Supercharger - Gaithersburg, MD

[MMC-]

Thursday Jan 4th 2018 11:30 am

Drove by Gaithersburg primarily to see if my tape was removed from pedestal 4B. That has happened at other sites in the past. Well my tape was still there and the Tesla led at the top was not lit.

My question here does anyone know if the supercharger group has that kind of remote control over the pedestals to be able to remotely shut off the B pedestal leaving the A pedestal operational? If not then someone got out there fast to shut it down.

 

[AdamHLG]

I was at the Gaithersburg supercharger today and your tape is still there and it is still not lit up.

This was my first time trying a supercharger since I obtained delivery. I am no longer a supercharger virgin. It was a pretty cool experience.

 

[djsinc]

Charged at 4B today, got 80kW.

 

[SNMD]

Charged at 4A after some issue in 1B on Saturday, this was my first Supercharging experience. Saw a bunch of Xs and Ss with temporary tags charging there as well.

 

[GOPJEW]

Quick charge today - max 42kw. Not good considering max 120kw listed per Tesla.

Same on both 4b and 2a.

Nice blue 3 here too!

 

[bluetinc]

Hi GOPJEW,

There are a number of stars that need to align to receive 120kW when charging. They are:

1. You must not have anyone else on the other matched pedestal, i.e. if you are on 4b, 4a must be empty. This is because the 120kW is split between the two spots with a greater rate given to the first car to plug in.

2. Your battery must be near empty. In an 85kWh battery, you will generally only see over 110kW rates when you are below about 25% full.

3. Your battery must be warm. Generally it will need to be above about 60 degrees F. After my car cold soaks below 32F I've found that it can take up to an hour of driving to fully warm the battery up for a 120kW charge (this of course varies depending on car settings and type of driving).

4. The SuperCharger must be at 100% health. This is the last item that is very hard to tell if it's met, because Tesla doesn't make public the % health of the chargers. The chargers fail gracefully, so it's quite possible to have a charge that should put out 120kW put out only 90kW or less when some of the internal modules have failed. In the past when 1-3 are met, and I see a very low rate, I've called the Supercharger number while charging and had them verify the charge that was taking place and made sure they had a ticket to repair it in their system. I'm not sure if they are still doing this now that there are so many chargers and they have just moved to an automated ticket generation system.

Peter

Quick charge today - max 42kw. Not good considering max 120kw listed per Tesla.

Same on both 4b and 2a.

Nice blue 3 here too!

 

[GOPJEW]

Hi GOPJEW,

There are a number of stars that need to align to receive 120kW when charging. They are:

1. You must not have anyone else on the other matched pedestal, i.e. if you are on 4b, 4a must be empty. This is because the 120kW is split between the two spots with a greater rate given to the first car to plug in.

2. Your battery must be near empty. In an 85kWh battery, you will generally only see over 110kW rates when you are below about 25% full.

3. Your battery must be warm. Generally it will need to be above about 60 degrees F. After my car cold soaks below 32F I've found that it can take up to an hour of driving to fully warm the battery up for a 120kW charge (this of course varies depending on car settings and type of driving).

4. The SuperCharger must be at 100% health. This is the last item that is very hard to tell if it's met, because Tesla doesn't make public the % health of the chargers. The chargers fail gracefully, so it's quite possible to have a charge that should put out 120kW put out only 90kW or less when some of the internal modules have failed. In the past when 1-3 are met, and I see a very low rate, I've called the Supercharger number while charging and had them verify the charge that was taking place and made sure they had a ticket to repair it in their system. I'm not sure if they are still doing this now that there are so many chargers and they have just moved to an automated ticket generation system.

Peter

@bluetinc - thanks for the reply, fortunately this is my second Tesla and I am pretty aware of how superchargers work - hence my post.

No one was in either of the complimentary superchargers (two others total charging when I began - at either end).

I was pretty low, but it does NOT have to be near empty to charge at full capacity - it just cannot be near full as that is when it slows down.

I was fully warm and had been driving at highway speeds for about an hour when I pulled in.

Point of my post was the supercharger must NOT be operating at full capacity - before posting I went through this very thread and the 40's seems to be the average - so I posted. It ended up maxing, at the end when I was almost "full" (90%) at 52Kw.

If someone has achieved higher numbers I am interested - but neither my S nor my new X has achieved very good speeds up there so I was posting to see if others are regularly getting them, otherwise I suspect they are not currently programmed/set-up to deliver that kind of charge yet.

 

[MacGreiner]

@bluetinc - thanks for the reply, fortunately this is my second Tesla and I am pretty aware of how superchargers work - hence my post.

No one was in either of the complimentary superchargers (two others total charging when I began - at either end).

I was pretty low, but it does NOT have to be near empty to charge at full capacity - it just cannot be near full as that is when it slows down.

I was fully warm and had been driving at highway speeds for about an hour when I pulled in.

Point of my post was the supercharger must NOT be operating at full capacity - before posting I went through this very thread and the 40's seems to be the average - so I posted. It ended up maxing, at the end when I was almost "full" (90%) at 52Kw.

If someone has achieved higher numbers I am interested - but neither my S nor my new X has achieved very good speeds up there so I was posting to see if others are regularly getting them, otherwise I suspect they are not currently programmed/set-up to deliver that kind of charge yet.

Agreed. Several of us have experienced low Kw out of this brand new charger despite ideal charging contexts.

