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Dual Chargers

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Vitaman

Member
Supporting Member
Aug 9, 2014
618
243
Decatur, GA
I've finalized my build but still can add dual chargers if I act right away. Have poured over every post on the subject but would like a Regional perspective.
I live in metro ATL and mostly drive around town.
Road trips are not frequent but when we go out of town we usually head to the Florida panhandle or Asheville.
Would love to hear ideas pro and con on dual chargers, and any personal experiences on the benefits you've had through having the extra charger, or the happiness you've experienced by saving the money!
By the way if you were driving a Black P85+ on Clairmont Rd and then N. Druid Hills Rd this afternoon, that was me trying to keep up with you (and failing). Gorgeous car....I was trying to get a better look!
 
There are some threads on this in the Model S forum. I think it's useful but something you likely won't use a lot right away. Tesla is working on a destination charging program so you might have more chances to use second charger.
 
It's not exactly a "fast" process, but one approach that might help you get a feel for it is to go to plugshare.com and put in locations that you plan to travel to/from. Make sure you use "More Options" to check only the following ...
  • Nema 14-50
  • EV Plug (J1772)
  • Tesla HPWC (Model S)
... under "Outlets (Local)"

Looking near Decatur there are a lot of stations in and around. Unfortunately, I don't know a good way to identify which are > 40A on plugshare without clicking them individually. :(


NOTE: You might want to toggle the "Tesla SuperCharger" entry so you generally know where they are amongst the "weaker" power options, but I've excluded it from the above because it doesn't play directly into the dual chargers question.
 
Yes many discussions about it.
dual charger thoughts

Read through some of the opinions there. For me dual chargers make no sense, but there are others who use them quite a bit. I think there isn't a simple, good/bad or right/wrong answer. It really depends on whether you would be able to use them.

Or whether you might be able to use them in the future. There's quite a penalty for adding them on later.
 
There is no "con" other than the $1500, but if you don't get it and decide later you want it, the price is $3600. Higher amp J1772s and HPWCs can only become more prevalent over time so don't base your decision on what's within a few hundred miles of you right now.
 
I got the dual chargers. I've only used it once so far (since March 2014). (Not counting use at home - but I've not yet had a scenario at home where I needed the charge that fast). The one time I "used" the dual charger was when driving through Winston-Salem and was able to charge at a fellow Tesla's HPWC (80A). Having the dual charger cut our wait time in half.
It's hard to say if it's worth it. It'll come down to a judgement call.
 
I have the dual chargers and I like the fact I get a mile a minutes worth of charge at home. Something to consider is if you have room in your electrical box to add the 100A/240V service that would be required to take advantage of the faster charge rate. I have the 100A/240V connection in my garage but had to have an electrical install some double breakers in order to free up the space in my electrical box. I would do it simply because waiting to charge on a trip stinks! If you can charge in half the time in any spot why would you not want to take advantage of that? Also, Tesla and some businesses are installing HPWCs to supplement the supercharger network. If you have the double chargers, that will get you on your way faster. I have met more owners that wish they had the double chargers than complain they don't need them. I think you should go with the double charger option. Don't be penny wise and pound foolish on this one.
 
I have dual chargers and take advantage of them at the majority of my public charging stops. Lots of 90 and 100 amp J1772 stations in my area. I would have to think that over time, public infrastructure is going to move in this direction and depending on how long you keep your car it might be a worthwhile investment. Might even help with resale value.
 
In my opinion, the cost of dual chargers at the time one purchases a car is a pretty small increase in cost, compared to the price of the car. The first time you're on a road trip and encounter a Level 2 station that's capable of 80 amps, you'll chafe at the 40 amp charging limitation. I have to think that higher amperage L2 charging will become more prevalent over the life of the car. How many such encounters will make the single charger savings seem not worth it?
 
I had my first experience with having access to >40A charging last week. I have a single charger in my car. Drove from Ann Arbor to CT via southern Ontario. Note that I could easily have driven the southern route, as I did on my way to Ann Arbor, and been on superchargers the whole way. Instead, I wanted to stop in Niagara for the morning. I overnighted near London, so the dual chargers weren't critical. Stayed 6 hours in Niagara and got a full charge. It cost me maybe an hour as I was ready to leave at noon and left at 1pm. Stopped in Syracuse for 4 hours, would have stopped for 2 instead if I had the duals.

The net is that I spent an extra 3 hours charging. By this time next year there should be superchargers on that entire route so the dual chargers would be irrelevant. Did I regret not having the dual chargers? Of course. But it wasn't $1,500 worth of regret.

If I lived in, or regularly traveled to, Canada then the dual chargers would be vital. And maybe 5 years from now the infrastructure will be such that I'll find I made a mistake. After 17 months, 23k miles and quite a few road trips I've not found them to be necessary. Of course, I live 20 minutes from I-95 so have good supercharger infrastructure around me.
 
I live in Smyrna. I didn't get the dual chargers for a few reasons. I expected Superchargers on my road trips (still waiting for Greenville and Augusta though). I know of no >40A charge points anywhere nearby, except the few HPWC that would show up on plugshare. And my house wouldn't really support 80A charging. So I opened for the single charger.

Works out fine for me.

As a side note I do have 48A charging at home now (60A breaker) that I am unable to use. But I have never really needed the enhanced charging rates in town anyway.
 
Really good, well thought responses.
Knew when I posted that it's a highly individual situation kind of option.
I probably won't use it a lot, but I am the kind of person who would chafe at having to spend twice the time to charge ever (unless I'm sleeping).
Went ahead and ordered it today along with a wall charger. Already had the garage ready with a Clipper Creek 48 Amp installed....will probably have to spend extra for an electrician to bump up the 50 Amp breaker to 100. At least when charging I will get to see the cool Tesla T instead of the Industrial looking CC Charger. Hopefully I can return the Clipper Creek. It was installed but never used.
 
Vitaman, if you have the ability, I would leave the 50 amp circuit in place and put a 14-50 outlet on it and then run a seperate line for the new 100 amp circuit for the HPWC. Never hurts to have a second way to charge your car in case the primary method dies. You can not use the 50 amp wiring for 100 amps anyways, unless it was already sized for 100 amps so the additional cost to add the 14-50 outlet should very little.

I have 2 Model Ss, the first one has dual chargers, but the second one I got with only the one.