Well they work, where the old ones didn't... That seems like a major improvement. (But they have only been installed for about two weeks, so give it some time to see what happens and how long before they fail.)
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Electrify America general discussion
- Thread starter Mockingbird
- Start date
It wasn’t implied.
You are injecting your own interpretation of what I said.
It’s common sense.
If you have to keep sending technicians to fix it, then it’s not worth it and you just replace the equipment.
What is there to announce?
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Not really. You said:
That flat out says that they are in the process of replacing the current chargers. But now you say that they aren't in the process of replacing existing chargers. (You do have an example of them replacing failed chargers at one site.) They either are in the process of replacing existing chargers or they aren't. (And no, replacing failed chargers does not count as in the process of replacing current chargers. That is just maintenance.)
So again, you are just making stuff up, and wording it as such to make people think something is official and different than what is really happening.
If they were actually in the process of replacing the current chargers with a new design, I think that would be a huge thing to announce. It would mean that they were serious about improving the reliability of their network.
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Just listening to you tells me that you have no understanding of the industry.
In general, you want to avoid sending out technicians as much as possible because that is very expensive.
The point of replacing the hardware is to reduce future needs to send out technicians.
If the hardware is working fine, it doesn't make sense to replace it.
rhumbliner
Member
I was under the impression that DCFC’s have no charger, just a 400v supply going straight to a 400v battery, and the heat is generated from the current flow. Did I miss something along the way?
Yeah, they definitely are a charger inside. The supply from the city, from the big green utility transformer, is a very high voltage 3 phase AC supply. The equipment inside the DCFC is rectifying that into DC, but then it is communicating with the car to adjust what that DC output voltage is to carefully feed it into the car at the level that the car wants.
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The charger is what takes AC and turns it into DC. Vehicles have a small charger built in to them, which is powered by an external EVSE.
For all DCFC, DC Fast Charger, pedestals, the charger is actually at the site, external to the car. (In some they are contained inside the pedestal the cable attaches to, in others the chargers is located in a separate cabinet somewhere else on the site.)
The V2 Superchargers are actually made up of 11 of the chargers that are in the legacy Model S hooked up in parallel. (With the ability to split that stack between two pedestals.)
swaltner
Active Member
12 ... four chargers on each of the three phases.
I'm trying to wrap my head around how a 4 year old product, that has hardly ever been used, is breaking. Did EA just buy any junk that anyone would sell them?
Along with that, why are so many motherboards needing to be replaced? Did they buy consumer grade, indoor-rated junk motherboards off of Amazon?
Is this a company you want to rely on to keep your family happy when you need to charge in the middle of a long road trip?
Omg, I'm halfway thru my 1500 mile road trip. I gave up on using EA to save money on the road trip. It isn't worth it. I hit the same EA stations as I did the last time I made this road trip earlier in the summer. But this time it is much worse. First stop, 3 of the 4 stations were busted and the only working one was occupied so I went to a SC. The next EA stop I went to, someone cut the cables off the 350kw charger I used the last time I came, so I had to use a 150. I pulled 133, but then it throttled down to 35kw. I would've switched but an etron pulled into the other 350 next to me. I asked him if it worked, because the last time I used that charger on my last trip, I could only pull 35kw from it. He said it was working fine, but when I was sitting in my car I saw him switch stalls.
There was a SC around the corner, so I went there instead. It JUST WORKED when I plugged in... I skipped the next two EA chargers I normally went to, cus according to plugshare, 3 of the 4 chargers were busted. Earlier in the summer, only 1 of the 4 was busted.
So by the end of the day, I decided I'm done trying to save money with EA. It seems the ones in suburbia are pretty reliable, so I'll still use those when convenient while I'm at my destination. But the ones along I-5 are mostly busted all thru California now, from what I can tell.
There was a SC around the corner, so I went there instead. It JUST WORKED when I plugged in... I skipped the next two EA chargers I normally went to, cus according to plugshare, 3 of the 4 chargers were busted. Earlier in the summer, only 1 of the 4 was busted.
So by the end of the day, I decided I'm done trying to save money with EA. It seems the ones in suburbia are pretty reliable, so I'll still use those when convenient while I'm at my destination. But the ones along I-5 are mostly busted all thru California now, from what I can tell.
Have you contacted Electrify America to describe the issue that you were having, including specific information such as the charger numbers?
RTPEV
Active Member
For many, if not all, of the issues described, wouldn't EA be able to remotely detect those issues? Why should customers be responsible for reporting these issues, and is it fair to put this burden on them? I've called EA customer service before, and it's usually a 20 minute process even for simple issues. I can practically guarantee that such a call would go through a standard script of do A, B, C, try D, ....
I would advocate at least putting a negative entry into Plugshare though (not just a comment, but a Could Not Charge entry). I do think that EA (and other providers) can get easy access to this so they know where to target maintenance & repair crews, as well as giving them metrics they can use to improve service.
Electrify America can detect if the charging session failed.
Electrify America can’t detect if a crackhead stolen the charging cables or the displays are sunburned.
Electrify America check each charger every two months, but until then, Electrify America might not be aware that a charger is broken.
If someone is complaining about the issues on this forum, why not also tell Electrify America who can actually fix the issues?
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There are definitely problems that can't be detected remotely. Tesla has employees continuously driving cars between Superchargers, testing them out and fixing problems when they find them.
I will say that the EA customer service folks on the phone are pleasant enough that there's no reason not to call their number. Of course, I've called them way more than I would have liked to.
I will say that the EA customer service folks on the phone are pleasant enough that there's no reason not to call their number. Of course, I've called them way more than I would have liked to.
masotime
Member
What are the start and end points of your road trip? Zip codes are fine if you're not comfortable with exact addresses.
RTPEV
Active Member
Why not? Two ways this could be detected:
The hardware could (in theory anyway...it may or may not be implemented on each station) perform a continuity check all the way down to the connector and through the Proximity pin, so a cut cable or connector could be detected.
The second method would be a little less direct, but if a given station had ZERO usage over a given time period (while other stations at the same site are showing non-ZERO usage), then that is a good indication that there is probably an issue with that station.
Exactly. They may not know why it is failed, but the temperature sensor in the handle would no longer be providing valid data. So at a minimum they know something is wrong with the cable, either the sensor failed or the cable was cut. Both of which means roll a truck and fix it.
It would be an incredibly boneheaded move if they didn’t implement some sort of continuity check. It should be trivial to detect if a cable is cut.
Then again, this is Electrify America so I suppose incredibly boneheaded is par for the course.
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