After over 56K miles and probably over 100 Supercharger sessions I have never had a problem connecting to a Supercharger stall and having charging start. I use no special "tricks".
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Almost a disastrous 1st trip (but it isn’t over)
- Thread starter bsf29
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- Model S Supercharging
No. It actually doesn't matter, because "hill hold" keeps the brake lights on, as well as keeping the brakes locked. It shouldn't matter whether you use creep or not.
detlefo
Member
I drove my first Model S for 80,000 miles and have taken many long road trips. I can count the number of times I have had trouble getting a solid connection on the first try on one hand. On the other hand, I have had numerous problems plugging in my 6 year old LEAF using a ChaDeMo charger. This connector is very heavy and far more difficult to plug in. I would not worry about being able to use superchargers. There is a learning curve but it is not steep. As pointed out up thread, a child can do it.
Ah, good to know. I have an older S, so I don't have the hill hold that stays on - it only lasts a few seconds.
Hill hold should remain in force until you touch the brake or accelerator. Mine is from 2015, I cannot comment on older models
Archduke
Member
Cleaning the contacts on the charging cord of a SuperCharger sounds...life threatening.
AndrewTX
Member
Not too worried about brake lights while sitting at a red light during the day but at night makes sense.
Are you just here to spread FUD or do you really not know how car charging works? You could literally put the connector in your mouth and the only risk would be from the germs on it.
⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️
Village Idiot
When I first got my car I had a couple of instances where I din't get the charging connector in all of the way. I think the port was tighter in the beginning, or I figured out it that takes a little more force than I was expecting. I would think that you wouldn't have four fails with four attempts, but you never know. My guess is that there is something wrong with your cars charging system. Maybe just the charging port. I would take it to your service center and have it checked out before you go on your next road trip.
Update.... The good news is that we made it home without only a slight scare at Plymouth.
We stopped at the Plymouth charger but 20 mile rated spare get to Rocky Mount as our backup. 1st attempt to connect I got the dreaded Orange connection. My 2nd attempt I applied a little more force and held it in place longer and FINALLY got a good connection. It seems like this station just needs +20 seconds to fully connect.
When I 1st connected, I could hear the transformer relays click within 10 seconds like at the other 2 SC that I used. When I held it longer, I heard another relay click and that's when I got the Green connection. Rocky Mount and Burlington NC (previous weekend) took less than 15 seconds to make a good connection and it was more like 10.
It was also interesting that I was the only Tesla charging, and the SC only made it to 70kw of power during the charge and stayed around 65kw most of the charge. I have a software limited 60 and I was well below 80% of the 75kw battery during the charge and did not do a full charge. Rocky Mount hit a max of 93kw and stayed in the upper 80's. Same with Burlington. Both of these were full charge and I stayed in the upper 80's even to the end. I guess that Plymouth is just a lower powered station.
I didn't pay attention to the voltage level to see if that might be the difference. My work public charger and my home charger are both 30A (displayed on the screen and apps). My home always is at or slightly above 240v vs work typically around 225v, and I get 2 more miles/hour charge at home. Plymouth is a very rural area and our cell phones and the Tesla had extremely weak cell coverage over 5 miles of driving in that area.
While I am new to supercharging, I have 3 years of experience connecting to various public chargers with our previous Volt, and never had issues or delays connecting. At least now I know that I may need to just the SC more time to connect and not give up as quick as I did the 1st time when the relays clicked. It is much higher volts & amps to deal with than a normal charger, and it seems like it just takes longer than what I was previous use to.
We stopped at the Plymouth charger but 20 mile rated spare get to Rocky Mount as our backup. 1st attempt to connect I got the dreaded Orange connection. My 2nd attempt I applied a little more force and held it in place longer and FINALLY got a good connection. It seems like this station just needs +20 seconds to fully connect.
When I 1st connected, I could hear the transformer relays click within 10 seconds like at the other 2 SC that I used. When I held it longer, I heard another relay click and that's when I got the Green connection. Rocky Mount and Burlington NC (previous weekend) took less than 15 seconds to make a good connection and it was more like 10.
It was also interesting that I was the only Tesla charging, and the SC only made it to 70kw of power during the charge and stayed around 65kw most of the charge. I have a software limited 60 and I was well below 80% of the 75kw battery during the charge and did not do a full charge. Rocky Mount hit a max of 93kw and stayed in the upper 80's. Same with Burlington. Both of these were full charge and I stayed in the upper 80's even to the end. I guess that Plymouth is just a lower powered station.
I didn't pay attention to the voltage level to see if that might be the difference. My work public charger and my home charger are both 30A (displayed on the screen and apps). My home always is at or slightly above 240v vs work typically around 225v, and I get 2 more miles/hour charge at home. Plymouth is a very rural area and our cell phones and the Tesla had extremely weak cell coverage over 5 miles of driving in that area.
While I am new to supercharging, I have 3 years of experience connecting to various public chargers with our previous Volt, and never had issues or delays connecting. At least now I know that I may need to just the SC more time to connect and not give up as quick as I did the 1st time when the relays clicked. It is much higher volts & amps to deal with than a normal charger, and it seems like it just takes longer than what I was previous use to.
OBX John, I wish I read your post earlier. We were just up the road at the Comfort Inn. This was a last minute getaway trip but we will keep your place in mind. Our friends are also interested in off-season weekend getaways.
OBX John
Autonomous Driving Enthusiast
Sounds good - I have two vacation rentals here, and about to turn my old house into one and it already has a Tesla charger, so let me know if you plan to return!
That's strange the Plymouth supercharger is acting up - it actually charged my MS faster than the Rocky Mount station on my way home from picking it up in Raleigh. I'll make sure I leave the beach with a full charge if I head that way!
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Just returned from a 2700 mile trip in my MS60(Cape Cod to Orlando and back) and never had a problem or used any "tricks". For those who don't have a Tesla, this process is as simple as "round peg into round hole" and that's it.
With that said, I recently helped a newbie with their first charge at our local SC on a freezing cold day. It was so cold the charger required a little extra pressure in make the connection(plastic gets a little "sticky" when super cold).
Missile Toad
MSLR Wht/Blk/19 | OD 6/10/21 | RN11512
I've had mine about 6 months. I've had creep mode turned off the whole time... and I let the car just glide in, w/o brakes for the final 3 car lengths. Takes about 30 seconds to do it too, heh!
This is why I love these forums/websites. No snarky reply or calling anyone out, just a you need help "I can help you".
Hats off to you ScottChes!
Joelc
Member
Same here.
Except when I did have charging problems, it was user error and I didn't insert the plug all the way or not enough force.
you do NOT want to get the dreaded blinking yellow/orange/red...
it's super irritating.
This was my experience, too. Early in my ownership (about 10 months ago), I had some problem to get the SC at Auburn to work. I moved the car to a different SC plug, and it worked the second time. I called Tesla service to advise them that maybe one of the SC units was having a problem; they looked on their network monitor and could not see one of the units being down (they monitor these); so I concluded that when I plugged, I didn't push hard enough. Since then I have not had a problem with the numerous SCs I have used.
Sometimes it just takes a little practice and patience. Regarding the charging plug itself - it appears that the contacts (both male and female) are silver-plated. This is good, because silver is unusual in that even when tarnished, it still conducts very well, because silver oxide is conductive. When people use their cotton swabs and other things for cleaning, I guess they are cleaning off dust and thin coatings of other contaminants; alcohol and contact cleaner will not remove silver oxide (but this doesn't matter due to its good conductivity).
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