Posted on 08/02/2024 5:05:37 AM PDT by texas booster
Tesla has asked owners to stop wrapping wet towels around handles to speed up the recharging process, warning that this can damage its Supercharger stalls.
Responding to a story posted by Inside EVs on X in May that claimed the trick worked, Tesla said placing a wet cloth over Supercharger recharging kit while juicing up "does not increase charging rates," and risks damaging cables because it fools temperature sensors into thinking the charger is cooler than it really is.
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Kyle Conner, founder of EV media network Out of Spec Studios, said in a recent podcast episode that, contrary to what Tesla was saying, the wet rag trick has been a reliable way to reduce charge times for more than seven years.
The method has to do with external temperature sensors on Tesla supercharging handles that are designed to decrease charging wattage to prevent people from burning their hands, which Conner said have never worked very well. By wrapping a wet towel around the charging handle, people not only avoided getting burned but also noticed a corresponding increase in charging amperage.
"Thermals on Tesla superchargers are terrible in the summertime," Conner said on the podcast episode.
That all changed around the beginning of June, when Conner suspected Tesla made changes to its charging logic to stop the wet rag trick from working.
"Tesla introduced some logic, I think rightly so, to try to stop the wet rag situation," Conner said of the update. After some recent testing of the method (which he reiterated several times during the discussion that Out of Spec doesn't endorse), Conner noted a wet rag on the handle still increased charging amperage and sped the process up, but with what seemed to be an artificial cap.
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(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.com ...
Conner said that the wet rag trick, combined with the fact that Tesla chargers continue to have heating issues despite the addition of liquid-cooled cables in newer Superchargers, means Elon Musk's car company might have engineered itself into a corner.
Based on his reckoning, "Tesla doesn't know how to make, or at least is unwilling to install, a connector that can handle consistent high-current speeds," Conner said. Compared to other makes of public charging stations, "Superchargers seem to be the most temperature-sensitive of the bunch."
The decision to fire the entire Supercharger team in May was allegedly due to Musk's dissatisfaction with team leader Rebecca Tinucci, who told the billionaire she couldn't lay off additional team members without undermining Tesla's charging business.
Responsibility for Tesla's charging network has since been given to the company's energy team responsible for selling Tesla's solar panels and Powerwall home energy storage products.
Who really knows?
I recommend anyone dumb enough to do this should test their charger with their tongue to make sure it’s operating properly.
Only if standing in a puddle to get the full experience.
Funny, no one in the MSM mentions that all EVs have multiple dangerous parts, at least as dangerous as gasoline
Just a thought.
Alternatively, pee on it
Behave or we’ll take your chargers away
The ‘charging experience’, where one gets to laugh at gasoline cars as they pass by, is one of the KEY ELEMENTS in owning an EV, smug in the knowledge of knowing that those gasoline cars require oil changes once or twice a year.
So why try to shorten that ‘experience’ in the first place?
Isn’t there quite a bit of electricity flowing through there? What kind of nitwit puts a water-soaked towel on a connector that has electricity flowing through it?
Not just recharging. Heat is a killer for EVs. The range is cut by 30% because they are working so hard to keep themselves cool. Saw a Tesla sitting disabled in the middle of the freeway the other day. When the batteries go dead they stop right where they are, can’t even coast them over to the shoulder to get out of traffic. I’m sure the range meter deceived the driver about how many miles they had left. In the hot desert they eat up capacity extremely fast just keeping themselves cool which reduces the range much faster than normal.
Here’s a thought, buy a real car with a real ICE.
“The rag trick” this really cracks me up and proves that there are still people out there with a highly active imagination.
35 years ago in an open office area I visited, people often complained of being cold in winter and hot in summer. A few imaginative engineers developed ice molds that were placed over the thermostat in winter and just as conveniently placed the coffeepot under the same thermostat in the summer. I got a chuckle every time I saw that.
Sadly after I learned the backstory, I never told the people that the thermostat was replaced by maintenance and was just a dummy and the real temperature sensor was up in the supply duct.
When you speak of keeping them cool, are you talking about A/C for the occupants, or something internal to the car?
I have wondered if EVs put owners back over 50 years to the times when we just drove with our windows down.
Is there more than one kind?
We could have used something like that in the small print shop where I used to work. The owner was so tight that we never got him a birthday cake for fear that when we lit the candles the A/C would come on and he'd have a heart attack.
“When you speak of keeping them cool, are you talking about A/C for the occupants, or something internal to the car?”
Both, the mechanical system also has it’s own protective cooling features which have to work overtime in extreme heat conditions. So it will tell the driver it has 50 miles left to go but it does not calculate the added losses for keeping it’s self cool. Which ends up only being a 25-30 mile range left in reality.
It is just like developing an unknown undetected fuel leak in a Gas vehicle. That half tank drops to zero in no time and just a few miles.
Both, the mechanical system also has it’s own protective cooling features which have to work overtime in extreme heat conditions. So it will tell the driver it has 50 miles left to go but it does not calculate the added losses for keeping it’s self cool. Which ends up only being a 25-30 mile range left in reality.
They have issues during the winter, as well. I’ve seen reports of EVs stuck at charging stations overnight in sub-zero temperatures because the battery can’t get warm enough to accept a charge.
Thank you.
What I was wondering, is if EV owners face the choice of turning off the A/C and cranking the windows down to reach the next charging station.
On a few occasions I make such a choice with my gasoline-burner. I never worry about heat.
“They have issues during the winter, as well. I’ve seen reports of EVs stuck at charging stations overnight in sub-zero temperatures because the battery can’t get warm enough to accept a charge.”
Yep, true to fact. The cold also reduces the range also aside from the charging issues.
It is silly, they are no more than a novelty and not practical vehicles at all.
I told my family. If we’d get an EV, forget about AC and plan on wearing a lot of layers in the winter.
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