Chattanooga Murphy Express Eaton DCQC Removed!

[Jshuntr]

Really been thinking of trying the trip to Chattanooga myself, but as you all have mentioned, the Cracker Barrel maintenance and overall availability leaves me somewhat nervous. If you do make it to Knoxville, I'd be very interested to see your charge map to and from .

 

[TimLee]

On Monday, October 7, 2013 discovered that the Murphy Express Eaton DCQC is out of service. Advised personnel. They advised on October 9 that maintenance company had been contacted. Still out of service on Monday, October 14, 2013.
Had provided reliable no cost DCQC for well over a year without a breakdown.
Hope the repair this time doesn't take the four months it took shortly after it was initially installed.

 

[TimLee]

Checked again on Tuesday, November 5, and the Murphy Express Eaton DCQC is still out of service.
Talked to manager Angie, and they have had three electrical equipment service companies out to work on it and none of the three were any help.
DCQC is a technology that at this point pretty much requires expertise of technician that has been highly trained on the technology and probably has fairly specialized testing equipment and service procedures to diagnose what is wrong with it and repair it.
Murphy Express is at this point basically waiting for Eaton specialist to come trouble shoot it and no estimate at this point on when that will happen. The DCQC may still be covered under warranty, which may be part of what is creating the delay.
The store manager really hates having it out of service due to the lost business.
She advised that the cost on their Electric Power Board (EPB) bill is very small, probably under $7 per month, and that many LEAF owners are regular users of the free DCQC service and that Murphy Express loses $ by the equipment being broken down. Murphy Express got a good deal on this trial installation in that the hardware was provided by Mitsubishi.
Those LEAF owners that had come to depend on the free Murphy Express DCQC are now left with the $5 per session Blink cost at Sears or Cracker Barrell.
I asked if the DCQC has impacted their EPB demand charge. She didn't think so, that the DCQC (50 kW) is probably a small impact. Most of their peak demand is 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM. Their main problem with peak demand is an undersized electric panel feed that is bad to trip out during the peak period that powers the Premium gasoline pumps. Been very irritating when it had to be reset multiple times during peak times. (Note: They really need to get the undersized feed corrected. Frequent tripping and resetting of breakers is bad for the breaker, and could present a hazard if the breaker fails closed and then fails to trip under long term over current.)

 

[philipscoggins]

Thanks for the update Tim,

I'll be traveling from Manchester area to Cleveland in about 12 days & I always stop at the Murphy Express (both directions). Get out and let the kids stretch their legs and get a drink. Convenient location and free. How can you beat that?

If you check it again before the 15th, please let me know.

 

[TimLee]

I stopped and checked it again today 2013-11-14 @ 19:22 EST and it would not work with my LEAF.
One of the station employee's said they had worked on the computer, and that it wasn't working previously (although it seemed to be working the 2 or 3 times that I tried it since the Eaton DCFC has not been working the past 4 to 6 weeks).
Station manager still thinks the cord / connector is bad.
The connector is kind of failing to latch as well as it seems like it used to, but it did appear to latch pretty well on my LEAF and could not be readily pulled free with modest force.
But when I tried it 2 or 3 times, all I ever saw was single blue LED light flash on the LEAF, and the Eaton DCFC would indicate things were not right.
Those needing DCFC coming through Chattanooga are out of luck on free DCFC for the time being.
Will have to do the $5 per session Blink at Sears at Hamilton Place (which is less than 1 mile from the Murphy Express) or at East Ridge Cracker Barrell.
I haven't used either of those since they started requiring payment, so I don't know if they're working or not.
They're nice to have available if you get into a tight situation, but I live only 16 miles from downtown Chattanooga, so I have very infrequent need for them, even though I've lost a capacity bar.
But with the cold weather today, I did use 8 of 12 status of charge bars on only a 23 mile trip, that included a long wait time at a restaurant. So as battery capacity fades, I will need them more frequently.

 

[TimLee]

Still out of service on Monday, November 18, 2013.

