Three L3 chargers failed to work late at night

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.

Are you sure that the chip in the credit card you used is ok?

No two ways about it -- the CHAdeMO network is awful, and getting worse.

SageBrush said:

No two ways about it -- the CHAdeMO network is awful, and getting worse.

Click to expand...

Then why do I see Telsa's at the Chademo stations all the time using their hack adapters?

rawlins02 said:

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.
...
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.

Click to expand...

For that wouldn't accept credit card charger, what network was it on? For networks where you can start charging via their app and esp. their RFID card, I would never want to depend on the credit card method. I have cards from ChargeePoint (use them almost every weekday at work), EVgo and Blink. I've never used the last 2, yet.

Did you submit your experiences w/all of the EVSE/chargers on Plugshare?

cwerdna said:

rawlins02 said:

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.
...
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.

Click to expand...

For that wouldn't accept credit card charger, what network was it on? For networks where you can start charging via their app and esp. their RFID card, I would never want to depend on the credit card method. I have cards from ChargeePoint (use them almost every weekday at work), EVgo and Blink. I've never used the last 2, yet.

Did you submit your experiences w/all of the EVSE/chargers on Plugshare?

Click to expand...

The first charger was EVgo. The third was Electrify America. I've a ChargePoint membership. Suppose it's time to join EVgo. Was under the impression that there are few EVgo stations around here. Looks like their network is starting to expand. Yes I've posted on PlugShare.

Looks like the L3 charging station situation is better here in Eastern Mass. I see more pop up once in a while. Unfortunately, when a ChargePoint L3 station goes down here, it also takes months for the property owner to get it fixed.

You have the right idea with looking to join EVGo. They have been getting a bigger presence in the northeast, especially in malls. I see that the Dunkin Donut L3 stations in your area are healthy and belong to EVgo.