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PSA: On CCS1/SAE Combo DC chargers, best to stop the charger BEFORE attempting to unplug

8309 Views 38 Replies 11 Participants Last post by Sean Nelson, 8 mo ago

cwerdna

Discussion Starter · Jun 25, 2021 (Edited)

This only applies to DC charging over SAE Combo/CCS1/Combo1, NOT AC charging over J1772. Unless you KNOW the DC charger will EASILY (w/o excessive force, possibly flexing or breaking the locking tang on the handle), it it BEST to STOP charging BEFORE attempting to unplug a vehicle that is actively DC charging.

Possible methods to STOP first:

stop button on charger (not the handle)
stop button/action in charging network's app
stop button on the car's LCD (you may want to wake the car's or stereo's power button)
swiping your RFID card/NFC again (necessary on units like the ChargePoint CPE100 (https://www.chargepoint.com/files/install/install_guide_cpe100.pdf) which don't have touch screens or physical stop buttons beyond emergency stop)
last resort: emergency stop button, if any

See Experience with Electrify America, as to why. If you don't, you may break the locking tang on the handle and you might even cause massive arcing if charging hasn't stopped when you pulled out. Or, the broken tang can be a hazard for the next user OR, the handle might be rendered unsuable until it's repaired.

There's been discussion of this before. Examples at Fast charger locked to my car and My Experience DC Charging overnight at hotel. There seems to be confusion, which is no surprise given that it can be different than J1772 AC charging on GM and many other vehicles.

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greendave

· #18 · Nov 9, 2021

A number of good points in this thread. One constant annoyance is that between broken/unresponsive screens and unreliable apps, there isn't really a 'standard' way to stop the charge across different charger models, other than the car's own charge screen, which usually requires futzing around (if the car is off, which it often is).

Ironically, tapping the button on the charger connector and waiting for the car to display 'Unable to charge' is probably more reliable than any of the other charger-based methods.

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greendave

· #23 · Nov 11, 2021

cwerdna said:
IIRC, one can just push the stereo's power button/knob and navigate to the screen with it (via energy button?) then press stop.

As for "tapping the button on the charger connector", on at least 1 of them, you can't as I said. You're mechanically blocked and can't seem to. As I wrote earlier:
"IIRC, the ChargePoint CPE 250 units at ChargePoint HQ in Campbell CA and maybe the CPE100 there too were the cases where it didn't work and you could feel flexing and maybe even the microswitch in the handle being triggered but charging didn't stop."

Right - I'm not disagreeing that they exist. Just that I've yet to encounter one.

Their CCS CPE 100 was broken yesterday. Wouldn't start charging. Hit an internal fault error. I took off. I just wanted to see if it was free since it was off network.

I wasn't going to bother w/the other 25 cent per kWh DC FCs there since I was going to use some free L2's or I could use 19 cent/kWh DC FCs elsewhere.

That's a bargain! As I noted elsewhere, most of the travel corridor ChargePoint units start at $0.40/kWh. EvGo starts at $0.34/kWh (if you're early/late). EA is $0.31/kWh with membership. Gas isn't the only fuel price that's gone up...

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