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Hot weather charging/EA hot cord fault

1251 Views 7 Replies 6 Participants Last post by p7wang, Jun 19, 2021

chillymt

Discussion Starter · Jun 16, 2021

I had parked my 2019 bolt in Mesa for about ten days while I was traveling. Got to the car around midnight, 102 degrees still. High for the day was around 117. Drove 4 miles to the ea charger and spent about twenty minutes trying to start a charge.

Initially the app wasn’t recognizing that my car was plugged in, when it did the charger kicked me off after initiating the charge. After moving to a different charger it initiated a charge and kicked me off again with a ‘charge cord temp’ error. Eventually, turning off the car and swiping the credit card a few more times allowed me to charge.

I was charging from 24% according to the station on a 150kw charger. Peak rate was 48kw on the charger and about 38kw displayed on the dash with and without the ac running in the cabin.

I was wondering if anyone else had seen this behavior at a charging station especially given the heatwave right now. I figure the coolant inside the cord was too hot and initiating the charge a few times allowed it to circulate around the system a little.

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Fivedoor

· #2 · Jun 17, 2021

From watching Kyle Conner do Tesla video's, he commonly wraps a wet rag around the charging handle on Tesla superchargers in hot weather to provide evaporative cooling to avoid slow charging or no charging... I wonder if that would work for us on EA stations? I just got back from a trip to Chandler AZ, peak temps are a nightmare in the summer there... last trip we took was in November, I think that will be our future trip month for that area of the country

Keith

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GJETSON

· #3 · Jun 17, 2021

Fivedoor said:
From watching Kyle Conner do Tesla video's, he commonly wraps a wet rag around the charging handle on Tesla superchargers in hot weather to provide evaporative cooling to avoid slow charging or no charging... I wonder if that would work for us on EA stations?

Ben Rich is a long time, avid EV advocate. He has crossed the country from coast to coast, and top to bottom, multiple times, on his Zero motorcycle and his Tesla M3. In hot weather he buys bags of ice and lays them on the battery and high power electronics of his bike to speed up charging.

We can only hope that we get the miracle batteries they keep talking about. In a decade, it will be too hot for our current batteries to work in the summer.

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The Other Tom

· #4 · Jun 17, 2021

I think either the plug was too hot (like @Fivedoor mentioned), or the EA charger's coolant system wasn't working properly. Glad you were finally able to charge.

Did you loose any charge over the 10 days you had parked?

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chillymt

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jun 18, 2021

The Other Tom said:
I think either the plug was too hot (like @Fivedoor mentioned), or the EA charger's coolant system wasn't working properly. Glad you were finally able to charge.

Did you loose any charge over the 10 days you had parked?

Lost about 3%. I left it at 30% and it was at 27% when I got in 10 days later. It was working pretty hard to cool things down after I turned it on though and I lost another 3% on the way over to the station. Every time I start to think I have these chargers figured out I wind up spending 20 minutes getting one going. That said, I’ve been pretty impressed with the number of ea chargers they’ve managed to install around me. The sheer quantity definitely helps to make up for occasional hiccups.

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GJETSON

· #6 · Jun 18, 2021

chillymt said:
That said, I’ve been pretty impressed with the number of ea chargers they’ve managed to install around me. The sheer quantity definitely helps to make up for occasional hiccups.

\
You must be near a megacity. Here in central Virginia, they are at least 50 miles apart, along the interstates.

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TinyMighty

· #7 · Jun 19, 2021

I live in AZ where the high is around 105-110 most days now. I went to an EVgo charger and it didn't charge at first but once I got it to start charging the car was only pulling 30 kw from the charger. The car was at 9% when I made it to the charger. The heat really does seem to affect charging performance not only from the car but from the charger itself. Also I have noticed that my range has been plummeting ever since it started getting hot as I am only getting 130 miles per charge now.

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p7wang

· #8 · Jun 19, 2021

TinyMighty said:
I live in AZ where the high is around 105-110 most days now. I went to an EVgo charger and it didn't charge at first but once I got it to start charging the car was only pulling 30 kw from the charger. The car was at 9% when I made it to the charger. The heat really does seem to affect charging performance not only from the car but from the charger itself. Also I have noticed that my range has been plummeting ever since it started getting hot as I am only getting 130 miles per charge now.

Wow, we can really use Sodium Ion batteries for the hot regions.

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