My wife and I like to visit Sorenson's Resort in Hope Valley just south of Lake Tahoe, California. This year was our first visit with the Model S. I had contacted the resort and confirmed they had a 240V NEMA 10-30 outlet I could use. It was located in their laundry room and they used it for their electric dryer. They said it was about 75 ft. from the parking lot. They also had NEMA 5-15 110V plugs close to the parking lot, so I knew I had an alternative power source, albeit a very slow one.
Sorenson's is only 88 miles from the Folsom CA Supercharger, but almost 7,000 ft. higher. So it would be an easy trip in an S85 but I certainly wanted to have reliable charging during my 3-day stay there. We got there with 66 miles of range left after charging to 205 at Folsom. I had brought with me 50 amp 125/250V 6/3+8/1 AWG 14-50 extension cords in 15 foot and 50 foot lengths, plus a 10 foot long NEMA 14-50R to 1030P adaptor which I bought here NEMA 14-50R to 10-30P or 10-50P Adapter
Along with the Tesla UMC I figured that was enough length to reach the plug in the laundry room.
So after arriving at Sorenson's I uncoiled all my cords and had no trouble making the connection. I started charging and was pleased -- and somewhat surprised -- to see that I was getting 40A at 240V. I watched it for 10 minutes and the charge rate was steady, so I went to my room. 20 minutes later I went back to the car to check on the charging and found that charging had stopped. I went to the laundry room and found the breaker for that circuit had flipped. I reset it, decreased the amp setting in the car to 30 and tried to charge again. Nothing. Turned amps down to 20 and tried to charge after unplugging the UMC at the car and plugging in again. No charging. Plugged the dryer back into the circuit and the dryer worked. So the circuit was intact.
Tried resetting the breaker again, unplugging cables and replugging, all connections were tight (and new of course) but was unable to get the car to charge. So I got out my 25 foot 110V extension cord, changed adaptors on the UMC and plugged into 110V. Car started charging at 12A, 4mph rate of charge. I charged it continuously for the next 60 hours or so got up to over 200 miles of range before doing some driving 2 day later, charged again overnight and left the resort three days after I arrived with lots of charge. Of course it was easy to get back to Folsom because it was mostly downhill. In fact I could have made it to the Vacaville SC.
I am guessing that the multiple 240V extension cords and the 10 foot long NEMA 14-50R to 1030P adaptor created too much resistance for the resorts elderly electrical circuit to handle for more than a short time. Does that seem likely? Thanks.
Here's a photo of the extension cords running into the laundry room.
Sorenson's is only 88 miles from the Folsom CA Supercharger, but almost 7,000 ft. higher. So it would be an easy trip in an S85 but I certainly wanted to have reliable charging during my 3-day stay there. We got there with 66 miles of range left after charging to 205 at Folsom. I had brought with me 50 amp 125/250V 6/3+8/1 AWG 14-50 extension cords in 15 foot and 50 foot lengths, plus a 10 foot long NEMA 14-50R to 1030P adaptor which I bought here NEMA 14-50R to 10-30P or 10-50P Adapter
Along with the Tesla UMC I figured that was enough length to reach the plug in the laundry room.
So after arriving at Sorenson's I uncoiled all my cords and had no trouble making the connection. I started charging and was pleased -- and somewhat surprised -- to see that I was getting 40A at 240V. I watched it for 10 minutes and the charge rate was steady, so I went to my room. 20 minutes later I went back to the car to check on the charging and found that charging had stopped. I went to the laundry room and found the breaker for that circuit had flipped. I reset it, decreased the amp setting in the car to 30 and tried to charge again. Nothing. Turned amps down to 20 and tried to charge after unplugging the UMC at the car and plugging in again. No charging. Plugged the dryer back into the circuit and the dryer worked. So the circuit was intact.
Tried resetting the breaker again, unplugging cables and replugging, all connections were tight (and new of course) but was unable to get the car to charge. So I got out my 25 foot 110V extension cord, changed adaptors on the UMC and plugged into 110V. Car started charging at 12A, 4mph rate of charge. I charged it continuously for the next 60 hours or so got up to over 200 miles of range before doing some driving 2 day later, charged again overnight and left the resort three days after I arrived with lots of charge. Of course it was easy to get back to Folsom because it was mostly downhill. In fact I could have made it to the Vacaville SC.
I am guessing that the multiple 240V extension cords and the 10 foot long NEMA 14-50R to 1030P adaptor created too much resistance for the resorts elderly electrical circuit to handle for more than a short time. Does that seem likely? Thanks.
Here's a photo of the extension cords running into the laundry room.