To Supercharge or Not.....

[toolman335]

If you had a Supercharging station open up 5 minutes from your house and 2 free years of supercharging.....would you choose to go there for free or enjoy the L2 charging setup in your garage at home? I know many people think the long-term SC is bad for the battery.
When I bought my car there's no way I thought there'd be one near me in my lifetime. New Hampshire only had 2 locations up until 1/1, and the bigger cities don't have them yet. Now all of a sudden one plopped down 5 minutes away and I'm torn about what to do.
Home charging is cheap and comfortable, but free is free lol.

 

[outdoors]

5 minutes driving from your home. 30 minutes of charging. 5 minutes home.

40 minutes how many times a week?

Once a week if I could find something else to do. Sitting in my car 5 minutes from home is not how I would spend my time. Everyone is different.

Twice or more a week. I would say it is not a good use of my time and personal energy. Plus you always start almost full every day without having to think other than plug in car when you get home.

You might find out that the free might not equate to free when it comes to your time if it is very frequent. If you already have the install in your home for a hpwc or an Nema 14-50 I would pass on it for sake of car.

Maybe take a giant roadtrip. Might save you like $200 or less.

 

[toolman335]

I would probably use it twice a week.
I do indeed have a nice L2 setup in my garage because when I bought the car the closest superchargers were almost an hour away in each direction.
I should add that it's conveniently located in the parking lot of a nice grocery store. I've gone there 3 times this month and I make it back to the car right when I get the text alert that it's about to be finished.
The most I've ever seen is one other car at the station, so there's no stress about waiting in line.
I don't care about the time so much because I use it wisely because I'm in the store and/or enjoy chilling out for 30 minutes if I had to. It's relaxing.
My biggest concern is the wear and tear on the battery.

 

[Jsvette56]

I have free supercharging and a SC with a high occupancy rate less than a mile from my house. I prefer to use my L2 home charger though I've used the SC a couple of times. Many people live in apartments in my area and don't have a home charger so I feel guilty taking a space away from someone who might really need it.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

I have free lifetime Supercharging and typically only Supercharge on road trips. The Supercharger that I've used the most is over 220 miles from where I live. I have never used a Supercharger within 30 minutes of where I live. Ok, there's not one within 30 minutes of where I live, but even if there was, I probably wouldn't use it often unless there were businesses that I needed to visit nearby. They are supposed to be installing a Supercharger about 15 minutes away at a grocery store that we often shop at. I could see myself using it from time to time but doubt I would use it on a weekly basis since it's not on my regular commuting route. Since we have solar, we just charge our cars at home and since our cars usually have an a 70% to 80% at the end of the day, Supercharging sessions would be fairly slow unless I skipped charging at home.

Is there a business that you could regularly patronize near the new Supercharger? If so, then it might be worth charging there. If not, then you probably won't want to waste the time driving there and waiting for the car to charge.

 

[toolman335]

I have free supercharging and a SC with a high occupancy rate less than a mile from my house. I prefer to use my L2 home charger though I've used the SC a couple of times. Many people live in apartments in my area and don't have a home charger so I feel guilty taking a space away from someone who might really need it.

That is very thoughtful of you. I think I'm the third person in town to have a Tesla around here so I don't have that issue lol.
The location is at an exit that intersects 2 highways. I imagine it will be busy this summer, but right now it's a ghost town.

 

[toolman335]

I have free lifetime Supercharging and typically only Supercharge on road trips. The Supercharger that I've used the most is over 220 miles from where I live. I have never used a Supercharger within 30 minutes of where I live. Ok, there's not one within 30 minutes of where I live, but even if there was, I probably wouldn't use it often unless there were businesses that I needed to visit nearby. They are supposed to be installing a Supercharger about 15 minutes away at a grocery store that we often shop at. I could see myself using it from time to time but doubt I would use it on a weekly basis since it's not on my regular commuting route. Since we have solar, we just charge our cars at home and since our cars usually have an a 70% to 80% at the end of the day, Supercharging sessions would be fairly slow unless I skipped charging at home.

Is there a business that you could regularly patronize near the new Supercharger? If so, then it might be worth charging there. If not, then you probably won't want to waste the time driving there and waiting for the car to charge.

Yes a supermarket is there that I like, as well as Home Depot. I suppose I'll just use it when I'm over that way once a week. I just hope that it's not too bad for the battery.

 

[ewoodrick]

If you had a Supercharging station open up 5 minutes from your house and 2 free years of supercharging.....would you choose to go there for free or enjoy the L2 charging setup in your garage at home? I know many people think the long-term SC is bad for the battery.
When I bought my car there's no way I thought there'd be one near me in my lifetime. New Hampshire only had 2 locations up until 1/1, and the bigger cities don't have them yet. Now all of a sudden one plopped down 5 minutes away and I'm torn about what to do.
Home charging is cheap and comfortable, but free is free lol.

I have one that far from my house. Honestly, it's very possibly the last one that I'd ever visit.

My time is worth so much more than the cost of electricity. To take an hour (or lot more) out of my life to go fill my car is ridiculous.
I'm not doing it because of the impact on the battery, it's the impact on ME!

I plug in at home when I feel that I need to. I NEVER have to go anywhere to fill up when I'm local. Only for road trips do I visit Superchargers. I NEVER having to go to a filling station, gas or electric, THAT'S what makes the EV experience so great!!!

