Supercharger - Darien CT Rest Area

[toxicpenguin]

Southbound Darien : not active but I counted 11 stalls! V3 I’m assuming !! Finally some relief from ICE’ing when they are operational as they are pretty out of the way from the restaurants

 

[MarcoRP]

Just a note: the Darien Supercharger expansions may be operational. I can’t exactly remember, but I remember seeing a photo from PlugShare (the photo has since been removed) of a Model S charging at one of the Darien expansions.

 

[juliusa]

Just a note: the Darien Supercharger expansions may be operational. I can’t exactly remember, but I remember seeing a photo from PlugShare (the photo has since been removed) of a Model S charging at one of the Darien expansions.

Yes, NB V3 chargers are operational!

 

[juliusa]

8 of the 10 are operational. Two are not lit so may not be operational. The original 4 are still operational, at least for now.

When I was charging, it said 11 of 11 available. When I left, it said 12 of 12 available. Seems they may be having a little trouble with that - perhaps because they are trying to count the V2 and V3 superchargers together, and working that out.

 

[tinkererguy]

8 of the 10 are operational. Two are not lit so may not be operational. The original 4 are still operational, at least for now.

When I was charging, it said 11 of 11 available. When I left, it said 12 of 12 available. Seems they may be having a little trouble with that - perhaps because they are trying to count the V2 and V3 superchargers together, and working that out.

Same status on Sat. Feb 15, 8 of 10 new V3s lit on Northbound. Got brief 178 kW 728 mi/hr peak on Model 3 LR AWD with about 12 min of automatic preconditioning, but 32F temp and 24% full battery before I got there. TeslaFi shows details, 68 miles added in 7 minutes.

A bit dangerous to back in the first few stalls, as you are surprising gas cars behind you when you stop to backup, see 3rd pic below.

 

[Jard]

Tried to charge here (southbound) and it would not charge my 2020 MSP at all. I tried 3 different stalls. We had to detour north to Rt. 15 to continue and will circle back around.

Annoying.

 

[juliusa]

Tried to charge here (southbound) and it would not charge my 2020 MSP at all. I tried 3 different stalls. We had to detour north to Rt. 15 to continue and will circle back around.

Annoying.

There is another charger 4 miles from there in Stamford, not far off I-95. It is listed on the nav.
Darien NB would be about 3.5 miles detour each way - and it is a V3.
If you were going to the Merritt anyway, North Stamford is 7 miles away by the Merritt and has 6 working stalls (2 not working).

So many superchargers around there!

 

[juliusa]

View attachment 511725

If that estimate is right, you paid $.28 per kWh. I pay $.20 at my house near there. Seems like a pretty reasonable rate from Tesla. Since they charge by time, I wonder if they are going to up the rates for V3 chargers.

 

[Jard]

There is another charger 4 miles from there in Stamford, not far off I-95. It is listed on the nav.
Darien NB would be about 3.5 miles detour each way - and it is a V3.
If you were going to the Merritt anyway, North Stamford is 7 miles away by the Merritt and has 6 working stalls (2 not working).

So many superchargers around there!

Well, I was going back home to MD and arrived with 9% charge, so not enough where I was comfortable to try and get through NYC.

Stamford was listed as a 75kWh max charger, slow.

I had no confidence that any of the v3 chargers including Darien NB would work after another report of issues from a reddit user last night.

It wasn’t the end of the world but it added probably an hour+ to our trip south.

 

[tinkererguy]

If that estimate is right, you paid $.28 per kWh. I pay $.20 at my house near there. Seems like a pretty reasonable rate from Tesla. Since they charge by time, I wonder if they are going to up the rates for V3 chargers.

Ah, you got me, TeslaFi is just an estimate, based on whatever value I plunk in here. Not really sure what I should use, given I think this can vary state to state, and I drove all over the northeastern US and a bit of Canada. It hasn't been a big concern for me to track this carefully, as I'm blessed with some free Supercharging left from a couple of referrals.

 

[juliusa]

Ah, you got me, TeslaFi is just an estimate, based on whatever value I plunk in here. Not really sure what I should use, given I think this can vary state to state, and I drove all over the northeastern US and a bit of Canada. It hasn't been a big concern for me to track this carefully, as I'm blessed with some free Supercharging left from a couple of referrals.
View attachment 512224

In CT Tesla charges based on time. Our backwards state won't allow them to charge by the kWh.

 

[juliusa]

It wasn’t the end of the world but it added probably an hour+ to our trip south.

Did you use the nav system for your detour? If I route from the Darien SB charger to MD via I-95 or via RT 15, google maps shows a 9 mile difference in distance.

