gnuarm
Model X 100 with 72 amp chargers
Hello! Just saw this thread and it's a topic I've been wondering about for months (and asking around about, to no avail).
I live in Brunswick, Maryland (about 20 minutes west of Frederick). We're part of Frederick County. Right now, whenever I have a reason to go to downtown Frederick for a while and need to charge my Model S, I try to make use of the destination chargers graciously provided by the Paul Mitchell Temple. They have 100 amp service going to them, which is great for my car, since it's equipped with "dual chargers" that can take full advantage of that. (And they're a great place to get a haircut. You get better prices than salons because they're a school for people learning to work in salons.)
Unfortunately, because of the placement of those 2 parking spots in the back of their building -- they often get blocked if someone needs to unload things there. And additionally, I've started noticing more people using them in recent months. Used to be, they seemed to be kind of a secret. If I parked there to use one, I got questions from employees who wanted to know how long it took to charge a Tesla on one, etc. (Got the idea they didn't see a whole lot of use.) But now, I've had to pass them by and do something different on a couple of occasions, because they were both occupied.
When I look them up on Plugshare it shows as "private". You are saying Paul Mitchel Temple lets anyone use these chargers?
My guess was that maybe that new Royal Farms on Buckeystown Pike would be the site for a new Supercharger station, but seeing they've just opened and looking at the layout there? I'm not sure they left much room for them to be added?
I'm hoping they put some in the FSK mall parking lot near all the restaurants and the Wawa gas station on Rt 355. If I'm going to wait to charge I'd like to be able to do something. But I suppose spending 20-30 minutes to put enough range on to get back down the road is no big deal.
I have to say, I find it rather irritating that the Mom's Market on Buckeytown Pike seems to have decided not to bother making the effort to get their Chademo charger to work properly with Teslas again. Long ago, they were (I believe) the first shop in the Frederick area to provide free EV charging for people. And clearly, they used to support Teslas because a big sign in their window instructed you to go inside if you needed to borrow their Tesla Chademo adapter they kept behind the counter. But for the last year or so, I've never been able to get that charger to work with my car. It starts communicating for several seconds and then throws an error code and shuts off. They repeatedly told me they had it "scheduled to be repaired" -- but nothing seemed to come of it. And the check-in apps like PlugShare indicate that for the last 6 months or so, nobody's been charging on it besides Nissan Leafs and Chevy Bolts and such.
Yeah, that's my experience too. The first time I tried it they were very helpful but seemed a bit unknowledgeable about it requiring not only the employee, but a manager to come out and view the error message. The second time it had a Leaf on it who's owner didn't return when the charge was complete with no way to send them a message. My third attempt didn't work either with the same error message, but this time an employee just said it's funny and works with some cars and doesn't with others. Couldn't tell if they meant Teslas, or just EVs in general. It may well be that the adapter is hosed. This is the only level 3 adapter in 25 miles, so Frederick is a bit of a waste land for BEVs at the moment.