Supercharger - West Lebanon NH

[Pollux]

Who is responsible for maintaining these stations?

Ugh, I just finished a pretty bad trip from Boston up to Montreal. The three (!!!) CHAdeMO stations we stopped at were broken or otherwise offline. Ended up needing to a two hour stop in Burlington on a J1772.

There are 9 CHAdeMO stations between Hookset and the Canadian border. Of them, 4 are currently offline and require service. Of the remaining 5, 4 regularly fail for Model S drivers. Unclear if this is caused by a flakey adapter or flakey station. But, I'm willing to bet that this is not Tesla's fault. This CHAdeMO stuff is just awful - completely unreliable. I feel bad for the Leaf drivers that have this as their only option.

Needless to say, this supercharger will be a lifesaver.

 

[Kickin]

Ugh, I just finished a pretty bad trip from Boston up to Montreal. The three (!!!) CHAdeMO stations we stopped at were broken or otherwise offline. Ended up needing to a two hour stop in Burlington on a J1772.

There are 9 CHAdeMO stations between Hookset and the Canadian border. Of them, 4 are currently offline and require service. Of the remaining 5, 4 regularly fail for Model S drivers. Unclear if this is caused by a flakey adapter or flakey station. But, I'm willing to bet that this is not Tesla's fault. This CHAdeMO stuff is just awful - completely unreliable. I feel bad for the Leaf drivers that have this as their only option.

Needless to say, this supercharger will be a lifesaver.

I took a long road trip myself on 7/3/15 to get used to the car. Went from Montreal then Supercharged to 274 miles rated at Drummondville, QC. I then drove South on 91 above the speed limit 70-ish until I got to this Supercharger late on 7/3 hoping I would be the first to use it. Nope, cables were still in the same spot. Drove 60 mph and arrived at Brattleboro, VT supercharger with 10 rated miles left. All told, visited 6SCs, 940 miles, awesome car and trip was easy! Heading to GA this coming weekend with my family in the Tesla now that I feel confident. This was from Drummondville to W. Lebanon: Distance 263.5mi. Total Energy 74.1kwh. Avg Energy 281wh/mi Cheers!!

 

[PeterK]

Stopped by again yesterday afternoon on my way home. As expected, connection did not happen over the long weekend, so went on to Hooksett. Bonus was running into Pollux and his wife charging her P85+ there, whom I hadn't seen since April - nice catching up with you guys!

- - - Updated - - -

Ugh, I just finished a pretty bad trip from Boston up to Montreal. The three (!!!) CHAdeMO stations we stopped at were broken or otherwise offline. Ended up needing to a two hour stop in Burlington on a J1772.

There are 9 CHAdeMO stations between Hookset and the Canadian border. Of them, 4 are currently offline and require service. Of the remaining 5, 4 regularly fail for Model S drivers. Unclear if this is caused by a flakey adapter or flakey station. But, I'm willing to bet that this is not Tesla's fault. This CHAdeMO stuff is just awful - completely unreliable. I feel bad for the Leaf drivers that have this as their only option.

Needless to say, this supercharger will be a lifesaver.

People like @mnox and @robert.boston have firsthand experience with electric power so know this well, but one of the things Tesla gets about the Supercharger network is that it is a utility, and as such it must be reliable and always on. We all agonize over the time it takes to get the SC transformers in and connected, but once connected, tested and signed off, we can depend on them. I read an article that was marveling at the fact that when the Harris Ranch SC went down, Tesla organized flatbed trucks on standby to be there in case a Model S arrived with too little charge to make it to the next SC. I don't know how many had to make use of them, but just knowing they go to such lengths while monitoring all stations' status 24/7 provides peace of mind. And a competitive advantage vs. every other EV.

http://pluginsites.org/remarkable-customer-service-at-tesla-superchargers/

 

[geodan]

I was away last week, I guess the West Leb supercharger still isn't up and running? I'll try to get down there this week for some pics.

 

[PeterK]

I was away last week, I guess the West Leb supercharger still isn't up and running? I'll try to get down there this week for some pics.

Thanks @geodan but there's really nothing more to photograph at this point. All construction is done, and the power company transformer is installed. Just the power connection cables looped at the base of the utility pole, waiting to be connected. So the local power company and Tesla's contractor need to come to connect and test, then we're good to go. With any luck it happens this week.

 

[tga]

I'm in MA for a few days, but I'll stop by to check the connection status Thurs or Fri (if no one beats me).

 

[linkster]

flakey station. But, I'm willing to bet that this is not Tesla's fault. This CHAdeMO stuff is just awful - completely unreliable.

These Charging Hardware Always de-energized Mostly Offline (CHAdeMO) are truly JUNK! It wouldn't even charge a Leaf during the crisening ceremony here in town on opening day!

