Stopped by this SCer today.. it was an interesting experience.
I arrived around 2 pm and was told by the two parking attendants that I had to pay upfront... and it would be $6 if I stayed in my car while it charged or $18 I left the car or stayed longer than an hour. there was a "First Saturdays" thing going on at the Brooklyn Museum and I would be subject to the dreaded "event" pricing if I left my car. I gather that tomorrow and the next few weekends are not "event" days, but I cannot say. I did not check closely when I looked at the schedule for Brooklyn Museum. my mistake. The parking lot was not very crowded although I later did note that there were many, many people on line to get tickets to the museum.
I explained to the valet that my car would probably need about 50 minutes to fully charge and I would be back before then. no dice. if I left my car I had to pay $18. so I decided I would just stay in the car to charge a bit -- even tho I had made a reservation for lunch at Norm, the restaurant in the museum and I handed the attendants $6 in cash.. no ticket was issued, no nothing.. all kind of sketchy.
I pulled into the second stall from the end, which for reference is (I believe) the same stall where @Mr. PlugShare 's M3 is parking in the photos above, but could not get the charge cable to insert properly into my car's charging port. it was all very strange. there were only 2 other Tesla's charging at this point so plenty of free stalls. I shifted my car to the stall to my left and plugged in without problems.
The car quickly ramped up to 58 kW and I hung out for a bit listening to my audiobook.. but at some point I got hungry and figured I would honor my reservation at the Norm after all. as I exited my car I found one of the attendants spraying one of the charging stalls with something and then wiping it down. it had mostly stopped raining at this point and the attendants mood seemed to soften. I mentioned that I was going into the museum for just a bit but would be back by the time the car was done charging.
As far as paying $18 vs $6 I figured I would risk it and let the chips fall where they may. it was only $12 more. not worth it, but hardly worth crying over and I figured I would risk it in the name of experimentation and to help inform others (on this forum) of my experience.
unfortunately 23 minutes into my session I got a a notification from the Tesla App that charging was interrupted. I checked the app and sure enough it said "ready to Charge, Check power source" -- great! I had already ordered food and could not leave the restaurant. I resolved to finish my lunch and just re-start the charge and hang out with the car for a bit.
when I returned to the car around 3:20 I saw a bright red ring around the charge port. not unexpected. I unplugged and re-plugged in the car at the same stall. the car proceeded to charge for further 11 minutes and added 28.38 rated mies before I got the same "check power source" message -- I unplugged the car and decided to move to move to the next stall to the left. (i'm really bad about making a note of which charging stall it was, sorry guys)
The car ramped up to 47 kW and I continued charging for the next 18 minutes to 90%. at some point during this time when I reached 80% I got a notification on my phone that my car was at 80% and I might be charged idling fees if I left my car there too long past completion. no big deal. I was sitting in the car at this point listening to my audio book. I had intended on leaving at 220 rated miles but it was less than 10 minutes to 90% that I figured I would just hang out. my car charges to 237 rated miles at 90%. not terrible.
A note about the Nav screen and SCer occupancy information:
while I was sitting there we had as many as 4 teslas charging and this was accurately reflected in my nav screen. it took about 10 minutes for the nav screen to update the SCer occupancy to to 3 out of 10 cars occupied (7 out of 10 available) after the 4th car drove off. so I will say this information is very, very accurate except for some sort of lag in updating the nav screen. still extremely useful IMNSHO.
Two final things about this garage. it's really an outdoor parking lot btw.
1. It is self park. I did not leave my keys with the attendants. I parked the car myself and plugged/unplugged myself (many more times than I should have had to.. but anyway). when I was driving down I assumed it was like William Vale.. a valet garage where you leave the car at the door and it is parked by the valet. I had intended on asking the valet to move my car after about 50 minutes to avoid idling fees. not that I was going to spend a ton of time there, but $1/min adds up. this was obviously a moot point. you are on yr own. the attendants don't have the key. they cannot unplug you, they cannot move your car.. none of that.
2. Even though it turns out that I did not pay the $18 event rate after all, it may have been b/c I got lucky. I was told by the attendants that if I left my car to go anywhere I would have to pay $18 instead of $6. As I mentioned in another thread, the SCer at the William Vale hotel has a similar limitation where some nights (and most weekends) everyone pays an "event" rate of $30 regardless of how long they are parked for the day. Teslas that need a charge are exempt and offered a $6 rate for a single hour. even on "event" days. stay longer than an hour and they will charge you the event rate. now customers are generally not allowed in the garage at the william vale, although I have heard a bunch of you die-hard Tesla owners have gotten them to allow you to park your own car by yourselves. the 1st time I parked there I asked to go in as a passenger to plug in my car and make sure everything was ok. I was not allowed to -- the valet told me they would take care of plugging in, and in fact they did. on subsequent times at the william vale when I have gotten "check power source" errors, I am able to call the valet (kind of a pain -- you had to call the concierge of the hotel and be connected) but the valet was able to unplug my car and plug it in again so SCing would resume.
but since you cannot hang out in yr car at the william vale you have to find something to do w\ yourself while the car charges. the attendants at the brooklyn museum today were very specific about how I had to stay w\ my car to allow them to honor the $6 rate vs the $18 rate even though that is not what ended up happening. again, I think I got lucky. other people with Teslas did not leave their car while it charged, just me -- but I had resolved to pay the extra $12 If I was made to.
