Was it labelled 36kW max or are you just reporting one time that your car only received 36kW. If the latter, that is not a large sample size. It should also be noted that having an underperforming stall at a supercharger site is not uncommon and sometimes the situation is temporary.
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Supercharger - Indio, CA (LIVE, 36 V3 + 8 V2 + 2 Urban stalls)
- Thread starter napabill
- Start date
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
"36kw" is quite often not a broken or malfunctioning charger, but a normal condition of pairing. 36kw is a very normal number to get if the car on the paired stall is charging at close to max rate. Your charge won't speed up until the first car drops below ~72kw.
My understanding of the current v2 Supercharger architecture is that each A/B pair of stalls has 145kw to allocate between two cars. Furthermore, each pair of stalls is actually made up of four "stacks" of ~36kw chargers - each stack can be allocated to one car or the other.
So, if one car is charging close to the max 120kw rate, it can theoretically be using all four charging stacks. If a second car plugs in to the paired stall, it's guaranteed at least 1 stack, so that car sees ~36kw of charging speed. The first car maintains priority over the stacks until the charge speeds slows enough that it doesn't need them, so when the charge rate of the first car drops below ~72kw, you get a second stack allocated to you and will see your charge rate rise to ~72kw very quickly. Once the first car drops below 36kw, the third stack would be allocated to you (though by this time it's unlikely you'd need it).
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Very poor situation at the Indio SC last weekend.
One stall only got a max of 29kW when its pair was empty. 2 others maxed out at 36kW when their pair was empty. Then there's the temporary ones that max at 50kW. it was late at night so I was able to swap stalls until I got a 120 kW one. One time during the day over the last weekend 7 cars were waiting in line. Not surprising since charging there is so slow on many stalls.
The slowness had little to do with stalls being full and paired because I tested each stall late at night when the station was empty, except for my Tesla.
One stall only got a max of 29kW when its pair was empty. 2 others maxed out at 36kW when their pair was empty. Then there's the temporary ones that max at 50kW. it was late at night so I was able to swap stalls until I got a 120 kW one. One time during the day over the last weekend 7 cars were waiting in line. Not surprising since charging there is so slow on many stalls.
The slowness had little to do with stalls being full and paired because I tested each stall late at night when the station was empty, except for my Tesla.
Was the site busy when you charged? I don't think the wording of this message is helpful. To a normal owner it comes across like there is an issue with the station. Like it's not capable of charging fully. I believe it's supposed to encourage people to move their cars once 80% is reached (which is usually more than enough to make it to the next station). That needs to be focus of the message!
JaviEx00
Member
The site was about 90 % full. What I noticed was that it automatically changed the charge setting to 80%, if your setting was set above 80%. However, once the charge started you are able to change the charge limit. I charged to 85% just to see what would happen and it did continue to charge. I totally agree that 80% is good enough for most when traveling. I also read an article from https://electrek.co/2019/05/24/tesla-limiting-supercharger-busy/ and this looks like what is going on.
I think it would be much more helpful if Tesla would educate owners about only charging as much as they need to make it to the next station. It makes sense and promotes people to minimize charge time. The current message isn't helping and just imposes a limitation which never gets a positive reaction.
And that 80% limit is easily overridden by simply sliding to the right. See
https://electrek.co/2019/05/27/tesla-override-new-charge-limitation-busy-superchargers/
Now that we have established this, I’m sure discussion of that topic can continue in one of the many existing threads devoted to the topic, which is not here. Thanks.
alwaysru
Member
Attempted to charge here on the way in from Austin on Tuesday - how on earth is this site not marked degraded by Tesla? 1/2 of the chargers give between 4-10kW or are broken. The cluster-f of this charger delayed my trip by almost 2 hours to get into Riverside. I sent a note to Tesla - surprised to not see a whole lot of folks on here mentioning how bad it is.
NAV Status is way off for Indio.
Checked status from Quartzite the whole 90 miles to Indio. Always said 0, 1, or 2 of 10 available. Decided to chance it and check it out since it's andrigjt off the I-10. if full or slow (got 4 kW there a few weeks ago) would detour to Rancho Mirage instead. Got there found only 2 cars and 1 broken charger. That's 7/10.