 

[andrewket]

Anyone stopping by anytime soon? This is getting kind of silly. All that gear just sitting there useless because of one connection.

 

[PeterK]

While we're waiting for news of the connection and on the subject of long ways around to access Hooksett, has anyone noticed strange routings in the Navigation app?

Example 1: Plotting a route from Cambridge to Hanover NH it tells me to charge at Hooksett Southbound, not Northbound - a major detour.

Example 2: On the way home from near Burlington VT, it initially routed me via Brattleboro and Rt 2, deciding Hooksett was too far to risk it. When I forced the routing by setting Hooksett Southbound as the destination, it directed me to stop briefly to charge at Hooksett Northbound on the way!

Both of these should be addressed by powering up West Lebanon so still appropriate discussion for here. My third off-topic example is how the app is very fixated on Auburn - on a trip to Westchester, even after I'd passed Exit 10 on the Pike it wanted me to go back and charge at Auburn rather than direct me to West Hartford or Milford.

Anyone else seen such odd routings?

 

[mattmass]

Anyone else seen such odd routings?

Yeah, all the time. In particular, I've noticed a trend of the planner picking a supercharger very close to either another supercharger, or to a distinction you have previously charged at. There are some pretty serious kinks to work out there. But I've found the energy estimation to be really good, so I just clear out the charging stops and use it to monitor range.

 

[andrewket]

Guys.. I know we're wasting time waiting for news, but there are several other threads discussing odd Nav routing with trip planner turned on. Can we please move the convo over there?

 

[geodan]

I need an excuse to go to west Lebanon to check on the super charger....hmm maybe the fish restaurant or koto....or I could actually shop at price chopper.

 

[Pollux]

All. The. Damned. Time.

I've seen everything you've reported, plus the destination you previously charged at problem mentioned by @matmass. Plus I've seen routings to completely different parts of Massachusetts than, say, the place I want to go to in northern New Hampshire. I feel like I have to check every route suggested by the Tesla NAV. And that the supercharger thing seems to add an additional level of error to the routings.

When it works, though, it's great.

Alan

P.S. And of course there's the missing functionality that everyone else in the world seemingly has... multi-hop... routing between two different places, neither one of which is where the car is currently located... and so on. Oh, yeah, and the bugs in the traffic reporting, and the bugs where the GPS stops updating and so on. I can't say for sure that the GPS/nav is buggier than other car software, but I sure do notice many more bugs there than in other subsystems.

P.P.S. Sorry, @andrewket, that rant escaped me before I saw your post.

While we're waiting for news of the connection and on the subject of long ways around to access Hooksett, has anyone noticed strange routings in the Navigation app?

Example 1: Plotting a route from Cambridge to Hanover NH it tells me to charge at Hooksett Southbound, not Northbound - a major detour.

Example 2: On the way home from near Burlington VT, it initially routed me via Brattleboro and Rt 2, deciding Hooksett was too far to risk it. When I forced the routing by setting Hooksett Southbound as the destination, it directed me to stop briefly to charge at Hooksett Northbound on the way!

Both of these should be addressed by powering up West Lebanon so still appropriate discussion for here. My third off-topic example is how the app is very fixated on Auburn - on a trip to Westchester, even after I'd passed Exit 10 on the Pike it wanted me to go back and charge at Auburn rather than direct me to West Hartford or Milford.

Anyone else seen such odd routings?

 

[michaelgoggin]

Hi guys. I'm passing through West Lebanon tomorrow and will check the status of the Supercharger and post pictures.

 

[mattmass]

Thanks @michaelgoggin. I'm going to be passing by too, but I think I'm going to leave the MS at home I just can't deal with the CHAdeMO situation comfortably.

 

[andrewket]

Hi guys. I'm passing through West Lebanon tomorrow and will check the status of the Supercharger and post pictures.

Thank you!

 

[ToddRLockwood]

Hi, @ToddRLockwood,

I was referring to the time.

Alan

Good point. I hadn't thought of it that way. From the sounds of it, the charging trick may not be necessary if the gate is left unlocked. When I charge there, I've noticed numerous cars coming into the lot that way. Perhaps the locals like the food there!

 

[Nikxice]

Nice job! Turns out the original pic posted by Pollux was pure "Carma".

Wonder if angled parking between two of the guardrail posts would get a Model S closer to the charging wand?

 

[mattmass]

At the West Leb site right now. From what I can tell, there's been no change since the last set of pictures were taken. The site looks complete, minus a few cones. I can see disconnected cabling at the utility pole, and the bagged connections on the lines. Bummer.

Also noticed someone's left a set of keys in the lock for the equipment cabinet. Should I report this?

 

[andrewket]

They probably did it on purpose is my guess. Thanks for the update. It's going to come down to days or maybe hours for me. What are the odds that I end up being the first person to use the SC?