 

[bluetinc]

Hey GOPJEW,

Thanks for the extra info, had you included that, I wouldn't have given you the rundown that Tesla should have posted for new owners. I'm sure you understand how often you will be at a charger alone only to have someone who pulls up plug in on your stations mate.

I'll note, I was specific with the battery and the charge rate I called out, and I'll hold to that. If you showed up in a 100, then you should expect to see a high rate of charge for much longer. There are a number of charge taper graphs that back this up by both myself and others all over the site.

I can tell you that I've charged faster than that, but not by too much as I'm rarely both low, warm, and stopping there when I'm so close to home. I'll give it a stop next time I'm coming back from a trip in the next week or two.

Did you call the Tesla Supercharger team while you were charging and ask them why you were charging slow? If you didn't, and you or anyone else here see's a problem, give it a shot

Peter

@bluetinc - thanks for the reply, fortunately this is my second Tesla and I am pretty aware of how superchargers work - hence my post.

No one was in either of the complimentary superchargers (two others total charging when I began - at either end).

I was pretty low, but it does NOT have to be near empty to charge at full capacity - it just cannot be near full as that is when it slows down.

I was fully warm and had been driving at highway speeds for about an hour when I pulled in.

Point of my post was the supercharger must NOT be operating at full capacity - before posting I went through this very thread and the 40's seems to be the average - so I posted. It ended up maxing, at the end when I was almost "full" (90%) at 52Kw.

If someone has achieved higher numbers I am interested - but neither my S nor my new X has achieved very good speeds up there so I was posting to see if others are regularly getting them, otherwise I suspect they are not currently programmed/set-up to deliver that kind of charge yet.

 

[GOPJEW]

Hey GOPJEW,

Thanks for the extra info, had you included that, I wouldn't have given you the rundown that Tesla should have posted for new owners. I'm sure you understand how often you will be at a charger alone only to have someone who pulls up plug in on your stations mate.

I'll note, I was specific with the battery and the charge rate I called out, and I'll hold to that. If you showed up in a 100, then you should expect to see a high rate of charge for much longer. There are a number of charge taper graphs that back this up by both myself and others all over the site.

I can tell you that I've charged faster than that, but not by too much as I'm rarely both low, warm, and stopping there when I'm so close to home. I'll give it a stop next time I'm coming back from a trip in the next week or two.

Did you call the Tesla Supercharger team while you were charging and ask them why you were charging slow? If you didn't, and you or anyone else here see's a problem, give it a shot

Peter

Peter - not complaining about your rundown - it would help folks who don't know better.

I did not call Tesla - frankly my understanding is they get the info from each car as it charges so they have the data - not sure if they are looking at it so your suggestion is well taken to call them - I just posted to see if someone has had better results - since no one claims to have had much better I suspect there is a setting they are not conveying and that they are not set to deliver that much yet.

Ironically, over Xmas we drove the new X from here up to PA with 2 stops each way and never saw a lower KW so I suspect it is not vehicle but the set-up there.

 

[sb74]

FWIW, I'm usually able to charge from about 10-20 to 90 percent on my S75 in an hour or less here.

 

[GOPJEW]

FWIW, I'm usually able to charge from about 10-20 to 90 percent on my S75 in an hour or less here.

Thanks - have you noticed what the KW charge is? You should be able to get to 80% in 30 minutes at 120KW which makes me think you are getting less

 

[sb74]

Thanks - have you noticed what the KW charge is? You should be able to get to 80% in 30 minutes at 120KW which makes me think you are getting less

Definitely not 120 but my recollection is that it starts out in the upper 90s.

 

[GOPJEW]

Definitely not 120 but my recollection is that it starts out in the upper 90s.

Yep - on my S85D I usually am to 80% in 20-30 mins when I'm road tripping - these just aren't charging at the high # for whatever reason.

Maybe its to keep us shopping longer!

 

[bhakan]

I was there on either Sat or Sun morning around 9:30 or 10am. May be there was one MX few stations down from mine that left in 20 mins. I also noticed that it reached around 40KW or so. Took about 1 hr to charge a range of 106mi. Even tho it was faster then my home Tesla WC slower than some of my previous trips. Definitely much slower than the SCs on I-81during my road trip.

 

[marsh1n]

I charged there yesterday afternoon. I arrived at about 40% and charged to about 80%. It charged at 51KW the entire time. I was in the stall all the way to the right (next to the handicapped spot).

This is the highest I've seen at this SC.

 

[vdiv]

This place is busy. Not sure if the stationary batteries are working, and if they are if they get a chance to charge. I have not heard their inverters turning on the few times I have been there, has anyone?

 

[sb74]

I was the only one there during the first half of last night's game, and yet charging took longer than usual most likely due to the cold. It took about 10-15 minutes for things to peak at about 70 kW and then it gradually dropped after that.

 

[bhakan]

I was the only one there during the first half of last night's game, and yet charging took longer than usual most likely due to the cold. It took about 10-15 minutes for things to peak at about 70 kW and then it gradually dropped after that.

I was there on Fri evening when it was very cold and windy. Transiently it hit 51KW, otherwise hovered around 45KW. Few cars and none next to mine.

 

[SNMD]

First, I would like to give a shout out to the person who helped direct me into the supercharger. Feels nice being a part of the family.

I was concerned by the charging rate, and it seems many people are seeing the same issue. I have tried stopping and restarting my charge and sometimes that has helped. I talked to a fellow MS owner and he told me that the Laurel supercharger constantly puts out 300 miles/hr.