After leaving, there was only 1 car plugged in. Nav still said 2 of 10 available. Pulled 101 kW ony 3 LR
Checked status from Quartzite the whole 90 miles to Indio. Always said 0, 1, or 2 of 10 available. Decided to chance it and check it out since it's andrigjt off the I-10. if full or slow (got 4 kW there a few weeks ago) would detour to Rancho Mirage instead. Got there found only 2 cars and 1 broken charger. That's 7/10.
After leaving, there was only 1 car plugged in. Nav still said 2 of 10 available. Pulled 101 kW ony 3 LR
palmer_md
Member
I was there on Saturday evening and found 3 of the 10 were down and had to wait in line for 30 min to charge. Charged quickly but waiting when there are broken charge stations sucks.
Only pulling 32kW here today, even at a low SOC. A line of 4 cars so I cannot test other stalls.
Charged here yesterday afternoon for the first time. Big mistake.
Normally I stop in Cabazon when coming back from AZ, but there was a lot of wind and I was driving fast so the nav said I had to limit to 70mph to get to Cabazon. I figured instead of slowing down (traffic was going about 85mph) I'd stop in Indio for just a quick 2-3 minute charge to get me to Cabazon where I'd charge the rest of the way.
First problem was that despite the nav saying 3 stalls were open, there was actually a line of two cars when I got there. I decided to wait, which unfortunately took about 10 minutes. Second problem was that when I finally plugged in, it was drawing around 25kW. Third problem was that the parking lot was an absolute zoo and it took a while to get back to the freeway. So my 2-3 minute detour turned into about a 30 minute headache.
So moral of the story is avoid Indio at all costs. Slow down, draft behind a semi, do whatever you have to do to make it to another charger.
Normally I stop in Cabazon when coming back from AZ, but there was a lot of wind and I was driving fast so the nav said I had to limit to 70mph to get to Cabazon. I figured instead of slowing down (traffic was going about 85mph) I'd stop in Indio for just a quick 2-3 minute charge to get me to Cabazon where I'd charge the rest of the way.
First problem was that despite the nav saying 3 stalls were open, there was actually a line of two cars when I got there. I decided to wait, which unfortunately took about 10 minutes. Second problem was that when I finally plugged in, it was drawing around 25kW. Third problem was that the parking lot was an absolute zoo and it took a while to get back to the freeway. So my 2-3 minute detour turned into about a 30 minute headache.
So moral of the story is avoid Indio at all costs. Slow down, draft behind a semi, do whatever you have to do to make it to another charger.
many years living her part time in Indian Wells I learned to drive around 65 to get to Cabazon ...u can easily eat 30% range with the winds driving this 30mile stretch ...u also could have went Rancho Mirage with 24 Urbans never busy ...also I try and bypass Cabazon now that the Beaumont V3 is open as Cabazon also has lot of issues with power
GoBlue88
Member
Go to Rancho Mirage. 24 urban chargers, I've never seen more than 8 cars charging at once, and a much better selection of restaurants to choose from than Indio.
I appreciate the suggestions to go to RM, but when you're at the tail end of a road trip with your family in the car wanting to get home, making a 30 minute detour to an urban charger is not really an option. The point of my post was to inform people who might find themselves in a similar situation where time is of the essence - avoid Indio and try to get to Cabazon (or Beaumont) if at all possible.
Anyone used this site recently?
planning a trip from Santa Clarita to Phoenix next week.
Indio and Quartzite look like my best options in my time vs range calculations.
2018 Model 3 Performance (20" wheels) real world range +/-180 miles (at about 80 mph highway)
ABRP recommends stops at Blythe and Buckeye, but experience tells me the 2 minute savings is more than eaten up in travel to and from the highway, picking a spot, plugging in, etc. So I'll choose to stay at a charger a few extra minutes and make 1 less stop.
But here's the rub; Beaumont and Cabazon are closer to my starting point so beginning SOC would be higher and would need to charge over 90% to make Quartzite, adding time...
planning a trip from Santa Clarita to Phoenix next week.
Indio and Quartzite look like my best options in my time vs range calculations.
2018 Model 3 Performance (20" wheels) real world range +/-180 miles (at about 80 mph highway)
ABRP recommends stops at Blythe and Buckeye, but experience tells me the 2 minute savings is more than eaten up in travel to and from the highway, picking a spot, plugging in, etc. So I'll choose to stay at a charger a few extra minutes and make 1 less stop.
But here's the rub; Beaumont and Cabazon are closer to my starting point so beginning SOC would be higher and would need to charge over 90% to make Quartzite, adding time...
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