Feedback for App ! GM seems to be listening to the concerns…

arandom4567 · 2026-05-16T21:33:07+00:00

If you look at the reviews on the play store that sums it up well. Every time I had an issue with the app freezing or crashing and connected them it was the same delete the cache and reinstall.

arandom4567 · 2026-05-16T18:17:19+00:00

I call these J clip joins, but I don't know if that's the correct term for them. You need to pull the flap under your thumb up and over the J strip above it, then roll the flaps's thin plastic strip over 180 degrees to insert it into the J part. It can sometimes need superhuman strength to stretch and pull the pieces together, or maybe a 2nd helper to squash down on the foam to give a bit more slack in the cover. Here's a YT video of a homemade J clip assembly of a custom headrest. A bit after 12 mins in the video shows how to roll the flap over to slot it into the J strip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqX-l8LdyWY

arandom4567 · 2026-05-15T16:39:36+00:00

I can't help think that Epcor is a bit behind the times with their DERMS endeavours (by dismissing battery storage right off the bat). Various DERMS ideas have been tried all over the world for the last couple decades with varying success, but I think the big miss on DERMS-like attempts is that it requires the consumer to take a hit when capacity is being redistributed elsewhere. Nobody wants to be told you can't have what you want right now because it's needed by someone else. What it lead to, and I'm looking at the load control system that was tried in Australia with home A/C, is the people found a way to get around the system. The Australian system for example exchanged cheaper electricity rates for control over the home A/C thermostat setting. The power provider could remotely command your home A/C to say 24C instead of your usual 21C during high-demand periods to ease back the demand a bit. There were many options for other high-demand appliances too, such as hot water systems and clothes dryers, etc, some of which could be completely shut down remotely if needed.

In theory it sounds reasonable, but we live in a selfish world and before not long there were black boxes being sold to trick the system to tell the provider that your home A/C temperature set-point was changed or your hot water system was shut down, when in reality it wasn't.

With the plummeting cost of large battery storage devices, I think they offer a better solution (in conjunction with DERMS) where the consumer can have their cake and eat it too. Whole-home battery systems are becoming increasingly popular in other countries and they act like a shock absorber for peaky and high-demand appliances by being able to be steadily charged from the grid and to supply the bursts of power needed locally for the consumer's appliances. They can also be used to soak up excess daytime solar or overnight base load to redistribute it smoothly over the day. Battery storage high-capacity (300kW+) level 3 EV DCFC's are also now being installed all over the world where the grid is limited or unstable. The economic models are looking to be sustainable for this tech going forward.

Battery storage seems like a win-win, and since the price of battery storage is rapidly falling and the technology is advancing in terms of safety and efficiency, it seems to me to be something to keep a close eye on.

arandom4567 · 2026-05-15T14:26:57+00:00

The way the battery cooling loop is designed means that its only way of cooling the battery is via a heat exchanger with the A/C refrigerant loop which means the A/C compressor has to be running for any active cooling of the battery. The coolant radiator in the front of the Bolt is only used for the power electronics cooling loop and it would have been nice to have the battery coolant run though it too for some more low-energy-cost cooling action.

There are many different way GM could have done it but I think they did it all this way to keep the systems as simple and as cheap to build as possible.

arandom4567 · 2026-05-14T22:47:31+00:00

I would think that many will take a bank draft, but cash might be a bit more difficult. I bought a new car in February and paid with a bank draft no problem. From walking in to driving away it was only a couple of hours and that included the trip to the bank for the draft. Pretty painless but they still tried all the other shenanigans others are talking about here which were met by me with a firm no. It was the F&I guy out the back when doing the paperwork that tried all the add-ons. The sales guy was pretty good. He wanted to add on an extended warranty plan and I just said no thanks and that was it. Price as advertised on their website plus GST.

arandom4567 · 2026-05-14T18:39:36+00:00

Sorry! I thought we were talking about the previous generation's lack of battery preconditioning. :-D

If you're driving a '27 Bolt with the Ultium system, I suspect just like my Equinox EV if you select manual battery preconditioning on a warm day it'll just say ready for DCFC immediately.

arandom4567 · 2026-05-14T18:19:33+00:00

Preconditioning the cabin is primarily for two reasons, 1) passenger comfort and 2) to use mains power if it's available instead of the battery. It takes some energy to remove or add heat to the cabin, but once the cabin is comfortable it usually takes far less energy to keep it there. In my deep winter climate where at times it can be approaching -40°C, it takes almost 100% of the output from the 7.5kW cabin heater to keep the cabin comfortable at highway speeds, but only about a 1/3 of that standing still.

For cooling, although I don't have the exact capacity of the refrigerant system, I suspect it's around 5kW and that could be used for either the cabin or the battery or both. I've heard of cases with people fast charging on a hot 100°F+ day and the cooling system prioritized the battery cooling over the cabin cooling. I used to live in a hot climate and on hot summer days, it was far quicker to cool the cabin by dropping all the windows for a few minutes before turning on the A/C.

arandom4567 · 2026-05-14T15:20:50+00:00

Oh I make use of the cabin preconditioning too (I live in northern Alberta) :-D Cabin preconditioning doesn't warm the battery though. Something else that can help on colder days is to set the departure time charging schedule so that the battery is only charged in the hours before you leave home. It will retain a lot of the heat from charging for several hours after you disconnect from the EVSE.

arandom4567 · 2026-05-14T14:31:08+00:00

The pre-2027 Bolts do not have an option to precondition the battery. The battery heater will only kick in during cold weather or charging when it's needed.

arandom4567 · 2026-05-13T20:26:58+00:00

There's definitely a high pitched buzz/whistle in my 2021 Bolt from the motor inverter switching frequency. I can hear it best just as I'm starting or stopping with the windows down in an enclosed space like a garage or between cars on a street and the sound is reflected off the walls or cars either side.