 

[Jard]

Did you use the nav system for your detour? If I route from the Darien SB charger to MD via I-95 or via RT 15, google maps shows a 9 mile difference in distance.

I chose to drive to the NB supercharger on 15 since it was closer and I was already below 10% SOC. That was my choice but we’re getting into the philosophical realm now.

What I expected to find based on the in-car navigation system was a functioning v3 supercharger. What I found was a disruption to my travel and added stress.

Is this still the price of being an “early adopter?” Had I been traveling with my family (7 yo and 5 yo) the stress would have been much higher.

Can I still enthusiastically recommend that my friends in Boston get a Model Y and that will be able to do their normal trip from Boston to Norfolk without major changes?

edit: here’s the thread that tipped me off to not expect v3 superchargers to actually work
https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/f45v8t/bad_advice_by_tesla_supercharger_not_working/

 

[tga]

I chose to drive to the NB supercharger on 15 since it was closer and I was already below 10% SOC. That was my choice but we’re getting into the philosophical realm now.

What I expected to find based on the in-car navigation system was a functioning v3 supercharger. What I found was a disruption to my travel and added stress.

Is this still the price of being an “early adopter?” Had I been traveling with my family (7 yo and 5 yo) the stress would have been much higher.

Can I still enthusiastically recommend that my friends in Boston get a Model Y and that will be able to do their normal trip from Boston to Norfolk without major changes?

edit: here’s the thread that tipped me off to not expect v3 superchargers to actually work
https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/f45v8t/bad_advice_by_tesla_supercharger_not_working/

In 3 years of long distance Tesla driving, I've had two instances where I arrived at a Supercharger to find all stalls down with the Nav system showing it was up and running.

• Last summer, I arrived at Hooksett southbound early in the trip. I did not need to charge, but figured I'd take the opportunity to soak up some electrons during the bathroom break. The power for the entire rest area went out <10 minutes before I arrived. The rest area was running on its backup generators (which don't power the Superchargers). The northbound station was up and running (I could see the lights on the stalls across the highway), so I could have pulled a U-turn if I needed to charge.
• At the end of January, I arrived at the Lincoln, NH Supercharger with 9% to find it was down even though the Nav said it was up and running. I spent 2+ hours at a HPWC at nearby Loon Mountain (along with several other stranded Teslas) in order to make it home. One of the drivers mentioned the station was working fine that morning. It took a couple of days for Tesla to change the status on the Nav to "Temporary closure" and another week to get it fixed. Had I known in advance, I could have taken an alternate route through an EVGo Chademo station.

Long story short, it's probably safe to consider this an isolated incident. I try to make sure I have at least 20% when arriving at a Supercharger; this (usually) gives me enough reserves to get to an alternate.

 

[Jard]

Long story short, it's probably safe to consider this an isolated incident. I try to make sure I have at least 20% when arriving at a Supercharger; this (usually) gives me enough reserves to get to an alternate.

Thanks, it’s nice to have that context from your experience. This was my first long distance trip that required multiple charges and there was definitely some anxiety about superchargers being full or unavailable and not matching status in the nav.

 

[tinkererguy]

Thanks, it’s nice to have that context from your experience. This was my first long distance trip that required multiple charges and there was definitely some anxiety about superchargers being full or unavailable and not matching status in the nav.

Hope your trip went well, encouraging you to worry less about future trips!

I agree with @tga's positive perspective. I've covered 28,000 miles these past 14 months in my Model 3 LR AWD, stopping at dozens of Superchargers, and never having any significant charging issues. Middle of the night in rural Maine, in extreme single-digit cold, in the snow, you name it, I need to get where I'm going for work appointments. I was never late because of my car miscalculating range or charge times, it's usually quite accurate for trip planning.

There may be the occasional out of order Supercharger so I need to move a few spots and try again. Or, charge rates a bit slower than I had hoped for such as V3 in winter, or somebody pulling up next to me at V2. But in general, in the Northeastern US we are blessed with quite the density of Supercharging options, and it makes it quite easy to just hit the road for work (or for family), with minimal advanced planning or worry.

 

[North75]

Hope your trip went well, encouraging you to worry less about future trips!

I agree with @tga's positive perspective. I've covered 28,000 miles these past 14 months in my Model 3 LR AWD, stopping at dozens of Superchargers, and never having any significant charging issues. Middle of the night in rural Maine, in extreme single-digit cold, in the snow, you name it, I need to get where I'm going for work appointments. I was never late because of my car miscalculating range or charge times, it's usually quite accurate for trip planning.

There may be the occasional out of order Supercharger so I need to move a few spots and try again. Or, charge rates a bit slower than I had hoped for such as V3 in winter, or somebody pulling up next to me at V2. But in general, in the Northeastern US we are blessed with quite the density of Supercharging options, and it makes it quite easy to just hit the road for work (or for family), with minimal advanced planning or worry.
View attachment 519952

Are you starting to see any issues with volume of cars at superchargers? i.e. have you had to wait yet?

