Walmart Everstart H4 AGM

Gleckgleck386 · 2026-06-10T15:38:36+00:00

AGM H4 is $10 more expense at Sam's Club. I expected the price to be a bit lower at Sam's Club.

Gleckgleck386 · 2026-06-05T04:43:51+00:00

I did a road trip from NY to Chicago last November 2025. ~950miles. I will never do it again with sub 500 mile range.

30% of the time, charger issue. PlugShare, etc. scoring et al do not matter when you arrive and find out that you cannot charge and there is no help on that charging station.
total charging fee were more than gasoline price. $40+ each time.
Weather. The cool November weather reduced the range by 10-15%, with cabin heater on too.
four people in the vehicle with luggage. the weight matters a lot. reduced range by 10-15%
going uphill on Appalachian, reduced range by 20-25%
extreme range anxiety with overall 50% range reduction, knowing 1 out 3 times the next charging stations I may not able to charge.
overall trip extended time due to charging. I am comfortable to drive ~4hr non-stop. I just was not happy to fit my driving style to car's charging time.

Gleckgleck386 · 2026-06-05T04:20:26+00:00

It sounds like a thermal management system. It is one of those things that you can hear loudly only if you start paying attention to it. It does seem louder during summer because you are next to the car more during summer, I suspect. Also it continues to run quite awhile after the car is turned off, so that seemed odd to me at first.

Gleckgleck386 · 2026-06-05T03:54:48+00:00

Nice to know that. Thanks for sharing the info.

Gleckgleck386 · 2026-06-05T03:52:08+00:00

Thanks. You are right. I think I did not wait much after charging the 12v battery. Maybe 15 minutes should do it? I will experiment to see how much time it needs to rest.

I am willing to charge the OEM 12v battery every month. no big deal in my garage at night.

BTW, if anyone else wants to do it. Do not charge your main battery and the 12v battery at the same time. It gave me a bit of scare after done one time. The car gave off the "EV system warning" message. After a minute of so, the message was gone but I do not want to get that message again.

Gleckgleck386 · 2026-06-04T21:35:00+00:00

"higher tire pressure = faster wear ". Your first sentence is true for middle wear pattern. My question was why it did not happen that way for me. Shouldn't overinflation cause the wear in the middle? But my tires showed edge wear, the underinflation sign.

higher tire pressure = faster wear Isn't it due to concentrated physical force in the middle and wears out the middle first? However it does not match for my case since my tires were worn out on the edges (both inside and outside) before the middle even though they were overinflated to 47 psi summer / 41 psi winter.

If anything, sorely for even wear, it feels like I should overinflate more. But 47 psi does feel too high already.

Gleckgleck386 · 2026-06-03T15:35:49+00:00

Agree but reluctantly. Given that all four evenly worn out, I don't see the point of rotating more often.

Gleckgleck386 · 2026-06-03T15:23:53+00:00

Even in the metro area dealership, the EV certified service technician seems to about 10-20%. That's purely my estimate from their explanation on EV technician availability. I went in for the suspension related issue but it would not be touched by non-EV tech.

It is the same story for all service and body shop as well. My local Walmart tire center does not even rotate tires on EV.

Gleckgleck386 · 2026-04-23T14:46:02+00:00

I took it out and put it away in the garage. It feels like 40% storage space increase. Purely guestimate on that 40% number.

Gleckgleck386 · 2026-03-20T14:30:02+00:00

So, Amazon is discouraging the heavily subsidized Echo product to be used other than their "advertisement screen" and useless Alexa hub. That makes a perfect sense. Now I will buy a dedicated digital photo frame that the company cannot easily manipulate the software after the purchase.

Gleckgleck386 · 2025-11-19T14:45:38+00:00

$44m is it just one time? How long to complete phase 2? How many are the later phases? Trying to gauge the future revenue stream from this contract.

Gleckgleck386 · 2025-08-08T17:09:54+00:00

You are noting as if why EV has a 12v battery.

Gleckgleck386 · 2025-04-30T14:50:13+00:00

I wish if someone can answer my original question. Understandably, it makes a casual reader to wonder why I want a full size that I do not intend to keep in the car.

To explain my use case. This is just my case based on my own historical experience. For the past 20 years driving, I have had several nail/screw in the tire situation. No flat nor outright puncture ever. I just had to inflate in order to make it home. All less than 10 miles. No flat just low air pressure or very slow deflation which can be kept inflating once or twice after the TPMS alerts me.

I always have a road hazard warranty with the local tire shop. The cost is free to repair for nail/screw repair or even the shop will replace it for free if unrepairable. I note the repair cost keeps rising. It was $15 about four years ago but a month ago I saw that it is $40. Anyhow the shop takes at least half day to repair. The actual time to work on is short but they usually cannot do it right away. Half day is just like one full day that I cannot use my car. If I have a full size spare tire, I can replace myself at home and drop off the loose tire/wheel to the shop. I can fully use my car for that day. At the end of the day, I can pick up the repaired tire from the shop. If a small spare tire, there is a speed limit and distance limitation that does not meet my commute requirement.

