Supercharger - Burlington, WA

[Puyallup Bill]

Stopped by today enroute home from Samish Island. No cones, no tape, no one there. Son hopped ouut and connected to a SuperCharger. After 25 minutes we had gained 72 miles,enough to get back to Seattle.

Good to hear. But, since you were solo and didn't have to share with anyone, that is a rather slow rate of charge. The Tesla hype is half charge in 20 minutes.

Wonder, are the chargers now throttled back for some reason? Higher rate down the road?

 

[mcx-sea]

With neither pen nor pencil, we had no accurate way to record all the numbers we saw. And since this was our first ever visit to an SC, we spent much of our time trying to figure the meaning of the numbers. Driving away, we did agree that the MPH figure got over 200 before slowing to 180. Amps were mostly 100+ and volts around 400. We did notice charging seemed to slow a bit during our short stay. Perhaps this was because our battery was partially charged when we plugged in? Our 25 minutes could have been less as we only guessed our starting time.
As of this morning, our S now has a notebook with columns to record all future SC charging figures every five minutes. Hope that others will note their starting miles to see how this might affect their charging rates. Looking forward to a bunch of reports after Tuesday's activity.

 

[PhilBa]

There has been a lot of hyperbole on SCs coming out of Tesla, mostly from Elon. The actual rate will be governed by a host of factors including, as you mention, the initial SOC. I think the half-battery in 30 minutes is from almost empty to half charged. I'm pretty from a 50% SOC to 100%, it will take a LOT longer. Wish Tesla would release more information so we can understand the reality. This is where I think Elon's expansive statements hurt us - I'd be willing to bet no one at Tesla wants to contradict him. I just want to know the reality of it.

 

[bollar]

There has been a lot of hyperbole on SCs coming out of Tesla, mostly from Elon. The actual rate will be governed by a host of factors including, as you mention, the initial SOC. I think the half-battery in 30 minutes is from almost empty to half charged. I'm pretty from a 50% SOC to 100%, it will take a LOT longer. Wish Tesla would release more information so we can understand the reality. This is where I think Elon's expansive statements hurt us - I'd be willing to bet no one at Tesla wants to contradict him. I just want to know the reality of it.

Look at the newly updated Supercharger page. There is now a little bit more information.

50% 20 minutes
80% 40 minutes
100% 75 minutes

 

[PhilBa]

Hey, that's more detail then there was before but still doesn't seem the match MCX's experience. He should have seen something more than 120 miles (50% of an S85).

Don't get me wrong, I think SCs, even at that rate are wonderful. I just don't want to participate in an RDF.

 

[MBCMDR]

Don't get me wrong but I suggest you not relying on the SC running tell 18th at 10AM +- a few hours as think they throttled back to 5 amps this only allows open the car charge door and cannot do any real Supercharging yet except for the person testing that had control of the Tesla charger boxes. I really hate for some to drive before the event and lack power to return home because they heard it was operational.

 

[bollar]

Hey, that's more detail then there was before but still doesn't seem the match MCX's experience. He should have seen something more than 120 miles (50% of an S85).

Don't get me wrong, I think SCs, even at that rate are wonderful. I just don't want to participate in an RDF.

Yes. There are at least two things -- first the Superchargers are still at 90 kWh, not 120 kWh, so the times to expect are longer than that chart roughly:

50% 30 minutes
80% 60 minutes
100% 100 minutes

At the SC announcement, Elon said there were other tweaks coming for charging, so I wouldn't be surprised if these times are optimistic.

I do agree that there's something else going on with the car or SC that MCX experienced.

 

[MBCMDR]

Oh forgot to tell you each Supercharger controls box runs two station 1-5, 2-6, 3-7, 4-8 just FYI

 

[Tyl]

I'm thinking that TESLA is installing SCS's in the north first, while the weather is nice. Construction and installation there and then move south as winter weather slowly sets in, in late September/October. I hope Burlington crew move southeast to do their next SCS installation while the Centralia crew moves south to do another. We'll see

 

[EarlyAdopter]

Look at the newly updated Supercharger page. There is now a little bit more information.

50% 20 minutes
80% 40 minutes
100% 75 minutes

That says if you show up at a Supercharger on empty you will get those bottom 130 miles back in 20 minutes.

