Friday, May 3. - the last 2 SC's at Harris Ranch that you must back into went down this afternoon due excessive heat. It is in the mid-90's but that is a normal day for these parts. There is no signage. Appear to start working then drop down 3 mph, then 0. Called it in and was told that Harris Ranch is to far away to get someone there today. Not what I wanted to hear. My recent 2 day 1,000 mile trip has been instructive in how inconsistent they operate. Except Tejon which screemed at 240 mph! More later.
2 down... 5 were working. Why do you say not what you wanted to hear? It's not like all were down and Tesla refused to send a tech, there were still 5 functional bays. also how do you know it was due to excessive heat?
That is what the tech said I was connected to at TM when I called. And there were four other cars charging. So ended up going to the Shell station charger. The real problem was that they started charging fine and we went in and were seated for dinner. Then the App wouldn't connect, so I didn't know it wasn't charging. Only reason I found out is that because I couldn't check the cooling system on the app I was concerned about our dog that I left in the car. So went out, and found it was not charging. In all, wasted a good hour. And on a 16 hour overall drive, that was not good news.
Interesting. I know there's no chance of finding out but I'd love to know why only the 2 bays went down due to heat and not all of them. Also all the more reason for a solar canopy, a shaded area will dramatically reduce the temperature
Even where they have a solar canopy, such as Tejon Ranch, the superchargers are not under it. Remember, the pedestals are the not the superchargers. The superchargers are located in big cabinets nearby. There are two pedestals to one supercharger, which is housed on one cabinet. For six supercharging pedestals, there are three big cabinets nearby. These cabinets are actively cooled with fans, so my guess is one of the fans broke, and the whole supercharger shut down due excessive heat, thereby killing two pedestals. Superchargers must be designed to handle weather hotter than 90 degrees. I mean, in the middle of the summer, Barstow will be 110+. Here's what the superchargers look like in Gilroy (the white cabinets): The circular grates are where the fans are, and they move a lot of air.
This summer (predicted to be hot and dry in these parts for sure) is going to be a grueling test for all the Superchargers and all the road-tripping Model S batteries as well. This is, of course, the first summer with so many S's on the road supercharging. Hope we don't end up with a summer edition of Brodergate. Thanks, napabill, for the real-time updates. Have a safe and fun trip.
@markb1 I totally forgot about that, for some reason I thought the bays were the problem if it was a fan that broke then its not too big of an issue. Lets hope it was just this one time.
Why isn't there a canopy or other covering here (solar or not)? Protection against the elements and all.
Tip: If you're on a road trip, never leave the car until charging has ramped up to full power. If you can't check on the App for any reason, pop back to check after ten or fifteen minutes. Goes for Supercharger, L2, 110V, whatever!
This how things looked when I arrived yesterday afternoon...I'm on the right. And this is what was showing when I went in for dinner. Because my App wouldn't connect when I was in the restaurant I didn't see that the following had happened