles being on a charger will be far more commonplace than before. Especially for a vehicle that is not driven regularly. I am in the same boat as I only have about 7500 miles on my 2022 Lariat PB.

Also you should check your aux battery as that might be a problem too. Good luck.

 

[Aonarch]

I only drive my truck once a week, or less. And I have a winch wired directly to the battery. I've never had an issue after going with a H8 battery, even up to 3 weeks without driving it.

 

[KingDavid]

Could've sworn H8 was not meant for PBs. I think others have said it wouldn't fit. Interesting. It's not that uncommon to see vehicles not in constant use be put on battery maintainers. I have an onboard tender on mine that's quick and easy to plug in. Which tender do you have? I have a kit that utilizes a male outlet on the bottom of the front bumper (so it's a quick & easy plug/unplug without popping the hood, but I haven't installed it yet). Which tender do you have?

 

[FirstFord]

I only drive my truck once a week, or less. And I have a winch wired directly to the battery. I've never had an issue after going with a H8 battery, even up to 3 weeks without driving it.

I'm just "spitballing" here, but perhaps driving once a week is enough, or maybe just on the edge of being enough. Mine sometimes sits for 2~3 weeks. Plus, I'm guessing that perhaps the cumulative affect of multiple long periods of inactivity plays a role in this. By the way, my truck also has a winch.

However, to be clear, I also never had an "issue" in the 1-1/2 years since I upgraded to the H8. All of the electrical gremlins were vanquished. And I was still not having issues up to the minute that I started using the OBD Fusion PIDs to display on the Sync 4 screen. That was when I learned (and very surprised) to see the low SOC of 45%. Had I not decided to utilize the PIDs, I would have still been just trudging along, thinking everything was fine. Once again I am guessing - but I am guessing that during those occasions that when I did drive the truck, without some long trips to charge up the battery, the SOC would have slowly continued to have deteriorated to the point where I would eventually start having "issues".

 

[FirstFord]

Could've sworn H8 was not meant for PBs

You are correct - they are not. I think @Kodiak misread my original post where I identified my truck as being an EcoBoost (EB).

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Could've sworn H8 was not meant for PBs. I think others have said it wouldn't fit. Interesting. It's not that uncommon to see vehicles not in constant use be put on battery maintainers. I have an onboard tender on mine that's quick and easy to plug in. Which tender do you have? I have a kit that utilizes a male outlet on the bottom of the front bumper (so it's a quick & easy plug/unplug without popping the hood, but I haven't installed it yet). Which tender do you have?

There's not enough room for the H8 in a PB due to the hybrid components sitting right next to it. Instead many of us have either added a piggybacked 20-30ah lithium battery to the aux battery under the rear seat or added a larger AGM battery and modified the battery tray under the rear passenger seat to fit it. For the PB this adds a lot of additional reserve to the 12v system achieving the same result as the H8 did for non PB models.

 

[Davexxxx]

My truck frequently sits for a week or more and I had all the gremlin type low batt warnings as everyone else.

Saw where it was recommended to try charging directly to the posts and then do a BMS reset.

That was a yr. go last April. No issues since. Poof, like magic.

 

[pjc123]

H8 fixed my 2024 getting low battery warnings after sitting for 2 weeks. I know at least I can get past 3 weeks, but have not had the opportunity to go any longer yet.

 

[Kodiak]

You are correct - they are not. I think @Kodiak misread my original post where I identified my truck as being an EcoBoost (EB).

No I saw you had a EB, as an H8 would not fit otherwise. I was just stating that minimal driving, on any of these trucks, can have more of a power draw than you can return for driving so a charger may be needed due to that.

My truck happens to be a PB so I may be more susceptible but I can see this as an issue for any F-150 with all the extra gadgets and apps.

 

[FirstFord]

Yup - installing my H8 fixed all of my electrical gremlins - no more warnings, etc. All issues were resolved. Loved it. Never put my truck on a battery charger/maintainer again.

Then - and out of chance - I started using the OBD II PIDs. ONLY THEN did I see my low SOC.

 

[Kanuck]

I have replaced my H6 with a H7 about a year ago. The H6 was not holding a charge. I also mounted onto the top of the fuse cover a Noco 5 amp maintainer that if I know the truck is going to sit for awhile, even 4 or 5 days, I plug it in. Not a big deal in my opinion.

Side note..
Just replaced my 7 year old, 12 volt 12 AH, zero trun mower battery. It is plugged into a Noco 2 amp maintainer when ever I finish cutting the grass and all winter. 7 years out of a battery with a 6 month warranty. I got 11 years out of my quad battery doing the same thing.

 

[FirstFord]

Side note..
Just replaced my 7 year old, 12 volt 12 AH, zero trun mower battery. It is plugged into a Noco 2 amp maintainer when ever I finish cutting the grass and all winter. 7 years out of a battery with a 6 month warranty. I got 11 years out of my quad battery doing the same thing.

We live in the same world - I do the same thing. I have 10 NOCO chargers/maintainers, ranging from 2A to 10A (I used the 10A on the truck).

 

[PB2021]

If you are having it sit for longer periods with a low SOC even on a newer battery it will have an impact on the battery’s capacity. I just replaced our main and aux in our powerboost a couple weeks ago at 4yrs on originals. I would put charger on from time to time and it helped but the high SOC wasn’t staying long anymore and after being charged fully the charger was immediately going back into top off mode. I charged the new batteries fully and separately before install and reset BMS. That was a couple weeks ago and I’ve received 4 OTA updates since and the SOC stays high. I have started just throwing the charger on when it sits a few days and rather than taking a day or more to show full charge it’s hours. Once there the charger just stays at full charge rather than having to top off again soon after. You may want to leave the charger on regularly to avoid any similar dips in charge. Although AGMs can deal with lower discharges they can still be impacted if left in that state for longer periods.

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