If you show up at the Supercharger half empty it'll take 55 minutes to get the top 130 miles.

Pretty consistent with mcx's experience given they arrived at the supercharger with some charge still.

 

[MBCMDR]

I'm thinking that TESLA is installing SCS's in the north first, while the weather is nice. Construction and installation there and then move south as winter weather slowly sets in, in late September/October. I hope Burlington crew move southeast to do their next SCS installation while the Centralia crew moves south to do another. We'll see

ADK did not have the Seattle contract for the Supercharger to be installed, they like to get that contract and more if TESLA offers, I think they done a good job as the photo shows them doing it all in a fairly short time after have the equipment..

 

[deonb]

I just stopped over at Burlington for some SuperJuice. Yum...

We arrived with 125 miles rated range, and tried all 4 chargers. Parking spot 1 and 2 (the left pull-in spot and first back-in spot on the picture below) are not active. Spot 4, 5 and 8 are active. (3+4, 5+6 and 7+8 should be sharing so this should confirm the right 6 of them).

We were able to charge at 370V, 177A, 66kW at the maximum (which started tapering down after 150). I think getting only 66kW means that the SuperCharger isn't fully operational yet - I was expecting something closer to 90 or 120 until the 150 miles rated range. However, it's still a heck of a lot faster than anything I've ever seen.

After initially playing around, we plugged it into spot 5 when it was at 130 miles on the reading and 30 minutes later it was at 223 miles (93 miles added). Stopped it at 240 miles (110 miles added) after 38 minutes.

This is actually an important test for me, and probably others. I live in Redmond, and frequently drive up to Vancouver and Whistler. Starting in Redmond or Seattle means you're always going to arrive at Burlington with over 120 miles range. But to get from Burlington to Whistler without another stop you really need to charge up to 240 miles. This proves you can get the juice you need to get to Whistler in less than 40 minutes (and it will probably improve further).


HINT: If you think 40 minutes is long to wait... adopt a dog. After initially playing around with other chargers, then finally leaving it into spot 5 to do a real charge, we did the following:
* Took the dogs out for a quick walk (To the grass at Bob's burgers and back).
* Hopped into Jack In The Box to get a burger for us (and the doggies of course) - no line.
* Ate the burger in the car (we don't trust the dogs alone in the car yet).
* Threw away the trash and went to the bathroom

This is pretty much on par with every stop we've been doing for the last 7 years when we have the dogs with us. And it was an in-and-out stop, not trying to waste any time (since we didn't actually need any charge). In that time the car charged up 110 miles (from the 130-level that we started at), and it just happened to have taken 38 minutes. I would have never imagined our stops took this long before, but with dogs, they do. I believe those SuperChargers will eventually operate at twice the rate we got today, but it's already at the point where it's going to give me more charge than I actually need given my current stop times.

PS: Another interesting bit, when I plugged into 2 of the chargers initially, it was giving a charge rate reading in kW. When I unplugged at 240 rated and plugged into another charger the reading switch to mi/hours added. Not sure why.

 

[dcopperfield]

This is great news! Glad to see they are working, even though not at full charge.

Does anyone know when they will go to the full 120????

I just stopped over at Burlington for some SuperJuice. Yum...

View attachment 25625

We arrived with 125 miles rated range, and tried all 4 chargers. Parking spot 1 and 2 (the left pull-in spot and first back-in spot on the picture below) are not active. Spot 4, 5 and 8 are active. (3+4, 5+6 and 7+8 should be sharing so this should confirm the right 6 of them).

We were able to charge at 370V, 177A, 66kW at the maximum (which started tapering down after 150). I think getting only 66kW means that the SuperCharger isn't fully operational yet - I was expecting something closer to 90 or 120 until the 150 miles rated range. However, it's still a heck of a lot faster than anything I've ever seen.

After initially playing around, we plugged it into spot 5 when it was at 130 miles on the reading and 30 minutes later it was at 223 miles (93 miles added). Stopped it at 240 miles (110 miles added) after 38 minutes.

