odd happening at the Supercharger. Ft. Wayne IN

[Olds442]

i took pics but the phone is almost dead so i'll upload them tomorrow. but when i plugged in at Ft Wayne SC (with no other cars there) i was getting as little as 1 kW. it was reading "8 hours to charge".

then it was jumping as high as 40kw. at that point it read 1 hour 50 min to charge, and was at 50% at this point, which seemed odd as I arrived with 26% and had only been there 20 minutes?

so i pulled over to the first stall and was charging at around 90kW. it took another hour to get to 90%.

does that seem normal for a early '13 that probably doesn't have dual chargers? (pretty sure i don't) but my battery pack is a B pack if that helps sort this out.

any thougths appreciated. i'll post pics tomorrow of what the screen was reading.

 

[Big Earl]

i took pics but the phone is almost dead so i'll upload them tomorrow. but when i plugged in at Ft Wayne SC (with no other cars there) i was getting as little as 1 kW. it was reading "8 hours to charge".

then it was jumping as high as 40kw. at that point it read 1 hour 50 min to charge, and was at 50% at this point, which seemed odd as I arrived with 26% and had only been there 20 minutes?

so i pulled over to the first stall and was charging at around 90kW. it took another hour to get to 90%.

does that seem normal for a early '13 that probably doesn't have dual chargers? (pretty sure i don't) but my battery pack is a B pack if that helps sort this out.

any thougths appreciated. i'll post pics tomorrow of what the screen was reading.

A couple of comments:

It sounds like the first stall you plugged into was malfunctioning. It could have had a cooling problem or some other problem that was causing the charging rate to jump around.

The dual chargers in your car are only used when plugging into AC power like at your home. Superchargers are DC power and connect straight to the car’s battery, bypassing your car’s dual chargers. A supercharger is actually 12 of the chargers that are in your car, stacked together to output 120 kW.

 

[Olds442]

thanks! @Big Earl do you have any idea why it would take so long to go from 50% charge to 90%? i realize it tapers but shouldn't it charge to 90% from 10% in almost the same amount of time or less?

also, this was the first time i drove it for any real distance. this car drives like a dream. (that's just a comment, no explanation needed haha.)

 

[Olds442]

so this is the first one i plugged into.

this is the second charger i plugged into.

i spoke with tesla today and they agreed, this is odd and the car should supercharge faster than it is currently doing so. they could tell me that one of the SC's in Ft Wayne wasn't working, so that's probably the first one I plugged into. i have an appt to take it in monday so they can check the car over, but it's not giving them any service messages.

any ideas what's going on? has this ever come up before in the forums?

 

[Big Earl]

It takes about as long to go from 80% to 100% as it takes to go from 10% to 80%. Your second picture shows 37 kW at about 80% state of charge, which doesn't seem out of the ordinary to me. The first supercharger has an obvious problem that should be reported to Tesla.

I'd recommend visiting a different supercharger and seeing what happens. If you get issues there, you might have a problem with your car.

 

[Olds442]

It takes about as long to go from 80% to 100% as it takes to go from 10% to 80%. Your second picture shows 37 kW at about 80% state of charge, which doesn't seem out of the ordinary to me. The first supercharger has an obvious problem that should be reported to Tesla.

they knew about the SC being down when i spoke with them. they said it was just that one stall and it should have told me to plug into another one.

is it normal for the last 20% to take 40 minutes at a SC?

 

[Big Earl]

they knew about the SC being down when i spoke with them. they said it was just that one stall and it should have told me to plug into another one.

is it normal for the last 20% to take 40 minutes at a SC?

Yes.

 

[Olds442]

good to know. i thought it was supposed to be less than an hour to go to full charge from around 20%.

it took me 1 hour and 40 minutes total and I only reached 80%. to me, that doesn't seem "super".

 

[Big Earl]

good to know. i thought it was supposed to be less than an hour to go to full charge from around 20%.

it took me 1 hour and 40 minutes total and I only reached 80%. to me, that doesn't seem "super".

It should be under an hour to get to 80% from 10% if you don't have a cold battery pack.

 

[Olds442]

thanks that's what service said as well. i had just completed a 150 mile stretch so it should have been warm. Outside temps were mid 40s.

 

[Big Earl]

How much of that hour and 40 minutes was spent at the malfunctioning supercharger?

 

[Olds442]

not very long, probably 15-20 minutes. it was normal at first and charging at 90kW, then I looked up and saw 1kW and 8 hour remaining. then i switched.

the second charger was around 40kW most of the time.

 

[TexasEV]

good to know. i thought it was supposed to be less than an hour to go to full charge from around 20%.

it took me 1 hour and 40 minutes total and I only reached 80%. to me, that doesn't seem "super".

It's not intended for you to go to "full charge" unless you need it then. You're supposed to charge what you need to get to the next supercharger, plus a buffer. The last 20% takes as long as the first 80%, so you only charge past 80% when necessary. With an EV you need to get out of "fill 'er up" mode.

 

[Olds442]

It's not intended for you to go to "full charge" unless you need it then. You're supposed to charge what you need to get to the next supercharger, plus a buffer. The last 20% takes as long as the first 80%, so you only charge past 80% when necessary. With an EV you need to get out of "fill 'er up" mode.

i had another 200 miles to drive, it was chilly and I wanted to use the heat.

i normally charge to 80-85% if i'm at home.

 

[Big Earl]

not very long, probably 15-20 minutes. it was normal at first and charging at 90kW, then I looked up and saw 1kW and 8 hour remaining. then i switched.

the second charger was around 40kW most of the time.

I have had a Model X exhibit some unusually slow supercharging behaviors even after changing to a different supercharger. Rebooting the MCU solved the problem. I think something in the software got stuck and wasn't activating the cooling fans on the car.