I don't think i'll be returning to this location any time soon. too much drama. and a few technical difficulties to boot. not worth it. particularly with william vale being 10-15 min closer to my home than brooklyn museum and all the other SCers in the city.
i'm going to try to add my TeslaFi stats to this post. its been a while since I added a file so sorry in advance if it doesn't work:
I arrived around 2 pm and was told by the two parking attendants that I had to pay upfront... and it would be $6 if I stayed in my car while it charged or $18 I left the car or stayed longer than an hour. there was a "First Saturdays" thing going on at the Brooklyn Museum and I would be subject to the dreaded "event" pricing if I left my car. I gather that tomorrow and the next few weekends are not "event" days, but I cannot say. I did not check closely when I looked at the schedule for Brooklyn Museum. my mistake. The parking lot was not very crowded although I later did note that there were many, many people on line to get tickets to the museum.
I explained to the valet that my car would probably need about 50 minutes to fully charge and I would be back before then. no dice. if I left my car I had to pay $18. so I decided I would just stay in the car to charge a bit -- even tho I had made a reservation for lunch at Norm, the restaurant in the museum and I handed the attendants $6 in cash.. no ticket was issued, no nothing.. all kind of sketchy.
I pulled into the second stall from the end, which for reference is (I believe) the same stall where @Mr. PlugShare 's M3 is parking in the photos above, but could not get the charge cable to insert properly into my car's charging port. it was all very strange. there were only 2 other Tesla's charging at this point so plenty of free stalls. I shifted my car to the stall to my left and plugged in without problems.
The car quickly ramped up to 58 kW and I hung out for a bit listening to my audiobook.. but at some point I got hungry and figured I would honor my reservation at the Norm after all. as I exited my car I found one of the attendants spraying one of the charging stalls with something and then wiping it down. it had mostly stopped raining at this point and the attendants mood seemed to soften. I mentioned that I was going into the museum for just a bit but would be back by the time the car was done charging.
As far as paying $18 vs $6 I figured I would risk it and let the chips fall where they may. it was only $12 more. not worth it, but hardly worth crying over and I figured I would risk it in the name of experimentation and to help inform others (on this forum) of my experience.
unfortunately 23 minutes into my session I got a a notification from the Tesla App that charging was interrupted. I checked the app and sure enough it said "ready to Charge, Check power source" -- great! I had already ordered food and could not leave the restaurant. I resolved to finish my lunch and just re-start the charge and hang out with the car for a bit.
when I returned to the car around 3:20 I saw a bright red ring around the charge port. not unexpected. I unplugged and re-plugged in the car at the same stall. the car proceeded to charge for further 11 minutes and added 28.38 rated mies before I got the same "check power source" message -- I unplugged the car and decided to move to move to the next stall to the left. (i'm really bad about making a note of which charging stall it was, sorry guys)
The car ramped up to 47 kW and I continued charging for the next 18 minutes to 90%. at some point during this time when I reached 80% I got a notification on my phone that my car was at 80% and I might be charged idling fees if I left my car there too long past completion. no big deal. I was sitting in the car at this point listening to my audio book. I had intended on leaving at 220 rated miles but it was less than 10 minutes to 90% that I figured I would just hang out. my car charges to 237 rated miles at 90%. not terrible.
A note about the Nav screen and SCer occupancy information:
while I was sitting there we had as many as 4 teslas charging and this was accurately reflected in my nav screen. it took about 10 minutes for the nav screen to update the SCer occupancy to to 3 out of 10 cars occupied (7 out of 10 available) after the 4th car drove off. so I will say this information is very, very accurate except for some sort of lag in updating the nav screen. still extremely useful IMNSHO.
Two final things about this garage. it's really an outdoor parking lot btw.
1. It is self park. I did not leave my keys with the attendants. I parked the car myself and plugged/unplugged myself (many more times than I should have had to.. but anyway). when I was driving down I assumed it was like William Vale.. a valet garage where you leave the car at the door and it is parked by the valet. I had intended on asking the valet to move my car after about 50 minutes to avoid idling fees. not that I was going to spend a ton of time there, but $1/min adds up. this was obviously a moot point. you are on yr own. the attendants don't have the key. they cannot unplug you, they cannot move your car.. none of that.
2. Even though it turns out that I did not pay the $18 event rate after all, it may have been b/c I got lucky. I was told by the attendants that if I left my car to go anywhere I would have to pay $18 instead of $6. As I mentioned in another thread, the SCer at the William Vale hotel has a similar limitation where some nights (and most weekends) everyone pays an "event" rate of $30 regardless of how long they are parked for the day. Teslas that need a charge are exempt and offered a $6 rate for a single hour. even on "event" days. stay longer than an hour and they will charge you the event rate. now customers are generally not allowed in the garage at the william vale, although I have heard a bunch of you die-hard Tesla owners have gotten them to allow you to park your own car by yourselves. the 1st time I parked there I asked to go in as a passenger to plug in my car and make sure everything was ok. I was not allowed to -- the valet told me they would take care of plugging in, and in fact they did. on subsequent times at the william vale when I have gotten "check power source" errors, I am able to call the valet (kind of a pain -- you had to call the concierge of the hotel and be connected) but the valet was able to unplug my car and plug it in again so SCing would resume.
but since you cannot hang out in yr car at the william vale you have to find something to do w\ yourself while the car charges. the attendants at the brooklyn museum today were very specific about how I had to stay w\ my car to allow them to honor the $6 rate vs the $18 rate even though that is not what ended up happening. again, I think I got lucky. other people with Teslas did not leave their car while it charged, just me -- but I had resolved to pay the extra $12 If I was made to.
I don't think i'll be returning to this location any time soon. too much drama. and a few technical difficulties to boot. not worth it. particularly with william vale being 10-15 min closer to my home than brooklyn museum and all the other SCers in the city.
i'm going to try to add my TeslaFi stats to this post. its been a while since I added a file so sorry in advance if it doesn't work:
