Too Hot to charge in NV, AZ

[corndog]

Soooo, made trip from Lake Havasu City AZ, to LasVegas NV. 95% when I left Havasu, got to Vegas, dropped off my parts, to come back in 2 hrs after the parts had been worked on. (Nothing to do with the Rivian, drive shaft shortened for a hot rod. ). It's now 117 Degrees. After lunch found a Electrify America location, plugged in and nothing, 4 charging stations there, only one was working. The other 3 people were like me, unplugging, plugging back in, repeat. 1 minute on, then stopping. I heard the fans in the EA charger on full blast it sounded like, as were my Rivian fans. After 20 mins of this, found another EA station 8 miles away, drove there and same thing. I am now 30% pissed. This time I called EA and got a person on the phone, told me the machine was locked up. Again 6 stations and only 2 worked. Now 40% pissed off. Now 118 deg. outside. Called Rivian, the service rep told me things were hot, turn off the A/C as the same system is used to cool the cab and batteries. Still no dice, guy said maybe hang out till things cool down. I have no patience for that. 50% pissed now. So the kid and I pick up my parts, take off south back home toward Havasu for about 1/2 an hour, found another EA station at a Target. 4 stations, no one there. Plugged in, A/C off, and Whalaa! Now Charging. I'm down to 25% pissed. Outside temp now 109. Range 19% . 150 kw charger got me to 91% in less than an hour, not once shutting off. Head for home, all good. Yayyy! This whole ordeal took up about 4 hours, wasted time. I'm back to cool as a cucumber. Good times with my 23 year old.

Seems if I could dial down the kw it may run cooler and let in some electrons. It always shot up to 140kw or so. No way to adjust this on a public charger.
Maybe build a canopy over everything? All were in the open sun.

Moral of this is Electric things don't work very well in big heat. Nevada, Arizona in particular from 1st hand experience. Just a heads up for all of us that are switching to EV stuff while they still try to figure some things out. Don't get stuck. Next time it's hot I'll surely take the gas car.

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[Dark-Fx]

Only gonna get worse.

 

[RivianXpress]

Yeah- same issue last summer in Baker and surrounding area in my Rivian - but EA was limiting speed (Slooooow) but not nothing...

 

[COdogman]

I am really surprised they don’t have cover over charging stations in some parts of the country. Even just the difference from sun to shade would probably be more than enough to prevent this from happening.

 

[WSea]

Boy, I wish I maxed out at 50% pissed

 

[Andystroh]

Hmm sounds similar to when it was below -15 here last winter. These things definitely have a range of operating temps that we will have to consider when we're in the extremes.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

EA marketing materials and website show a charging site with a solar panel canopy. I've yet to see a single EA site like that. I tried EA for the first time this AM. Tapped my phone on the charger over and over, no dice. Other chargers were in use, so I decided to just swipe a credit card and get it over with. At end of session, charger showed $20. Now, I look at my cc app, it shows $50 pending charge. SMH

 

[emoore]

EA marketing materials and website show a charging site with a solar panel canopy. I've yet to see a single EA site like that. I tried EA for the first time this AM. Tapped my phone on the charger over and over, no dice. Other chargers were in use, so I decided to just swipe a credit card and get it over with. At end of session, charger showed $20. Now, I look at my cc app, it shows $50 pending charge. SMH

I agree that they need to have canopies. It’s an easy fix to overheating problems. The app is much more reliable to use than the CC machine. And the $50 is just a temp hold. Don’t worry about it.

 

[VSG]

64 degrees here in the Hoh Rain Forest. EA in Port Angeles delivered 205kW on the way here. PNW FTW.

 

[COdogman]

EA marketing materials and website show a charging site with a solar panel canopy. I've yet to see a single EA site like that. I tried EA for the first time this AM. Tapped my phone on the charger over and over, no dice. Other chargers were in use, so I decided to just swipe a credit card and get it over with. At end of session, charger showed $20. Now, I look at my cc app, it shows $50 pending charge. SMH

That pending amount is normal. I’ve only charged once at EA but I set up my account and pre-authorized them with funding limits. If you set all of that up in advance you can actually initiate your charge from the app while still sitting in your truck. Basically you pull up, open the app, choose the station, tell the app which charger # you want to use, then you can put your phone away, tap once on the screen and plug in. It will charge to whatever level you have your Rivian set to.

 

[electruck]

Hah... 100+ here in TX and can't even AC charge at 11.5 kW in my garage at night. Latest Rivian updates throttling back to 7-8 kW to keep charge port (?) temps in check.

 

[R1Sky Business]

Soooo, made trip from Lake Havasu City AZ, to LasVegas NV. 95% when I left Havasu, got to Vegas, dropped off my parts, to come back in 2 hrs after the parts had been worked on. (Nothing to do with the Rivian, drive shaft shortened for a hot rod. ). It's now 117 Degrees. After lunch found a Electrify America location, plugged in and nothing, 4 charging stations there, only one was working. The other 3 people were like me, unplugging, plugging back in, repeat. 1 minute on, then stopping. I heard the fans in the EA charger on full blast it sounded like, as were my Rivian fans. After 20 mins of this, found another EA station 8 miles away, drove there and same thing. I am now 30% pissed. This time I called EA and got a person on the phone, told me the machine was locked up. Again 6 stations and only 2 worked. Now 40% pissed off. Now 118 deg. outside. Called Rivian, the service rep told me things were hot, turn off the A/C as the same system is used to cool the cab and batteries. Still no dice, guy said maybe hang out till things cool down. I have no patience for that. 50% pissed now. So the kid and I pick up my parts, take off south back home toward Havasu for about 1/2 an hour, found another EA station at a Target. 4 stations, no one there. Plugged in, A/C off, and Whalaa! Now Charging. I'm down to 25% pissed. Outside temp now 109. Range 19% . 150 kw charger got me to 91% in less than an hour, not once shutting off. Head for home, all good. Yayyy! This whole ordeal took up about 4 hours, wasted time. I'm back to cool as a cucumber. Good times with my 23 year old.

Seems if I could dial down the kw it may run cooler and let in some electrons. It always shot up to 140kw or so. No way to adjust this on a public charger.
Maybe build a canopy over everything? All were in the open sun.

Moral of this is Electric things don't work very well in big heat. Nevada, Arizona in particular from 1st hand experience. Just a heads up for all of us that are switching to EV stuff while they still try to figure some things out. Don't get stuck. Next time it's hot I'll surely take the gas car.

Adventures!!!!

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

I set up my account and pre-authorized them with funding limits. If you set all of that up in advance you can actually initiate your charge from the app while still sitting in your truck.

Did all that almost 2 weeks ago. Had a EA payment "card" in my Apple Wallet. For some reason, this particular charging station just would not accept it.

 

[seatosummit]

Managed a decent charge in 105F ambient in central CA a couple hrs ago. New Signet equipment.

The 500A dispenser maxed out at 350A. Sounds like I should be grateful relative to what others are dealing with.

The Baker and Kettlemen City locations have canopies. Oddly, the site on Vancouver Island with Electrify Canada also does. Seems like it would be a smart upgrade more generally.

 

[seatosummit]

Initiating from the EA app is the only way to go. The tap to pay of membership card and anything with a CC is garbage in my experience. 5% success rate is not an exaggeration.

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