Circuit Electric

[Floger]

Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience with the Circuit Electric level 2 chargers using the J1772 adaptor? I had a terrible experience with their app and was curious if it was just me.

 

[Canada_dude]

So far it has worked well for me. No problems. What kind of terrible experience did you have? Maybe it isn't the app but something else.

 

[Randy-12]

I use it quite often and have not had an issue.

 

[Casmium]

I've used them but with the chargepoint or Flo app, I can't remember which one but i do remember them showing up in one of the apps and everything worked fine the last couple of times i visited Quebec.

 

[UncleCreepy]

Never had any issues with.
Some if them are even connected to 240V rather than 208V.
I always use their app and it worked every single time except for one charger in Montreal that didn't exist .

 

[Floger]

So far it has worked well for me. No problems. What kind of terrible experience did you have? Maybe it isn't the app but something else.

I was in Gatineau during the recent power outage. The house I was staying at hadn’t had power in 4 days so I needed juice before my next journey to Montreal. I had used Circuit Electric on a previous trip and had money in my account so naturally I figured I’d give it a go. The chargers were working fine. I did everything to get it started. It started up fine. I got a notification on my Tesla app saying charging stopped. The CE machine said I had insufficient funds. My account had $20 in it. Went to another machine at another location. Same message while plugged in. Insufficient funds. I deleted the app. Reinstalled with another $20 in the account. Same error message. 1-800 sucked. No one to speak with. Thank god for the plugshare app and found a free level 2 to top it up. What am I missing?

 

[KevinT3141]

We used the ones in the P2 lot at Mont Tremblant a few weekends back and they worked fine. My wife says she did have to put money into an account first, but after that it was easy.

 

[username123]

I've had issues getting it to connect/unlock the door for the plug with the app before so I bought their card and it works perfectly fine.

 

[Canada_dude]

Thanks Floger for giving more details on what happened to you, that is a terrible experience. I am not saying this is the case but some factors to consider. I suspect the long power outage had some impact on the CE's network especially if they were on Videotron as I know they lost network stability after 24 hours of the outage. Even after 6 days of the outage, Videotron was still struggling to get all of their networks back up (from my point of view).

Try to call them (CE) back and ask for an explanation of why it drained your account like that. They should be able to email you a detailed transaction so you can verify it against what you have from the App's history.

I encourage you to try again and see if it happens again, I'm sure you will find that things are much more stable now. Or at least rule out that it was a one of incident.

 

[GtiMart]

I've also used some of them successfully, using my Flo account with a prepaid Flo card.

 

[Floger]

Thanks Floger for giving more details on what happened to you, that is a terrible experience. I am not saying this is the case but some factors to consider. I suspect the long power outage had some impact on the CE's network especially if they were on Videotron as I know they lost network stability after 24 hours of the outage. Even after 6 days of the outage, Videotron was still struggling to get all of their networks back up (from my point of view).

Try to call them (CE) back and ask for an explanation of why it drained your account like that. They should be able to email you a detailed transaction so you can verify it against what you have from the App's history.

I encourage you to try again and see if it happens again, I'm sure you will find that things are much more stable now. Or at least rule out that it was a one of incident.

I appreciate your response. The two issues that drove me mental were 1. the first working charger did not drain my account, it just stopped mid charge and threw a message saying ‘insufficient funds’. My account still had $20 in it. All of the chargers were functioning as normal for others. Yes, I tried another charger. 2. There was no one to speak with! Yes, there is a phone number, but it’s all automated. No matter what they say, there is no one to speak with.

I was using my cell phone using NFC to tap. It recognized my phone, but still gave me the message. I hope to never have to deal with Circuit Electric again but I’m afraid I’ll have to given Tesla still hasn‘t prioritized Gatineau. I despise using the supercharger in Ottawa given you have to pay for parking.

 

[GtiMart]

I strongly suggest getting the proprietary card instead of using your phone. I've heard this works better, and is the only way it will work in areas with poor cell phone connection.

 

[Etna]

I have been using Circuit Électrique over the last couple of years and dozens of charges and have yet to experience any failure to charge on the first try, just like the Tesla supercharger network.