I realize it's nothing like the west coast yet, but I recently took a trip from Boston to Philadelphia and noticed that there seemed to be a lot more volume at the chargers vs. my last trip a year or so ago. I got turned away at the Meriden charger because all 4 of the working chargers were full. Granted this is a new v3 charger, so I'm guessing a lot of people (like me) are targeting it directly to try it out. The 4 non-working chargers seemed to be throwing off the in car reporting as well. I also stopped at Woodbridge NJ and while I was able to get one of the working chargers (4 of 8 not working correctly) I saw multiple cars pull in and leave because they could not get a charger.

Finally while I don't typically charge at it, I drive past the Hookset superchargers in NH on a regular basis and have seen it completely full on the Northbound side on 3 occasions this winter.

I'm assuming the in car routing doesn't take supercharger vacancy into consideration. It would be nice if it did somehow. Tesla should be able to know what cars are routing to what chargers and take that into consideration somehow.

It would also be nice if Tesla had some system for managing queuing when you do need to wait. i.e. who is next in line.

Overall while I agree there are lots of options on the east coast, it seems like cars are definitely being added faster than chargers. It could get very discouraging if you need to wait at superchargers on a regular basis. Hopefully Tesla keeps up the rate of supercharger expansion. It would also probably be pretty huge if they come out with an adapter for CCS. It seems that the electrify america charging network is expanding rapidly and would be a nice option if we could use them.

 

[Jard]

Hope your trip went well, encouraging you to worry less about future trips!

Thanks, the trip went okay considering I made it where I was going within a reasonable amount of time. I'm thinking about driving the whole way to Sunday River in ME this Summer for the New England Forest Rally. I wish the Bethel, ME supercharger was up and running, but it seems like Sunday River does have destination charging.

Are you starting to see any issues with volume of cars at superchargers? i.e. have you had to wait yet?

I realize it's nothing like the west coast yet, but I recently took a trip from Boston to Philadelphia and noticed that there seemed to be a lot more volume at the chargers vs. my last trip a year or so ago. I got turned away at the Meriden charger because all 4 of the working chargers were full. Granted this is a new v3 charger, so I'm guessing a lot of people (like me) are targeting it directly to try it out. The 4 non-working chargers seemed to be throwing off the in car reporting as well. I also stopped at Woodbridge NJ and while I was able to get one of the working chargers (4 of 8 not working correctly) I saw multiple cars pull in and leave because they could not get a charger.

Finally while I don't typically charge at it, I drive past the Hookset superchargers in NH on a regular basis and have seen it completely full on the Northbound side on 3 occasions this winter.

I'm assuming the in car routing doesn't take supercharger vacancy into consideration. It would be nice if it did somehow. Tesla should be able to know what cars are routing to what chargers and take that into consideration somehow.

It would also be nice if Tesla had some system for managing queuing when you do need to wait. i.e. who is next in line.

Overall while I agree there are lots of options on the east coast, it seems like cars are definitely being added faster than chargers. It could get very discouraging if you need to wait at superchargers on a regular basis. Hopefully Tesla keeps up the rate of supercharger expansion. It would also probably be pretty huge if they come out with an adapter for CCS. It seems that the electrify america charging network is expanding rapidly and would be a nice option if we could use them.

I had to wait at Molly Pitcher service area in NJ on my way home, maybe 10-15 minutes before one of the four chargers freed up. I did read an article recently that said Tesla and NJ agreed to an expansion and now many of the service centers will have 8 stalls of V3 chargers.

 

[tga]

I have not had to wait yet in New England. In the last month or two, I've twice plugged in and got the "Unable to Supercharge/DC Fast Charge" error, but an adjacent stall worked fine (Hooksett Northbound, West Lebanon).

Hooksett can be very "peaky". Things can get dicey during the Friday/Sunday ski/lake rush. Friday northbound seems worse/more compacted, whereas Sunday southbound departures seem to be more spread out.

 

[North75]

I have not had to wait yet in New England. In the last month or two, I've twice plugged in and got the "Unable to Supercharge/DC Fast Charge" error, but an adjacent stall worked fine (Hooksett Northbound, West Lebanon).

Hooksett can be very "peaky". Things can get dicey during the Friday/Sunday ski/lake rush. Friday northbound seems worse/more compacted, whereas Sunday southbound departures seem to be more spread out.

I'm guessing it's also related to having a charger at your destination. To get home you just need to make it, but when going up north you might need some charge for driving around while you are there... (plus enough to get back to the charger)