Do you wipe down the plug at the Supercharger?

[BluestarE3]

In terms of gloves giving false sense of security, causing cross-contamination, generating waste: Like every other solution offered here, you gotta use your brain. It's like saying using hand sanitizer cross-contaminates because you absentmindedly grabbed your door handle with your contaminated hand in order to get to your hand sanitizer inside and you then used a contaminated hand to squeeze the tube or push the plunger of the sanitizer, thus contaminating your sanitizer container. Or that alcohol wipes generate additional waste and create litter because people just toss them on the ground after use. Or that wipes give a false sense of security because a cursory wipe of the charging wand may not be thorough enough nor provide enough time for the alcohol to destroy the virus before you grab the charging wand with your bare hand.

Use a single disposable glove on the hand that will touch the wand. After inserting the wand into your car, remove the glove (grab the edge by your wrist and pull it off inside-out), toss the used glove in a trash receptacle. If your trash receptacle is inside your car, then use your clean/ungloved hand to open your car door first and then remove and discard the used glove into the receptacle. Re-enter and cocoon in your car until charging is complete. Put on a single clean glove, exit your car and remove the wand. Remove and dispose the glove as before. Only one pair of gloves is used.

There are multiple ways to tackle this issue and people should use the one they prefer as long as it's applied properly. Each method runs the risk of being misused and, thus, not protecting the user. Each method is wasteful to some extent because you are now using additional resources you had not used in the past when refueling. But these are not normal times, so you have to adapt accordingly.

 

[jeffro01]

Absolutely... Not worth risk no matter how small it might be. The moment I touch that handle I don't touch anything else until my wife can squeeze some hand sanitizer on my hands...

Jeff

 

[SSedan]

Antibody testing suggests almost 14% of NY overall and 21% of NYC have been exposed.
This cat is out of the bag.

 

[mswlogo]

I have not yet gone to a supercharger since early march. but I have thought about it.

I do not charge at "home" but at a privately run garage that is monitored by attendants. Because on-street parking is plentiful and "Sunday rules are in effect" (no need to feed the parking meter) i've been parking on the street in front of my apartment building and visiting the parking garage (a block and a half away) roughly every 10 days just to top up the battery.

early on, the question then became:

do I drive out to a nearby unattended supercharger -- roughly 15 miles away -- to top up? where I can control the charging process or do I drop it off at my garage, and let the attendants park the car, plug me in, and just call it a day?

In the poll above I voted that I would only sanitize the SCer handle before plugging in. To be clear, I would only touch the handle with a wet-wipe (70% alcohol or Benzalconium Chloride) which will kill the virus. i would plug, and unplug the charger this way. in a sense i'm sanitizing the handle as I handle it (see what I did there?)

I would then either wipe my hands with another wipe or use hand sanitizer. once i'm back in my car.

I was worried about dealing with the attendants or other people at the garage where I park my car. thankfully the people traffic at the garage while i have been there is very very light. the 1st time I dropped off the car there was a healthcare worker in scrubs and a surgical mask picking up his car, the second time -- more than a week later -- a couple with their toddler, all wearing cloth face masks.

the attendants are wearing masks and gloves but its little comfort to me to be honest.

when picking up the car, when they hand me the Tesla key I take it from them holding a wet wipe and I sanitize the hell out of it before putting it in my pocket. I do the same thing with the driver side door handles (front and rear if I need to use the rear seat) and the steering wheel and once i'm in car.

in general, I have found that it is easier to drop off the car overnight for charging at my local garage rather than trekking out to an unattended SCer. so this is what i've been doing. i've had to drive less and less, so besides being a victim of vampire drain, the car has mostly been sitting idle and I have pleanty of range and no need to visit the garage. lets see when I will need to do so again...



here's the thing about latex gloves: they are providing people a false sense of security.