 

[TimLee]

It is with great sorrow that I unfortunately must report that the free Murphy Express DCQC has died, and will not be repaired.

The past several months had been a lengthy waiting game to see if anyone could figure out what had went wrong with the Eaton DCQC and what it would take and when it would be repaired.

But when I checked again yesterday, the Murphy Express manager advised that the decision was reached a week ago by corporate Murphy Express that the Eaton DCQC will not be repaired.

There were multiple diagnosis efforts and service calls by the electrical contractor that maintains Murphy Express equipment. Were also efforts by Murphy Express to get Eaton to repair the unit under warranty.
But the warranty had expired.
The electrical contractor and Eaton did finally agree that the main control board had failed and needed to be replaced.
~ $3,000 just for the board.

The hardware (and possibly installation cost too) was originally paid by Mitsubishi. But that was an unusual one time funding decision, that did not include long term maintenance, and they were unwilling to fund the repair.

This DCQC experiment unfortunately was pursuing the unsustainable free model.
In the bitter end of the experiment, neither Murphy Express, Eaton, or Mitsubishi was willing to pay for the repair.
So the experiment has died, the Eaton DCQC will just sit there broken.
A sad relic sitting in the parking lot of the Murphy Express.

I do appreciate the diligent efforts of the Murphy Express manager to get the unit repaired.
She liked having the unit there. LEAF customers loved having it there, and most were there and spent $ there because it was there.
But a free model that Murphy Express corporate does not see the direct benefit of will not work in the long run. The Eaton DCQC does not have any payment means with it.
And the diligent Murphy Express manager, who does not have control of a cash flow that can pay for the $3,000+ repair, ends up getting a negative mark on her periodic service review, because of broken out of service equipment that she has no means to fix.
After she made numerous efforts to get it repaired. :? :? :? :? :?

A truly sad ending to this experiment.

 

[MikeD]

TimLee: It seemed to me (but I'm no expert and I don't have access to another Eaton DC charger for comparison) that the main problem with that Eaton charger was that the Chademo plug on that unit became loose on the cable (it twists back and forth quite a bit more than I remember when it was working), i.e. that the control wires especially may have broken as a result. Ever since it went down (and I am the one who put the "charger is down" sticker on the cable), I have checked it occasionally to see if it had been repaired. I've noticed that the plug/cable has not changed, so either I am wrong that that is defective, or that the charger problems are more extensive than just that, for instance it caused damage to the motherboard that you mentioned, and so they saw no need to replace the plug/cable until they had a replacement motherboard.

By the way, I heard from someone that worked there (don't know if it was the manager) not long after it had been installed that Nissan had paid for its installation. I don't know if that is correct, but it makes a lot more sense than Mitsubishi. I also heard that they had had problems with the cable before, including that the original cable was deemed to be too short and had to be replaced by a longer one.

I hope it gets repaired -- it is at a good location.

 

[TimLee]

TimLee: It seemed to me (but I'm no expert and I don't have access to another Eaton DC charger for comparison) that the main problem with that Eaton charger was that the Chademo plug on that unit became loose on the cable (it twists back and forth quite a bit more than I remember when it was working), i.e. that the control wires especially may have broken as a result. Ever since it went down (and I am the one who put the "charger is down" sticker on the cable), I have checked it occasionally to see if it had been repaired. I've noticed that the plug/cable has not changed, so either I am wrong that that is defective, or that the charger problems are more extensive than just that, for instance it caused damage to the motherboard that you mentioned, and so they saw no need to replace the plug/cable until they had a replacement motherboard.

By the way, I heard from someone that worked there (don't know if it was the manager) not long after it had been installed that Nissan had paid for its installation. I don't know if that is correct, but it makes a lot more sense than Mitsubishi. I also heard that they had had problems with the cable before, including that the original cable was deemed to be too short and had to be replaced by a longer one.

I hope it gets repaired -- it is at a good location.

