Should I test Supercharging before a trip?

[drj3]

I have had my Model 3 a couple of weeks now. Charges great at home. I have not supercharged with it yet. I am going on a trip in about a week that may or may not require a short supercharging stop to make the complete trip. Should I take the time to test supercharging in my car locally before I go, or has it been reliable enough that I don't need to bother?

 

[WattsHappening]

Ya, you should. The probability is very low that you will encounter a problem, but no sense in leaving that to chance. Who knows, there might be an issue with the credit card on file. Stop at a SC, sip some electrons and say hello to fellow Tesla owners.

 

[hoang51]

I have had my Model 3 a couple of weeks now. Charges great at home. I have not supercharged with it yet. I am going on a trip in about a week that may or may not require a short supercharging stop to make the complete trip. Should I take the time to test supercharging in my car locally before I go, or has it been reliable enough that I don't need to bother?

Definitely if it is convenient for you so that you could get acquainted with the Supercharging process. It's best to make sure it works before being stranded with low battery power at a Supercharger. You definitely don't want the stress of panicking and staying on the phone with Tesla's roadside assistance for hours.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

Most definitely.

In Western WA it's kinda fun as we have a massive supercharger location no one goes to that's located at a Casino.

Not sure where I'd go in Idaho, but I heard twin falls is beautiful.

 

[mrbulk]

You probably should. For me it was a slightly eye opening experience because upon parking and plugging in I immediately realized I needed to become more familiar with the vagaries of "charger etiquette", plus I learned which charge outlet to park on if more than one is available (if one side of an outlet tower is already being used your car may charge slower since the other Tesla on the other side is also charging thereby reducing output to yours), and also because I learned that at some stations, to get food or drink or to relieve yourself you may need to hike a couple hundred yards or more. I am certain there are other considerations but I only Supercharged once to try it out and already realized the couple of things I mentioned. So you probably should, if for no other reason than to look like you actually did it before.

 

[Kermee]

I have had my Model 3 a couple of weeks now. Charges great at home. I have not supercharged with it yet. I am going on a trip in about a week that may or may not require a short supercharging stop to make the complete trip. Should I take the time to test supercharging in my car locally before I go, or has it been reliable enough that I don't need to bother?

Yes. — Only because there have been reports of people who have incorrectly had Supercharging turned "off" from the factory due to a bug that wouldn't allow their vehicle to Supercharge.

 

[Electroman]

There was another thread on this very same topic where a new CA user went on a first road trip with his two year old and was stranded at his first supercharging session for several hours and had to go through a lot of hassle. A software update to his car later fixed it.

On that topic I made the suggestion that part of the blame lies with the user in jumping into his first long distance trip without ever checking out the supercharging ahead.

I got 348206 disagrees for my comment.

 

[alloverx]

I think there was a physical problem with the port on the car when supercharging a while back but not sure which model it was.

 

[trm2]

I think there was a physical problem with the port on the car when supercharging a while back but not sure which model it was.

That was with the S last year.

I wouldn't go an hour out of my way to check, but if it is reasonably close, by all means, test first.

 

[RFernatt]

Yes. Just picked up my 3 on Sat and that was one of the first things I wanted to test - supercharging and charging at home with my JuiceBox and the J1772 adapter to make sure all was good on the charging front. No problems, but you never know.

Superchargers near me are usually empty in far eastern West Virginia and there are a couple close ones, so it was a quick check. Just tried again last night when the car was down to 77 miles range left to see what kind of charging rate I could get. It was hitting a 457 miles/hr charge rate and was back up to 197 miles of range in a little under 20 mins.

 

[75Shappyt]

always test first, I'v tested my car charging in all types of weather, to make sure it works

 

[TexasEV]

I say there’s no need. The chance if your car having a problem with supercharging is probably similar to it being hit by lightning. For the person who said there might be a problem with your credit card on file, even if that happened that would NOT prevent you from supercharging.

People forget all the early superchargers were between cities. They were 100-150 miles away from where anyone owned a Tesla. No one ever had a problem with their first supercharge then.