Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Supercharger - Birmingham, AL

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
#341
NOLA_Mike said:
What was Tesla's response/position when you called them to report the problem? Did they give you an estimated down time of the supercharger?

Discouraging to see such a new installation with such serious issues. Wonder if it's Tesla's equipment or the utility company having problems.
Click to expand...
Well, according to them everything is A-ok and they blame the utility. They ubered me to my cousin's to wait and see if the supercharger will start working again, but it hasn't and is still broken 6 hours later. With the current spikes the car calculates it is providing less than 3 miles an hour. We were supposed to leave by 6 to make the 16 hour drive back to Austin :(
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20170101-054919.png
    Screenshot_20170101-054919.png
    240 KB · Views: 74
#342
pnungesser said:
I don't understand. If the car is seeing 351 volts available, how is it not accepting any current? One would think that it's the car that is not accepting the charge, not the supercharger that's not providing it. Unless there is something wrong with the charger that is causing it to provide a "dirty" voltage with too much noise, I don't know why the car wouldn't accept it. It's been 45 years since I had a requirement in college to take an elec. engineering course, so I'm far from an expert. But, it just doesn't make sense to me. Can anyone explain how this is happening.

That being said, my thoughts and prayers are with Ampere_90D and hope this gets resolved and that the remainder of 2017 is a happier new Year
Click to expand...
I would be inclined to think this as well, but Teslas diagnostics say everything is just fine on both ends. I tried every plug at the supercharger with the same results. The SC tries to train the car up to SC amperages and just drops back it 0kw after a few seconds at SC speed, never to reach that speed again. The car charged fine here yesterday and the day before, plus all the way out from Texas and it seems others have been having issues with this chargers so I'm more inclined at this point to say something is wrong with the site.
 
#344
Ampere_90D said:
Well, according to them everything is A-ok and they blame the utility. They ubered me to my cousin's to wait and see if the supercharger will start working again, but it hasn't and is still broken 6 hours later. With the current spikes the car calculates it is providing less than 3 miles an hour. We were supposed to leave by 6 to make the 16 hour drive back to Austin :(
Click to expand...

Wow man, that sucks. I just looked - it's 111 miles to "back track" to Auburn, AL which seems to be the closest supercharger. If you can't find any adapters locally I think I'd try and head there as soon as I thought I had enough to make it.

I know this doesn't help but I would never travel without all the charging adapters I own just in case.

EDIT: Or scour Plugshare and see if there's anyone with a Tesla HPWC within 80 miles you can use
 
#346
From my experience the fastest would be Nissan in Hoover if you can get there. Second and closest to you is Bohemian in Mt Brook Village. They'll let Tesla's self park at the chargers for those concerned about Valet's. Highly recommend this place but it is expensive. Third is Colonnade. Bohemian and Colonnade both have a fair number of restaurants and stuff nearby. There is also a 14-50 in 5 Points South just south of the circle on 20th (Munger?)

BTW, Tesla use to offer one free tow to a nearby charger if you need it. You only need about 160 miles of charge to make it to Meridian so hopefully one of those can do it for you.
 
Last edited:
#347
ElectricTundra said:
From my experience the fastest would be Nissan in Hoover if you can get there. Second and closest to you is Bohemian in Mt Brook Village. They'll let Tesla's self park at the chargers for those concerned about Valet's. Highly recommend this place but it is expensive. Third is Colonnade. Bohemian and Colonnade both have a fair number of restaurants and stuff nearby. There is also a 14-50 in 5 Points South just south of the circle on 20th (Munger?)

BTW, Tesla use to offer one free tow to a nearby charger if you need it. You only need about 160 miles of charge to make it to Meridian so hopefully one of those can do it for you.
Click to expand...

He's already said he doesn't have any adapters (CHAdeMO, UMC, etc.) with him except the J1772.

I wonder how he made out - I suspect finally underway since we haven't heard anything since early this morning.
 
#348
It's now shown as out of service on the Tesla nav app in the car. Hope they can bring it back soon, I've got a trip end of the week depending on it. At least I have time to reroute---so sorry for the folks who found out the hard way yesterday.
 
#349
UPDATE: We made it home to Austin, TX :)

Back story: Birmingham supercharger went down on last day of trip, and the car had a lowish state of charge.