Yes, the original cable was too short. The unit failed quickly, and was nearly four months before warranty maintenance by Eaton put the unit back in service with a much longer reasonable length cable.

But I don't think there is much difference in the cables between the Eaton unit and the Blink units, the only other DCQC units that I have had access to yet. Both are Yazaki. And yes, Yazaki is very poor in general. So you could be correct that the cable failed, and fried the control board.
The Yazaki cable is extremely heavy, and most users did a pretty good job with it.
But some would leave it with multiple twists in it, and laying in the parking spot where you had to park short and move the cable first.
But similar problems are present with many of the Blink units too.

I went to the dedication ceremony for the Murphy Express Eaton DCQC. Really had to work and talk to several people to find out when it was.
The Congressman F??????? was there.
It is possible that Nissan helped fund it, but there were no Nissan people at the dedication ceremony.
Mainly CEO of Murphy Express and a representative from Mitsubishi.
And the vehicle that was parked to charge was a iMiev.
I never got a clear definitive answer on exactly who funded what. But I don't think it was Nissan.

I appreciate that you added the note on the handle. You are the only one other than my postings to MNL that I am aware of that did anything to flag the problem, unless someone noted it on Plugshare.

I think the free model for DCQC is likely dead. No one in the US will fund anything, even the poor, the out of work, the hungry, and those that need help to get ahead and achieve the American dream. But they will fund a $35 billion dollar ship for the Navy that even the Navy doesn't want.

But maybe in a few years people will see the value of electric vehicles. A large number do see it in Southern California, Washington state, Oregon, Norway, and even in Georgia which surprisingly provided $5,000 subsidies.
But it has been a slow, sad, hard to watch lack of enthusiasm in TN.

 

[philipscoggins]

Sorry to hear this, I really hoped this one would pop back up.

On a more positive note at least Mountain View Nissan in downtown now has a free DCQC running, so you don't have to be frustrated by all of the broken Blinks around town.

 

[TimLee]

...
On a more positive note at least Mountain View Nissan in downtown now has a free DCQC running, so you don't have to be frustrated by all of the broken Blinks around town.

Thanks for the info. I'm a bit surprised by this. Mountain View was not that enthusiastic about adding DCQC for anyone and everyone at their location.
Do you know the times that it is available :?:
I know from discussions with sales for LEAFs person at Mountain View that they definitely don't want 24/7 access to anything on their lot for which they have financial responsibility.
And I do understand that.
Free to everyone with no payment and the owner of the device having all the liability is not a reasonable viable approach in the US.

 

[TimLee]

On a more positive note at least Mountain View Nissan in downtown now has a free DCQC running, so you don't have to be frustrated by all of the broken Blinks around town.

It operated reliably for more than a year.
Only complaint was occasional ICEing, but happened a lot less with time and they were always helpful in getting them moved.

But on 13April2015 found unit out of service.

Failed inverter matrix apparently due to overheating.
$5,000 to repair.
The two Tesla that used it and often resulted in it tripping out didn't do it a lot of good.
But also filter cleaning / replacement probably would have helped.
When they were finally serviced they were filthy.

But the design of these units seems marginal.
They have over 75 of these that have failed and are awaiting repair.

Waiting to see if the owner proceeds with repair and if so how long that takes.

But free DCQC in Chattanooga is dead in the water again for the time being.

(Unless you have a Tesla and use the six superchargers in the intermediate parking lot at the airport )

 

[DaveEV]

For $5k you can almost buy a new 24 kW Efacec CHAdeMO station. I'd rather have a slower, reliable station than a faster, unreliable station.

 

[TimLee]

Observed 19May2016 that the Eaton DCQC has been removed.

Sad end to what started with dedication with CEO of Murphy Express and our US Congressman :shock:

 

[TimLee]

Store manager said corporate handled getting it removed.
Not sure what was done with it.

After I left store manager was taking some measurements at the remaining conduit stubs.
Probably wanting to restore the original parking space.