rawlins02
Well-known member
A few days ago I had problems with one, then another, then another fast charger while trying to get home from a late night flight into Hartford Bradley Int airport. Will begin by saying I didn't know that Executive Parking will charge cars just prior to return. Hat tip to a colleague for sharing that info.
I departed the airport parking lot in my 2014 S at around 12:30 AM with battery at 25%. Drove less than a mile to the cell phoe lot L2 chargers and got up to 40% in around 30 minutes. Drove to Springfield MA and stopped at the Cumberland Farms on Park Ave. L3 CHAdeMO charger would not accept credit card. Then drove to a nearby L2 and added more charge. Drove to Curry Nissan in Chicopee. Fast charger there is down. Battery level at that point was around 6%. Drove across the street to Chicopee Market place where Electrify America has several L2 chargers and one CHAdeMO. Tried credit card to unlock machine. No dice. Display hung on "processing". Called the help number, the staff member reset the machine, and we tried again. Still no joy. She then unlocked the charger and enabled a free charge so I could drive the 15 miles home, arriving at 3:30 am. Next option would have been AAA. I often check plugshare to see if there are any issues with chargers. No mention of any with either of the three. Looks like someone had success yesterday at Electrify America / Chicopee Marketplace.
I'll add that the Chargepoint L3 on the UMass Amherst campus recently went down. Display reads "disabled by owner". Last year I occasionally used the one at Big Y in Greenfield MA while driving to/from Brattleboro VT. It's been down for months. So was the L2 there a couple months back. I'm not sure there are more functioning L3s in my area now compared to two years ago. Of course I often use L2s and charge at home. With cold weather coming I'm now more committed than ever to limit attempts to drive very far. And time for an upgrade.
I departed the airport parking lot in my 2014 S at around 12:30 AM with battery at 25%. Drove less than a mile to the cell phoe lot L2 chargers and got up to 40% in around 30 minutes. Drove to Springfield MA and stopped at the Cumberland Farms on Park Ave. L3 CHAdeMO charger would not accept credit card. Then drove to a nearby L2 and added more charge. Drove to Curry Nissan in Chicopee. Fast charger there is down. Battery level at that point was around 6%. Drove across the street to Chicopee Market place where Electrify America has several L2 chargers and one CHAdeMO. Tried credit card to unlock machine. No dice. Display hung on "processing". Called the help number, the staff member reset the machine, and we tried again. Still no joy. She then unlocked the charger and enabled a free charge so I could drive the 15 miles home, arriving at 3:30 am. Next option would have been AAA. I often check plugshare to see if there are any issues with chargers. No mention of any with either of the three. Looks like someone had success yesterday at Electrify America / Chicopee Marketplace.
I'll add that the Chargepoint L3 on the UMass Amherst campus recently went down. Display reads "disabled by owner". Last year I occasionally used the one at Big Y in Greenfield MA while driving to/from Brattleboro VT. It's been down for months. So was the L2 there a couple months back. I'm not sure there are more functioning L3s in my area now compared to two years ago. Of course I often use L2s and charge at home. With cold weather coming I'm now more committed than ever to limit attempts to drive very far. And time for an upgrade.