Front story: Tesla was able to Uber me back to my cousin's house while we left the vehicle hooked up to see if the Tesla SC would go ahead and charge the car just enough by morning (at an average 2mph, it didn't). The next day my cousin took us back to the SC and we called Tesla again to form up a plan. It turns out we had just enough charge to get to the Indigo hotel in Tuscaloosa, which was gracious enough to allow us to charge for free and even provided a free breakfast (slow waitstaff service related, not plight related). The moment we finished charging at Indigo (down to the second), the rain picked up and blew a transformer which knocked out power to the Hotel. Alabama was just trying to get rid of us by then :)
So after 3 hours of charging we were on our way to Meridian. The delay resulted in us staying the night at Shreveport, but everything generally worked out. We had no other SC drama the whole way back.

Root cause: According to Tesla, the Birmingham charger is down because of a grid issue. I'm told they are working on it with Alabama power, but do not have an ETA on when the charger will be back up. My money is on a voltage quality issue brought on by the rain that Alabama hasn't seen since the SC was installed.

Afterword/Shoutout: I was also able to message a few people on plugshare who had Tesla adapters at their homes, and a few of them responded with kind messages and offers for us to use their home chargers. Unfortunately, by that time we had already come up with a plan and were on our way. I really appreciate the plugshare community though and all those who responded to my pleas for help :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jeff Hudson, MMC-, CSFTN and 2 others
#350
There are also 4 J1772 at 208V/30A in the APC (Alabama Power Company) parking lot shown on PlugShare. I used it in October. It is a few miles south of the Colonnade J1772 and is slower due to the 208V vs 240V. I've tried at Bohemian without staying there and didn't work even though I had reservations for a few weeks later. Their Tesla chargers were not functioning on 12/29 when I checked into the hotel but I didn't have my Tesla either. The power at the Bohemian failed midday Sunday 1/1/17 as I was checking out, don't know if that had any impact on the SC a few miles away.
 
#351
Good lesson for us all to make sure we have our UMC and adapters with us.

When I lived in B'ham (Mountain Brook & 5 Points) power outages and voltage problems were not at all uncommon. We had a studio in 5 Points and had to install a fairly good sized UPS to protect our equipment from voltage drains and spikes. This supercharger may prove a good location for a good chunk of batteries and solar.
 
#352
FYI, we validated at The Southern Kitchen and didn't have to pay to leave the lot.

Also, left Brentwood, TN with 247 rated and arrived in Birmingham with 40. I started the drive a bit under the speed limit.

Nav refused to route me in the reverse direction (Birmingham to Brentwood).
 
#355
Hookemhorns said:
It's now shown as out of service on the Tesla nav app in the car. Hope they can bring it back soon, I've got a trip end of the week depending on it. At least I have time to reroute---so sorry for the folks who found out the hard way yesterday.
Click to expand...

I'm going to need to take a trip from Nashville to Birmingham later this week and plugged it into my car's nav just to get a sense of range. The car told me that that Supercharger is "temporarily unavailable." Has it really been down since the first of the year or has it been going up and down? If so, what the hell is going on down there in Birmingham?
 
#360
Hookemhorns said:
Just spoke with Tesla support, they say they are still showing power problems, should be able to charge but charge rate may vary. Sounds like what the few who post on Plugshare are saying (varying rates of charge).
Click to expand...

Hrm.... That's not confidence inspiring. The in-car navigation clearly shows it as a "temporary closure" - even replacing the usual lightning bolt icon with the universal "no" symbol. But, as you said, people on Plugshare are saying it's working well enough (as recently as two days ago).

Ugh. Nothing like being on the cutting edge of transportation technology, huh? ;-)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Guacahummus
Supercharger - Alabaster, AL
Replies
57
Views
7K
Southeast Supercharger locations
Jeff Hudson
Jeff Hudson
Chuq
Supercharger - Gardendale, AL
Replies
16
Views
3K
Southeast Supercharger locations
Dirtman16
D
dmd2005
Supercharger - Mission, BC
Replies
10
Views
2K
Canada Supercharger locations
dmd2005
dmd2005
K
Supercharges charge a few >80%?
Replies
3
Views
381
North America
Kuba Bednarz
K
E
Destin, FL Supercharger is now open.
Replies
2
Views
376
Florida
Joshua Fuller
J
Top
Back
Blog
New
Forum list
Marketplace
Menu