No wonder they have a 1 in 4 chance of a station not working! That is some pretty messy rack design, especially for something in a high volume, outdoor and high-use environment.
EA Rant!
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Someone sent me this picture this morning.Somebody on Reddit snapped a pic of the inside of an EA charger that was being worked on. There certainly is a lot going on in there, check out the liquid cooling block at the bottom right.
Expect nothing less from members of that group...
Yeah, there's a slight difference between basically a cable holder with the rest of the electronics back in a cage and a full point-of-sale system, liquid cooling, and telecom equipment in a box. Sure, the transformers are elsewhere in both instances, but this version of the Tesla charger doesn't need much of anything out of the cage. If they open up to other makes of cars, they'll need the same capabilities.
That doesn't mean EA can't integrate a lot of those parts for a simpler install and less points of failure.
That doesn't mean EA can't integrate a lot of those parts for a simpler install and less points of failure.
Given all the EA misgivings (being polite), what is the group strategy on long trips away from home in terms of charging. Yes, EA is free but is it worth it to seek them out or is there a more reliable charging company to target in trip planning?
We have 9k miles on our car. We do not have a home charger. Yet. All of that charging we have done has been on EA. This includes 3 long round trips from LA to San Fransisco, LA to Big Sur, and LA to Giant Sequoia. All separate trips. Only on one occasion did we have to charge at a ChargePoint because an EA bank was unavailable. Patience and planning and you will be fine. We enjoy stopping and exploring more off the beaten path stations though, too.
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I’ve had decent luck with EA away from home. Just check the PlugShare app first and avoid the ones with the lowest ratings. I’ve also been able to be relatively spontaneous with charging, sometimes stopping at an EVGo or Chargepoint instead if there happened to be one near a place we were stopping at. Unless it’s the new EVGo they’re not as fast and you have to pay, but it gives you more options if you don’t want to go out of your way to some crappy WalMart parking lot to find half the EA chargers broken and the other half not running at advertised speed. I’ve had EA put out 301kw once though and 298kw another time, so it’s possible, just don’t bet on it. Your best option is to see if your destination has an L2 charger or Tesla destination charger and get a Tesla Tap. To my surprise the hotel I stayed at in NH last weekend had couple L2 chargers (they didn’t list that they did and it wasn’t on PlugShare) so I just plugged in to one of those overnight using the Lucid 14-50 plug and it saved me having to drive 40 miles away to DC fast charge. Overnight destination L2 charging in my opinion is always better because they’re usually free, you don’t add wear to the battery as much, and you wake up and you’re ready to go wherever without having to worry about “OK where do I go to charge?”
Which Tesla Tap do you prefer? The site gives me anxiety with all the options… omnivore dilemma I suppose.
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Everyone seems to be buying the Mini. Amperage is up to you, but you can’t use a higher amp circuit than what it’s rated for.
Alternatively, the non-Mini are UL rated now, iirc, so arguably safer.