This is actually an important test for me, and probably others. I live in Redmond, and frequently drive up to Vancouver and Whistler. Starting in Redmond or Seattle means you're always going to arrive at Burlington with over 120 miles range. But to get from Burlington to Whistler without another stop you really need to charge up to 240 miles. This proves you can get the juice you need to get to Whistler in less than 40 minutes (and it will probably improve further).


HINT: If you think 40 minutes is long to wait... adopt a dog. After initially playing around with other chargers, then finally leaving it into spot 5 to do a real charge, we did the following:
* Took the dogs out for a quick walk (To the grass at Bob's burgers and back).
* Hopped into Jack In The Box to get a burger for us (and the doggies of course) - no line.
* Ate the burger in the car (we don't trust the dogs alone in the car yet).
* Threw away the trash and went to the bathroom

This is pretty much on par with every stop we've been doing for the last 7 years when we have the dogs with us. And it was an in-and-out stop, not trying to waste any time (since we didn't actually need any charge). In that time the car charged up 110 miles (from the 130-level that we started at), and it just happened to have taken 38 minutes. I would have never imagined our stops took this long before, but with dogs, they do. I believe those SuperChargers will eventually operate at twice the rate we got today, but it's already at the point where it's going to give me more charge than I actually need given my current stop times.

PS: Another interesting bit, when I plugged into 2 of the chargers initially, it was giving a charge rate reading in kW. When I unplugged at 240 rated and plugged into another charger the reading switch to mi/hours added. Not sure why.

View attachment 25628

 

[andyrebele]

As MBCMDR pointed out, unlike at other Superchargers, chargers 1 & 5, 2 & 6, 3 & 7, and 4 & 8 are linked. Therefore it seems you want to avoid charging 4 spots away from another car that is also charging, unlike at other Supercharger locations where you want to avoid charging adjacent and in the same pair with another car.

As deonb found, the max charge rate was 66 kW. I have charged the same car at the CA Superchargers at 90 kW.

It's nice to see these up and running!

 

[richkae]

So if there are 4 supercharger "pairs" of 120kW each that's 480kW of charging. Typical J1772 are 30amps and 200 volts ( 208, but the voltage drop quite often comes out to 200 ) and thus 6kW.
This one supercharger installation is the equivalent of 80 J1772 outlets.
When the Centralia location ( 10 spots, 5 pairs x 120kW ) and its 600kW are online - that will be over 1 MW of Tesla charging in Washington state - and the equivalent of 180 J1772 outlets.

What is the total charging capacity of free public charging in the state? Has this doubled it? ( Most J1772s are not free, but the CHAdeMOs are. How many of those are there? )

 

[deonb]

As MBCMDR pointed out, unlike at other Superchargers, chargers 1 & 5, 2 & 6, 3 & 7, and 4 & 8 are linked. Therefore it seems you want to avoid charging 4 spots away from another car that is also charging, unlike at other Supercharger locations where you want to avoid charging adjacent and in the same pair with another car.

As deonb found, the max charge rate was 66 kW. I have charged the same car at the CA Superchargers at 90 kW.

It's nice to see these up and running!

That's weird. I found 1 and 2 to be down, but 4, 5 and 8 was working. That somewhat implies that 1 and 2 was linked. (Or at least implies that 1 and 5 wasn't linked).

 

[MBCMDR]

That's weird. I found 1 and 2 to be down, but 4, 5 and 8 was working. That somewhat implies that 1 and 2 was linked. (Or at least implies that 1 and 5 wasn't linked).

I was there daily and watched the wiring, I maybe over the hill but my mind still in tack LOL

 

[MBCMDR]

I will confirm that slot 5 worked as doing 404V at 358A 270 mile\hr and noted the amperage goes down the fuller the battery gets but the mile\hr stay about the same.

EDIT: the above post incorrect as I fat fingered 404V 258A 270 mile\hr
Sorry for typo/fat finger

 

[deonb]

I will confirm that slot 5 worked as doing 404V at 358A 270 mile\hr and noted the amperage goes down the fuller the battery gets but the mile\hr stay about the same.

Nice. What was your SOC at the point you got 358 A?

 

[MBCMDR]

Nice. What was your SOC at the point you got 358 A?

It was at 79 mile on battery Standard Range and the mile\hr creep up fairly fast from first plugged in.