Long Trip and brand new CHAdeMO charger

[bmt00]

I've got a long drive to a service center soon and just got a CHAdeMO charger from Tesla, brand new, online. I can take a route that takes me past a super charger where I only need a few minutes of charging, or a shorter route at the edge of my range with no stops, but with a few CHAdeMO chargers and other options (J1772, 50A RV parks, etc) along the way. No idea if the firmware is up to date. PlugShare indicates that the CHAdeMO chargers from Electrify America have been used in the past few days and are working.

I could go the supercharger route, which is about 30m extra, and have the CHAdeMO charger FW checked/updated while I'm at the SC, or chance it on the way out. Not much experience with long trips or non-Tesla chargers. If you have a lot of such experience, which route would you take?

Unfortunately I don't have any CHAdeMO/EA chargers near my home to test with beforehand.

 

[gaswalla]

The supercharger route. Ez decision.
I have the adapter- it’s only for emergency use. You can’t depend on third party chargers to be working or to be avail. Also, the rate of charge is much slower and likely more expensive. You’ll arrive earlier taking the supercharger route. The experience with Chademo is the reason why other EVs will have difficulty going mainstream compared to Tesla

 

[bmt00]

On the plus side, the longer route with the supercharger has some nice twisty canyon roads that I will enjoy driving in the S for sure, and I can drive more aggressively with the supercharger stop in there.

 

[El joe]

Got my Chademo adapter a couple of weeks ago and can second the sentiment that it should probably be used sparingly. When I had a Bolt, the charging stations I'd go to would often be down for whatever reason and since there's usually only one Chademo per EA station in my neck of the woods, I'd also be worried about them being occupied as well.

 

[Rocky_H]

I do have a CHAdeMO adapter, and I have used it many times, and I don't mind the charging speed (about half Supercharger rates), but the caution on the charging stations being unreliable/broken/out-of-order is a serious issue. I have been burned pretty badly on a trip I had where I relied on a CHAdeMO station, and it wouldn't work, and I had to backtrack significantly to a different station and then do 45-47 mph for about 5 hours to make the distance I was planning to. Kinda sucked. So if I could take a Supercharger route, I generally would.

 

[bmt00]

Thanks everyone. I luckily have free supercharging as well so it sounds like that's a clear winner all around. Lower stress for sure.

 

[George I]

If you are not time pressed for at least one direction consider going one route on the way there and the other on the way back. Better to not wait until you are really low with Chademo. While peak charging is in the ~10-~40% range (varies a bit with which battery you have) at a supercharger, Chademo peaks closer to 70%.
Plus if you arrive at a Chademo station with 30-50% and it is not working or occupied you have the option to go (cautiously) on. Check plugshare.com to see what recent users say about the reliability etc about potential charging stops.