Supercharger - Olympia, WA

[israndy]

I think Issaquah is OK, I was just dropping by to touch the charger (fill that list of visited superchargers) and in the short time I was inside Fred Meyer the charger half filled my battery at a cost, even though I had charging at the hotel that night. Should have unplugged and let someone else charge on opening day too.

-Randy

 

[Yarder]

What was the SOC when you arrived at Issaquah and what was the charge rate?

SOC? It was charging at about 77 miles per hour. Never did go higher than that. This was the first time I used an urban charger.

 

[PLUS EV]

SOC? It was charging at about 77 miles per hour. Never did go higher than that. This was the first time I used an urban charger.

Strength of Charge. What percentage was your battery when you plugged in?

 

[Yarder]

Strength of Charge. What percentage was your battery when you plugged in?

I was probably at about 25 - 30 %

 

[Kuhz]

You should be getting ~70kw at that SOC (I don’t pay attention to MPH because it’s the average of the while charge cycle not how much juice the car is taking on at the moment). Must’ve been something wrong with that stall. Did you try moving?

 

[Yarder]

You should be getting ~70kw at that SOC (I don’t pay attention to MPH because it’s the average of the while charge cycle not how much juice the car is taking on at the moment). Must’ve been something wrong with that stall. Did you try moving?

Nope. I went into Fred Meyer, did some shopping, returned, and went back in again. Then impatiently waited cursing myself for not going to 100% back in Ellensburg. Thinking back on it, it should have re-seated and then even moved.

I give it a go again on the Apple Cup weekend.

 

[Kuhz]

Nope. I went into Fred Meyer, did some shopping, returned, and went back in again. Then impatiently waited cursing myself for not going to 100% back in Ellensburg. Thinking back on it, it should have re-seated and then even moved.

I give it a go again on the Apple Cup weekend.

There aren’t any complaints about that location so it sounds like a bad connection or problem with the stall. First thing I do if encountering something like this is move to another stall.

 

[brianman]

And the Urban ones are better on your batteries over the years.

Based on...?

 

[brianman]

Strength of Charge. What percentage was your battery when you plugged in?

State of charge.

 

[israndy]

Based on...?

Just the slower charge speed of the Urban Superchargers. Everything I have read from Tesla says that the home charging is the preferred charging. They reference a guy who charged exclusively at Superchargers and found he had become unable to fast charge and was told it was done to protect his battery. Then Tesla has all these apartment dwellers who need a place to charge so they start setting up these Urban chargers that come in at half the power. Not conclusive but it would seem that they are designed to be easier on the cars batteries, like home charging would be.

-Randy

 

[brianman]

Then Tesla has all these apartment dwellers who need a place to charge so they start setting up these Urban chargers that come in at half the power. Not conclusive but it would seem that they are designed to be easier on the cars batteries, like home charging would be.

Understood. That's not my read on why they're doing that, and it's truly just speculation whether 72kW is "better" for the battery than 120kW. IMO it's more about getting more stalls from the same grid power and incentivizing using the non-Urban locations).

What made me question your post is you were appearing to assert fact rather than opinion.

 

[MP3Mike]

MO it's more about getting more stalls from the same grid power

But you don't get more stalls from the same grid power. You still have a single 144kW Supercharger cabinet shared with two stalls. The only difference is that in Urban sites the power is always split 50/50 and in normal sites the power is split dynamically.

 

[im.thatoneguy]

Tesla explained it in their blog article introducing urban chargers:

Superchargers in urban areas have a new post design that occupies less space and is easier to install,

They also mention more consistent charging speeds which is a benefit in urban charging since if you take 40 minutes to grocery shop and your charge takes somewhere between 20 min and an hour you might hit idle fees.

I actually think Superchargers are slightly too fast or too slow. Too slow for waiting around. Too fast to go see a movie. At least 72KW constant(ish) means you can schedule how long you have.

Honestly though Tesla really just needs to build so many that idle time is largely irrelevant.

