hamr4267
Member
So I charged my Clarity (Chispa) at the Viejas Casino yesterday (twice). I had never charged it anywhere other than in my garage at 120V. What a speed difference. So the casino had 6 free charging cables. There were also maybe 6 Tesla cords. The brand name of the chargers was PowerCharge. There was a Leaf, a Kia, and a 2 Teslas charging which left 2 openings for me. I plugged her in and walked inside to the bathroom and walked around for 30 minutes. I ended up only losing a dollar gambling. I returned and gained like 18 miles. On the way back from San Diego I stopped in again and there were 2 spots available. I plugged in and went to the buffet. So I check the app once at the buffet and it says im plugged in but not charging. So now im in a dilemma. I doubt I can leave and return to the buffet so I just have to finish while wasting precious charging time. I eventually get out to the car and there is a red circle lit up on the unit indicating a fault. That sucked as my plan was to stuff my face while charging. This was the exact same cord that I had used in the morning but i guess i was plugged in a bit longer this time.
I unplugged the cord and reinserted it and the lights turned green. After a couple minutes, red again so I cut my losses with that cord and used a different one (but from same pedestal). I went back inside to gamble a bit more, then went back to the car and all was well. Except for a beautiful blue 2019 Tesla that was next to me and using my previous cord. His light was red. Remember, Im a EV newby and at my first public charger. I was tempted to unplug him and reinsert the cord but I really didn't know what the EV etiquette was in this situation. I sit down and goof around on my phone and the Tesla owner comes out. He asks me if I saw anyone around his car messing with it, which I had not. He told me it stopped charging and he just reinserted it and it was green again. He leaves and a few minutes later he is red again. This time since I had sorta met the guy, I felt ok with reinserting the cord..but it didn't help. I finished, and plugged my good cord into his Tesla.
While he and I were chatting, I asked him about the differences between the dedicated Tesla chargers and the regular, powercharge ones. I was surprised when he said the Tesla ones were much slower. He said both are 240 but the powercharge are 70 AMP while the Teslas are only 40.
I unplugged the cord and reinserted it and the lights turned green. After a couple minutes, red again so I cut my losses with that cord and used a different one (but from same pedestal). I went back inside to gamble a bit more, then went back to the car and all was well. Except for a beautiful blue 2019 Tesla that was next to me and using my previous cord. His light was red. Remember, Im a EV newby and at my first public charger. I was tempted to unplug him and reinsert the cord but I really didn't know what the EV etiquette was in this situation. I sit down and goof around on my phone and the Tesla owner comes out. He asks me if I saw anyone around his car messing with it, which I had not. He told me it stopped charging and he just reinserted it and it was green again. He leaves and a few minutes later he is red again. This time since I had sorta met the guy, I felt ok with reinserting the cord..but it didn't help. I finished, and plugged my good cord into his Tesla.
While he and I were chatting, I asked him about the differences between the dedicated Tesla chargers and the regular, powercharge ones. I was surprised when he said the Tesla ones were much slower. He said both are 240 but the powercharge are 70 AMP while the Teslas are only 40.