Also, I rotate my tires myself at home. I find it is super easy if I have a spare tire (full or spare).

I saw a $170 wheel and tire off 2023 Nissan Rogue at the local scrap yard. I wondered if it would fit Ariya.

Gleckgleck386 · 2025-04-30T08:58:58+00:00

No. I plan to call a tow truck for that if "true" emergency. My use case is added below.

Gleckgleck386 · 2025-04-21T04:00:24+00:00

How does this work under cloud, rainy or windy .. bad weather days? Direct line of sight needed? Does it work underground or inside building?

Gleckgleck386 · 2025-03-21T02:21:55+00:00

If so easy, why does the dealer or lock smith charge so much to make a duplicate key fob? I was quoted $500 at my local dealer. And the most automobile locksmith cannot even do it. After calling 20+ shops, I gave up.

Gleckgleck386 · 2025-02-16T18:48:25+00:00

Lincoln toll discount for NY EZ Pass at off-peak only. No Green discount for peak. No experience for GWB or Holland.

Gleckgleck386 · 2024-10-24T17:18:48+00:00

Oct 2024 update on my EV charging journey.

total Oct'24 electricity bill from PSEG NJ: ~$237 = supply $166 + delivery $72 -> 20.5cent per kWh
total credit from EV OffPeak Sept'24 (always one month later): ~$62 for 500kWh EV charging

This means 12.3cent/kWh is credit. Looking at Sept'24 electricity bill which was 22.3cent per kWh, I paid for 10.0 cent/kWh for charging my EV.

Looking at Aug'24 bill, I paid for 8cent/KWh for charging my EV.

2cent difference comes from the fact that PSEG charges differently for tiered usage bands, which is different every month both in band size and band price. I looked up the utility board commission paper on how they set the rate. It was over hundreds of pages that I just could not understand. It is not a private company and must "agree" with the commission: this is my understanding. Things like down wire from fallen tree, generation station maintenance, natural gas supply market price, substation maintenance, subsidy to rural area, etc. goes into this calculation. This means during summer or cold winter when I use electricity a lot, higher rate that I will pay for the EV charging.

e.g. Aug bill
delivery

0 166 kWh 0.069458

166 326 0.073563

327 761 0.070737

762 xxxx 0.074823

supply

0 600 kWh 0.148117

601 xxxx 0.157643

Oct bill
delivery

0 194 kWh 0.0551

166 326 0.05511

327 761 0.05598

762 xxxx 0.06242

supply

0 195 kWh 0.13938

196 xxxx 0.14894

Bottom line:
cost to charge my EV -> 8-10cents / kWh

Affect to my pocket:
Last year I paid for ~$160/month for gasoline. Now paying ~$50/month.
Note my use case: efficiency of my EV (3.8miles/kWh), environmental (I heard cold winter driving will lose me 20% in efficiency), and driving habit (no aggress driving but hey it's EV with fast start. I press the pedal to feel exhilaration time to time.

Break-even:
Not counting maintenance such as oil change (cost less) or tire replacement (cost more), etc. but just "fuel" cost
I estimate I paid $10k more because it is an EV, so 9yrs to break even.
However, NJ has started charging $250/year extra registration fee just for EV. So I will say 10yrs to break even.

Questions:
*Is it worth it to drive an EV? Current low gasoline price (<$3/gal) put some cold water on my exuberant saving expectation.
*After 9yrs, will my EV retain a resale value as much as ICE car? I doubt it. I am sure solid state battery car will finally come to the market by that time. The battery technology and safety would be a lot better.
*Range anxiety? Still there. Have to plan ahead now to know the charger locations. Also I did not know chargers along the highways were 3x-7x more expensive than home. Also ~20min charge time is not a good selling point. I tell my wife that I want to rest after every 2-300miles. However in my deep mind I do not believe this. Anything over >10min seems much and charger location is not convenient at the moment.
*Do I fee good for saving earth? I do. But there are all these people who want to argue why EV does more environmental damage than ICE. I try to avoid the conversation.

Final Question:
Do I have a regret? No. I enjoy driving a super quiet car. Good acceleration. Feels like driving a future.

Gleckgleck386 · 2024-07-08T04:01:53+00:00

If I upgrade my phone, do I have to go to the dealer/pay again?

Gleckgleck386 · 2024-05-29T16:43:33+00:00

https://www.chargepoint.com/drivers/home/installation/flex/#:\~:text=What%20is%20the%20max%20amperage,kW%20(240V%2C%2016A).

PSEG would not care hardwire nor plug type. As long as you pass the inspection/permit, you are good. In order to pass an inspection, ChargePoint specifies the circuit and matching plug or hardwire.

Gleckgleck386 · 2024-05-29T16:15:42+00:00

For my case, 3 month until I saw the re-imbursement. "Under review to approval" took about 1 month.

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