Let's say your latex glove comes into contact with the virus. even if you remove the glove properly and carefully where do you toss it exactly? in the trash bin nearby? fine. so far so good.

or.. do you first open your car door? do you take the gloves off when you are back in your car? (bad idea, the glove has touched the virus -- anything the glove touches now could/will get contaminated. ) do you use a second set of gloves when you exit the car to unplug? I think you have to, if you want to maintain sanity..er.. a sanitized environment..

thinking about washing your single-use latex gloves for re-use? (this is what MANY people I know are doing) bad idea.. the soap is breaking down the latex molecules... making the gloves useless.. oops. I think using alcohol to sanitize the latex gloves is ok, but i'm not an expert on this point so I need someone else to chime in.

hand sanitizer is the better scenario for how to keep the virus at bay while on the go. I hate using it too, it dries out my hands -- not that washing 100 times a day with soap is much much better -- but soap better in general. soap also does a better job of killing/getting rid of the virus, but lets not go into all that here.

honestly, in the absence of a "washing station" next to every SCer, hand sanitizer is the way to go -- otherwise you need several sets of gloves between exiting your car to use the SCer and driving off once done. It's a real pain.

stay safe everyone..

You’d have the same issue with the car door with sanitizer.

what I do is take one glove off and open the door with my clean bare hand. Sit down. My right hand dirty glove is in my left (gloved) hand. I turn that glove inside out and wrap the other glove as I do that. I toss it on the passenger floor and when I clean it out I’ll immediately wash my hands.

I agree though, chance of picking virus up on a charger handle is extremely low. But it might not be zero if someone just coughed into their hand before unplugging and leaving and I drive up.

Wiping down every item I buy is probably crazy too. It’s hard to know how careful you need to be. And many of us error on the side of caution.

Another thing with gloves is it’s an instant reminder I’m touching my face.

It will be nice one day when we have more answers.

 

[Master Chief]

Speaking of tossing gloves and PPE into the trash, has anyone ever seen a trash receptacle at a SC station? I haven't.

Interestingly, a nearby Lowes has two blue buckets cable strapped to each shopping cart carrel with a sign on it to toss your gloves and mask in the bucket. Great idea.

 

[Galve2000]

Speaking of tossing gloves and PPE into the trash, has anyone ever seen a trash receptacle at a SC station? I haven't.

Some SCers have them. they are not always nearby. I often travel with my pups and use SCer stops as a chance to for a relieve walk. often have to hunt down the trash bins to dispose of the waste.. and once or twice I have had to take the baggies with me unfortunately. oh well the life of a dog walker.

ou’d have the same issue with the car door with sanitizer.

that's one of the reasons why the wipes work so well. touch everything through the wipe. drop the wipe on the floor in your car. dispose of the wipe when you get home. wash your hands. remember while the wipe is moist, it is providing anti-microbial effects. so even while it's sitting on the floor in your car, it's working. you cannot say the same for gloves.

 

[forkee]

use hand sanitizer, find a brand you like. they come in foaming, gel, and spritz spray. stop wasting gloves and wipes.

 

[MyJoule]

Ok, I just traveled from AZ to IN- Used I think 17 Superchargers, only saw a few other Teslas and then only in the big cities. Here was my routine to "sanitize" the plugs before I used them. I have a little bottle of spray alcohol- I would spray the handle before using a disinfecting wipe as a pot holder to remove the handle from the holder and insert it into the car. I would spray my hands again with the alcohol before getting back into the car. I then used the disinfecting wipe as a pot holder again to put the handle back before driving off, Disposing of the used wipe at a trash can (if the station had a can, which some along the way did)

I guess I'll know in another 12 days if my regiment was effective. I made the trip in 2 days- which I don't recommend. That is too long even with autopilot - I slept in the car using Camper Mode the one time I stopped for more than enough time to get to the next charger. While I was never a risk to anyone from being too tired to drive, I was exhausted when I reached IN.. FWIW, I only encountered one broken SC stall along the way- In Mehlville, MO It looks like the handle had been smashed from over use. the connector pins were mangled. Luckily it didn't damage may charge port when I plugged in.