Mobile Office Question

[appraiserdude]

Today I needed to work on a 30 page law review article for school, and had no access to any libraries due to it being a Sunday in the middle of Spring Break, so I decided to use my C-Max hybrid as a car office. I slid my chair all the way back, the wheel all the way forward, plugged my laptop into the AC outlet, and parked outside of a McDonald's to use their free wi-fi. It worked great, I had plenty of room for my laptop, used the top of the console as a mouse pad, and had all my pens and research materials within an arms reach. This car makes a perfect mobile office! My question is that since the car was running, the ICE charging the battery then the battery taking over until it runs low when the ICE kicks in again, if this could possibly be bad for the car (particularly the battery)? I would really like to know because it worked so great I am tempted to do this all the time (sometimes I just can't get any work done with the kids running all over the house), but would like to make sure that I am not damaging my car, or prematurely killing the battery, in the process.

[HotPotato]

I have wondered the same thing!

[FoutsNC]

I cannot speak directly to the question for long term use like that, yet I have done that same thing for hours.  The setup of the system works really well for that type of thing.  I would think that as long as you aren't putting miles on it, the warranty will cover most things that could go wrong due to sitting like that.  Since it has worked so well for me as well, I will not think twice about using the car in this manner if I need to.  I will disclaim that I do not expect to keep this car for more than 2 years and my concern might be less than those who expect to keep it for much longer.

[valkraider]

It shouldn't be any different than driving it on the road - except less wear and tear. Remember - due to the CVT and the generator this car doesn't really idle.

 

The oil condition monitor goes off engine hours (and a few other variables) and not miles - so you'll potentially have to change the oil a tad sooner than you may have expected if you were to do this frequently.

 

I have done the same thing with a site that has free wifi AND free charging. I plugged in my Energi and laptop, turned on the heated seat and went to work... :)

[RachelnLa]

Sounds like good questions for the Michigan gathering.

[MacGyver]

I've heard that idling for a long period of time can cause acidity in the oil, but I read that a looong time ago, pretty sure they weren't talking about synthetic oil which is what is in our cars, or an atkinson engine.

 

Like Rachel said; Sounds like good questions for the Michigan gathering.

 

I'd google / research those issues if you're going to do it a lot, (a lot=more than once a week, more than an hour at a time) but I'd agree you're probably not doing anything terrible to it.

Edited April 24, 2013 by MacGyver

[jmckinley]

My guess is, this won't hurt your Max.  Some of the Prius guys use their cars for emergency power for their homes.  They use a big inverter hooked to the 12v battery and just leave the car on.  It starts up from time to time and recharges the 12v battery.  One guy reported doing this for a couple of days. Not good for your lifetime average but better than melting all the stuff in the fridge.

 

Another example:

I have driven a chase vehicle for the bicycle Race Across America.  To guarantee that we don't get let down by a dead battery, we never turn the support vehicles off.  So for 6-8 days, depending on how fast our rider is, the car is never shut off.  No problems reported with any of our vehicles.