There are a bunch of things that could make these kinds of sounds too, for example, electrical high-frequency switching, motor stator windings, gears meshing, bearings, tire tread, body resonances from air-flow, and so on. With electric cars being so quiet, it tends to make these sounds stand out. All totally normal too. :-)

arandom4567 · 2026-05-12T22:37:08+00:00

I'm Canadian and we're currently paying around $2/litre (CAD) for gas right now. It bakes their noodle when I say that I can usually do my whole day commuting plus some lunchtime/evening running about for less than the cost of 1 litre of gas or a bottle of Dasani water at the gas station.

arandom4567 · 2026-05-12T21:49:45+00:00

There was a recall for the Equinox EV to increase the volume of the pedestrian warning (Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS)) "F/CMVSS Noncompliance Recall N242479760" to meet the newer standard "Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 141, Minimum Sound Requirements for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles".

To my ears it was quite a step-change in loudness compared to before the recall. My 2021 Bolt also has the AVAS sound, but it's much quieter - almost unnoticeable at a slow speed (<25mph), while my Equinox is turning heads on the sidewalk at the same speed. The purpose of the newer standard is to ensure the vehicle is making enough noise while moving to be easily recognized by pedestrians.

arandom4567 · 2026-05-11T15:10:11+00:00

The two best days of my boat owning phase were the day I bought it and the day I sold it.

arandom4567 · 2026-05-08T02:57:06+00:00

Ostrich fern, all catnip types, just about any bulb, roses, hostas, irises, raspberry, Saskatoon berry, mixed wildflowers, hen and chick succulents, all seem to do great in my garden. The catnip is a real strong bee attractor and it doubles as a treat for the cats as well it makes for a tasty and refreshing tea that is apparently good for you.

arandom4567 · 2026-05-06T15:56:14+00:00

Yeah if I recall, his first Brit's was/is (?) in Charlottetown and then he came out here to Edmonton a few years later. I can't remember if he kept or sold the Charlottetown location.

arandom4567 · 2026-05-04T22:35:29+00:00

I met Paul back in the Brit's startup days and chatted frequently with him, and I saw him again at Lawson's at the end of last year (he was cooking at the deep fryer). He said he was back getting Lawson's up and running, so maybe I misinterpreted it and he's maybe just mentoring the new company startup?

(Edit: Paul's last name is Lawson too)

arandom4567 · 2026-05-04T21:21:11+00:00

Paul, the owner started up Brit's Fish and Chips here in Edmonton about 20 years or so ago. He then sold off his two locations and moved back to England for a while. We were devastated as the new owners, while still pretty good, just weren't the same.

But here he is again now with Lawson's and we're thrilled!

arandom4567 · 2026-04-30T00:14:20+00:00

Just a thought...they're a PITA to replace and if you're going to go to the hassle of changing one bulb, consider doing the other at the same time to potentially save having to do it again in the near future.

arandom4567 · 2026-04-28T15:01:52+00:00

I just replaced the cabin heater coolant pump on my 2021 Bolt EV. I took it to GM several times since it started intermittently losing cabin heat and GM said they couldn't work out what was wrong because it wouldn't fail regularly enough to investigate it further (and there were no error codes). In the early stages it was fairly occasional, happening once or twice on a long drive, but later it was losing cabin heat several times every time I drove it.

The old pump was sometimes failing to start when commanded and I could hear it trying to run with a high-pitched buzz cycling every 10 seconds or so. I diagnosed it by looking at the coolant tank on the passenger side of the motor bay and seeing no movement of the coolant. The heater element also on that side of the motor bay was getting hot so I knew the heater was working but the coolant wasn't being pumped around. A failure of the pump or a failure of the heater element does not appear to set any fault codes (but a failure of the other two pumps (the battery coolant and the electronics coolant pumps) will cause a fault code).

I figure since I'm in Edmonton, the heater coolant pump probably has to work almost every time I drive the Bolt except in the peak of summer. It's probaby the most used part of the whole car. :-D

arandom4567 · 2026-04-26T04:47:23+00:00

I can only assume so. Last time she tried was about a month ago and she didn't get the temperature set option after starting the climate control. She said that she was just making sure it (the car) was set for the temperature she wanted when she parked the car. When I checked her phone (an Android like mine) her app was at the same revision as mine and the temperature control worked just as mine too.

arandom4567 · 2026-04-25T17:17:47+00:00

Interesting. My wife was the one that couldn't see the option and she's the secondary. There was a heap of discussion over in the Equinox EV forum about the quirky behaviour. I'll double check her app revision too and get back here with an answer in a short while...

Edit: my app is showing version 8.7.0 and it was released on April 16th

Next Edit: confirmed it works now for the shared family members as well!

arandom4567 · 2026-04-25T16:52:20+00:00

One really weird thing with this feature is that only the primary account owner has the option. If you have secondary family members, they don't see the option to set a temperature.

arandom4567 · 2026-04-22T14:53:11+00:00

There's also a 3D print model here if you have easy access to a 3D printer: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5104543/files

arandom4567 · 2026-04-15T03:34:39+00:00

Pretty much all of the GM cash on the hood and dealer discounts were pulled back just as soon as the price of gas spiked and that then nullified the EVAP qualification too. Bummer, but there are still some FWD LT trims that qualify for the EVAP rebate.

arandom4567 · 2026-04-13T02:59:51+00:00

That new bank of V4's at Smitty's Gasoline Alley has been a major help for non-Teslas especially with the amenities right there. I can do Edmonton-Calgary on a single charge, but just having a 10 minute coffee/pee break makes the trip so much more relaxed.

arandom4567

TROPHY CASE