 

[kavyboy]

To paraphrase from the Linux world, "Free supercharging is only free if your time has no value." Does not apply to road trips, of course.

 

[toolman335]

I get it fellas, and up until a few weeks ago I was singing the very same tune. Garage charging is still too good to be true!
I've decided that I will only go there when grocery shopping, going into Home Depot, or need to keep the kids occupied in an enclosed setting outside of the house so my wife can breath for a bit lol.

 

[ewoodrick]

I get it fellas, and up until a few weeks ago I was singing the very same tune. Garage charging is still too good to be true!
I've decided that I will only go there when grocery shopping, going into Home Depot, or need to keep the kids occupied in an enclosed setting outside of the house so my wife can breath for a bit lol.

Good, but still why plug in when going to Home Depot? or grocery shopping? It's just not worth my time to do so. And for what to save a buck?
Oh, and assuming that you are probably already really close to full, the probability of idle charges skyrocket.

 

[Eno Deb]

How much do you typically pay per month for charging? If it's just a few dollars, I wouldn't bother. I don't see an issue with charging opportunistically though when you're shopping groceries there anyway.

I also have a supercharger a few minutes from home, but I don't have free supercharging, so I'm not tempted (although it would actually be cheaper than charging at home during the peak time of my TOU electricity plan). It is sometimes useful before/after long trips though to quickly top up the battery.

 

[Chisale]

Even if my battery is completed depleted, charging at my house only costs around $3.50. So, yes, my time is more valuable to me than that. Factor in potential increased degradation with frequent supercharges and it's an easy decision.

 

[MichaelP90DL]

A Supercharging station will be built in Palmdale, CA, just a few miles down the road from my house. I'll probably use it occasionally but I really don't want to do anything that will negatively affect the battery. So 90% of the time, I just charge at home. The rest of the time, I Supercharge enough to reach my destination comfortably but seldom to 100%. (And since Tessie was built in 2015, Supercharging is free).

 

[toolman335]

You all make a lot of sense.
I appreciate the input!
Charging at home is nice and warm and costs $1/day. I love my setup and I wasn't expecting to have the SC option so close to home.

 

[vickh]

Even if my battery is completed depleted, charging at my house only costs around $3.50. So, yes, my time is more valuable to me than that. Factor in potential increased degradation with frequent supercharges and it's an easy decision.

"battery is completed depleted" is more harmful to battery vs frequency of SC.

I do opportunistic SC when I'm shopping/eating nearby but never just hanging out in car. Not to 100% just " top offs" of about 75 miles or so..

 

[Led Jetson]

I question the rumors or talk about just how bad 100% Supercharging really is. If it was so bad for the vehicle, why would Tesla start building the new even faster chargers, other than to accommodate more cars per hour. Why would they encourage the faster home Tesla accessory when the slower home charging cord that comes with the car works just fine as well.

Heck, we went eight months with two Tesla Model 3's in our garage, just using the 120 that gets five miles an hour until we finally installed two 240's. If faster charging was really so bad long term, they would build more stalls and partnering with more locations like the Wawa's Convenience Stations are doing and at strip centers with shopping restaurants etc..., than make the new V3 charging with it's own ludicrous charging speed. So I doubt they would destroy your car by using an incentive offering free Supercharging for the life of the car for several years in a row. That wouldn't be sustainable for anyone. They just prefer people to not use the incentive they offered, to save money, so of course they want you to charge from home.

I have free Supercharging for life of the car to, so I don't find it NOT worth my time to park there a few miles from me and walk to dozens of places to eat each time. It also adds to my steps, or we can even watch Netflix and chill now. That is worth my time, every time!

 

[ElectricIAC]

If you had a Supercharging station open up 5 minutes from your house and 2 free years of supercharging.....would you choose to go there for free or enjoy the L2 charging setup in your garage at home? I know many people think the long-term SC is bad for the battery.
When I bought my car there's no way I thought there'd be one near me in my lifetime. New Hampshire only had 2 locations up until 1/1, and the bigger cities don't have them yet. Now all of a sudden one plopped down 5 minutes away and I'm torn about what to do.
Home charging is cheap and comfortable, but free is free lol.

You bet your ass I’d be supercharging for free if it meant I saved 1,000KW/mo on my home power bill.

I’d probably cap it to 80% though.

 

[rdcisneros3]

I question the rumors or talk about just how bad 100% Supercharging really is. If it was so bad for the vehicle, why would Tesla start building the new even faster chargers, other than to accommodate more cars per hour.

I don't know HOW bad it is for the battery, but I know it's worse than slower charging methods. For that reason I wouldn't do it unless I had to.

 

[bpobill]

If you had a Supercharging station open up 5 minutes from your house and 2 free years of supercharging.....would you choose to go there for free or enjoy the L2 charging setup in your garage at home? I know many people think the long-term SC is bad for the battery.
When I bought my car there's no way I thought there'd be one near me in my lifetime. New Hampshire only had 2 locations up until 1/1, and the bigger cities don't have them yet. Now all of a sudden one plopped down 5 minutes away and I'm torn about what to do.
Home charging is cheap and comfortable, but free is free lol.

How much does it cost to charge your car at home per day? Maybe a couple bucks? How much is your time worth to supercharge everyday? Lets say you supercharge for 20 minutes a day, is that worth saving two bucks? I dont think so. Even if it's $5 or $10 which it isn't would it be worth it? I find it odd people put so little value on their time. You can make more money, but you cant get back your time. Spend it wisely.