 

[modamoda]

Credit to @Araman0 ! He found permit near Olympia

Thanks! I found something, looks to be related to the fencing enclosure for the supercharger equipment:

Permit

Looks to be on the Pilot Travel Center property.
Address: 2430 93RD AVE SW TUMWATER WA 98512-1027

 

[Araman0]

While this probably is intended to serve as the Olympia region supercharger, there's a separate thread already for the Tumwater supercharger:

Supercharger - Tumwater, WA

 

[ReddyLeaf]

While this probably is intended to serve as the Olympia region supercharger, there's a separate thread already for the Tumwater supercharger:

Supercharger - Tumwater, WA

Bump. With the Tumwater location under construction, has anyone been by the Lacy Fred Meyers lately? Specifically, if Tesla is listening, put it here: Google Maps

 

[acarney]

Tesla explained it in their blog article introducing urban chargers:



They also mention more consistent charging speeds which is a benefit in urban charging since if you take 40 minutes to grocery shop and your charge takes somewhere between 20 min and an hour you might hit idle fees.

I actually think Superchargers are slightly too fast or too slow. Too slow for waiting around. Too fast to go see a movie. At least 72KW constant(ish) means you can schedule how long you have.

Honestly though Tesla really just needs to build so many that idle time is largely irrelevant.

I actually agree. 30+ minutes if you need a pretty full charge is painful to wait. But even 40 minutes isn’t really long enough for a sit down meal (anything more then fast food, think Olive Garden or something) and unless you’re in the same parking lot, walking 5+ min basically isn’t doable for moving the car...

I like that idle fees only apply if the location gets full, that saved me one night at like 10pm, but otherwise I would have had to leave basically just as I was getting my food, or have had at least 20 minutes in idle fees...

 

[PLUS EV]

I actually agree. 30+ minutes if you need a pretty full charge is painful to wait. But even 40 minutes isn’t really long enough for a sit down meal (anything more then fast food, think Olive Garden or something) and unless you’re in the same parking lot, walking 5+ min basically isn’t doable for moving the car...

I like that idle fees only apply if the location gets full, that saved me one night at like 10pm, but otherwise I would have had to leave basically just as I was getting my food, or have had at least 20 minutes in idle fees...

Half full. Which is pretty lame at the 4 and 6 stall superchargers. I remember back when they first started idle fees, getting an idle fee warning at Mt. Shasta just because one other car had plugged in (2/4 occupied). I had walked about 10 minutes to a coffee shop in the little downtown area. Pretty annoying!

I also remember back before they had idle fees just plugging my car in at a hotel supercharger and going to sleep, leaving it plugged in there all night. That was considered poor etiquette even back then, but it was Wyoming on a weekday in November so I felt pretty confident that I wouldn't be blocking anyone

 

[acarney]

Half full. Which is pretty lame at the 4 and 6 stall superchargers. I remember back when they first started idle fees, getting an idle fee warning at Mt. Shasta just because one other car had plugged in (2/4 occupied). I had walked about 10 minutes to a coffee shop in the little downtown area. Pretty annoying!

I also remember back before they had idle fees just plugging my car in at a hotel supercharger and going to sleep, leaving it plugged in there all night. That was considered poor etiquette even back then, but it was Wyoming on a weekday in November so I felt pretty confident that I wouldn't be blocking anyone

Those days are long gone... until we have superchargers everywhere.

I kinda wish they would build 2 to 4 destination chargers as well at each supercharger. I probably would supercharge for 5 to 10 minutes and then destination charge while I go eat.

The downtown Seattle location is great in the fact that I could supercharger or destination charge, or a mix of the two... just wish the garage was open all night, or at least that I could leave my car over night. Would park there instead of paying over at the Hilton across the street too!

 

[israndy]

I kinda wish they would build 2 to 4 destination chargers as well at each supercharger. I probably would supercharge for 5 to 10 minutes and then destination charge while I go eat.!

Quite a few new SuCs have ChargePoint at the same location (and Electrify America, but we cannot use those w/o expensive adapters) so if you really wanna pay for more power while you eat you can. Not sure why ChargePoint charges so much, oh, I guess it's in the name.

I am blessed with the Model 3 LR RWD that has the big fast battery and when traveling I rarely need to stop for more than the time it takes to pee. It's so fast I have taken to going thru a drive-thru BEFORE I plugin. Then I can eat while I charge or when I get back on the road.

I still haven't figured out if it's faster coming back from LA to stop twice but I like stopping at Kettleman City so I do hang out a while there