Visiting Family in Houston with no Supercharger...

It depends on how much you're going to drive while you're there, and how long you're staying. If you're not going to drive much while visiting them, then you don't have to worry about it. If you do plan to drive, you have to determine how much, and whether you need to use their 120V or try to make their dryer outlet work. 120V gains about 4 miles per hour, so plugged in overnight you can easily gain 40-50 miles without a problem.

Destination chargers help if you need something slightly faster, especially if they have a decent place for dinner.

jlucero said:

im sure this happens alot, but what do you guys do in this situation? i live in dallas and family live in houston, 4 hours away...between the two cities, there are 3 superchargers, the closest one being about 50 miles from each city. but once i enter houston, my family doesnt have an EV chargers...so my only option is to use their 110V or dryer outlets, or go to a destination charger, but i read that you have to stay at their hotels or eat their restaurants.

what do you guys do in this situation?

Click to expand...

If your destination is only 50 miles from a Supercharger, and you can charge 120 volts, you'll be in fine shape. While 120v charger seems slow, you'll have that 50 miles back in the car within 24 hours or less. That is if you are staying put.

If they have a dryer outlet, that's probably the most convenient - if you have an adapter (there are plenty of posts here on both making or buying adapters and definitely read FlasherZ's charging FAQ, above). On the other hand, and this may be obvious, you should check Plugshare - depending on where you'll be there are a number of J1772s, HPWCs and CHAdeMOs in and around Houston.

jlucero said:

... the closest one being about 50 miles from each city.

Click to expand...

Your family is fifty miles from the supercharger in Houston at 14820 North Freeway?

Ditto on PlugShare.com recommendation. Every experience I've had with PlugShare users listing thei HPWCs has been positive.

The Houston IKEA has a charging station, which is free to use, as far as I can tell from the wording of the article.
More details at:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/12/tx-ikea-idUSnBw125179a+100+BSW20140212

Visiting Family in a city with no Supercharger...

Although Houston is a comparative charging wasteland compared to Dallas, PlugShare will show you many paid and free choices for almost any part of the city. If all else fails, take the family to the Galleria and charge at the Tesla Gallery while enjoying the A/C.

I would suggest range charging at the last stop prior to the visit so that you show up at your destination with only a 50 mile or so difference between you and the SC.

I had the same issue a few weeks back - visited family in Phoenix, and had no destination charging available. If you have access to their 110v, you should be ok though. 4mph isn't much, but 12 hours overnight will get you 48 miles. You can also have your family send you a picture of their dryer outlet as well, and pick up the requisite adapter and extension cord for your trip.

When I visit family in Nebraska, the B&B where I stay put in a 14-50.

eyespii said:

I had the same issue a few weeks back - visited family in Phoenix, and had no destination charging available. If you have access to their 110v, you should be ok though. 4mph isn't much, but 12 hours overnight will get you 48 miles. You can also have your family send you a picture of their dryer outlet as well, and pick up the requisite adapter and extension cord for your trip.

Click to expand...

I have thought of the dryer idea; it's just that when you do this, it seems to me that you have to run the cable from inside the house (where the dryer outlet usually is) to outside (where the car is), thus blocking a door partially open all night. This is a security risk as well as letting insects fly in. Has someone thought of a clever workaround for this?

For a 120V connection, get a good extension cable (unless you can reach with the UMC), if you use one that's too thin (I forgot the gauge, someone else can chime in), the car will drop your charging rate from 4 miles/hour to about 2 miles/hour.

I had that happen when I visited my parents for the first time in the Tesla, a quick trip to home depot fixed that.

TONS of CHAdeMO chargers in Houston. If you don't have an adapter, ask around in the Texas sub-forum and I'm sure someone in Dallas would loan you one. If you still can't find one, let me know and maybe I can meet you in San Marcos and loan you mine.

Also, need to sign up for an EVgo account to use them.

I just literally had this exact situation last weekend. We went down to visit family in Georgetown, TX (just north of Austin). There are superchargers in Waco and San Marcos, which are fairly far away. I charged up as much as I could in Waco on the way down but we did a good bit of driving in my car while we were there for the weekend. The first night I just plugged into his 110 and got about 40 miles over night. The next day I knew that I would need more than what his 110 could get me, so I looked on plugshare and saw a HPWC listed only 2.5 miles away. I called him and he was very kind and invited me right over. I got my buddy to follow me there in his car and the gentlemen had already pulled his MS out of the garage and ready for me. We visited for a few minutes and I plugged in. I only have a single charger (he had an 80 amp HPWC), but I stayed plugged in for about 3 and 1/2 hours, enough to get me a little over 100 miles. This proved to be invaluable because we all went back out on the town that night, plugged into the 110 that night and left the next morning with enough charge to make it back to the Waco SC and continue on home. Brought the guy a small bottle of wine for my appreciation.

I would highly recommend checking plugshare around the area you'll be staying. Tesla owners are very welcoming and this is a great community to belong to.

Max* said:

For a 120V connection, get a good extension cable (unless you can reach with the UMC), if you use one that's too thin (I forgot the gauge, someone else can chime in), the car will drop your charging rate from 4 miles/hour to about 2 miles/hour.

I had that happen when I visited my parents for the first time in the Tesla, a quick trip to home depot fixed that.

Click to expand...

Minimum #12, but if you can find a reasonably priced #10 cord, go with it. Most run-of-the-mill extension cords that you can purchase are #16 or #14.

This is good information! I never knew the standard cheapie 110v extension cord might not give you full charging; I'll get a 110v extension cord from an RV supply place when the time comes. And I wouldn't impose upon a visited family to leave their doors open at night so I could charge from a dryer outlet. It would be 110v or nothing.

Panoz said:

This is good information! I never knew the standard cheapie 110v extension cord might not give you full charging; I'll get a 110v extension cord from an RV supply place when the time comes. And I wouldn't impose upon a visited family to leave their doors open at night so I could charge from a dryer outlet. It would be 110v or nothing.

Click to expand...

Home depot sells #12. I think they call it "Contractor grade" or something. I don't think I've seen #10 there though, but I wasn't specifically looking.