Is the dual charger option useful and worth getting?

I've lived fine 3 years without. It totally depends on your driving habits. If you drive a lot and need a quick charge at home during day, or if you travel long distances frequently outside supercharge routes, it makes sense. That's not me, and it doesn't sound like you either. PS single charger sufficient for night recharging.

If you have HPWCs and high amperage J1772s on rural routes YES.

I do 40A at home but will get the dual installed next service because my
favorite mall 2 hours away has HPWCs and I don't want to travel another 40 minutes to the SC.
In addition, my employer's headquarters are in the middle of nowhere, except a luxo B&B by a
waterfall, surprisingly for Appalachia it has both HPWC and Roadster adapters.

It makes no sense to get dual chargers, same as garage HPWC, unless you have
to make runs in the middle of the night a lot, mostly for docs and cops.

We are a one car family for now, so the dual charger option was great for us! If traveling outside the Supercharger network and using Plugshare, it's nice to get faster charges from fellow Tesla owners with the HPWC in their garages!

spongdds said:

I mainly recharge using my installed 240v wall plug in the garage. I rarely charge at public charging places. On occasion, when I go out of town, I do use the superchargers along the way (although I hear that the Duel Chargers do not affect the charging times of the supercharger).

I guess the ultimate question is where under what circumstances would the Duel Charger be useful, and worth getting?

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Like most everybody, I charge at home. 40a is adequate. My most frequent road trip destination however, only has a couple of 80a destination chargers, plus one CHAdeMO on the way. On my last trip, I arrived home with 4% remaining. If had been able to pull down 80 during dinner, it would have been a much less stressful trip home. I have #2 on order. Hope it doesn't take too long to arrive.

Depends entirely on individual situations/circumstances

At home I have a HPWC that's on a 100A circuit so it's capable of 80A charging, but I only have a single charger in my car.

When I'm on a trip so far it's been 100% of the time at either a Supercharger or a Chademo charger. Neither of those are impacted by whether one has dual chargers or not.

With that being said that are a lot of places in Canada where a dual charger will be of benefit.

Unless your situation itself can justify the extra expense then I'd leave it off.

I think a duel charger might be useful if you need to fight off smaller EVs at the Type 2 or Chademo stations...

Ames said:

I think a duel charger might be useful if you need to fight off smaller EVs at the Type 2 or Chademo stations...

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I came here to say that. Thanks for stealing my thunder (lightning?)! :biggrin:

Ames said:

I think a duel charger might be useful if you need to fight off smaller EVs at the Type 2 or Chademo stations...

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Neither of those require, nor can use, dual chargers. At 6.6kw, Type 2 does not even fully use one charger. CHAdeMO is DC charging and does not require either charger (like the Superchargers). You only need that monster adapter (US$450).

If you have access to an HPWC either private or a Tesla destination charger, then you may be able to use dual chargers. I travel regularly to a city with only destination chargers available. (still waiting in line for Nr2 <sigh>).

When you need them you'll be glad to have them. Destination chargers, PlugShare HPWCs, Sun Country chargers, and a network in the Pacific Northwest that i forget the name of. Having more options to charge is never a bad thing.

Had my dual chargers 13 months, never used them once.

I'd say it really depends on how and where you're planning on driving:

If this is going to be primarily a commuter car and you don't anticipate doing long distance driving, you don't need dual chargers.
If you're going to be driving long distances only on the Supercharger network, you don't need dual chargers.

BUT, if you think you'll be taking long distance drives and you're going to be adventuring off the Supercharger network, I would recommend getting the dual chargers.

Things were different in the olden days when I bought my car, because there was a huge difference in price between ordering it with the car vs. adding it later. But now that there is no option to buy it with the car for less money, there is little pressure to make the decision up front. If you find yourself frequently in a situation where the extra charger would be handy, then add it.

Again, it does really depend on a number of things...when my wife gets home from work in the summer, we often head up to the cottage...when she gets home, the dual chargers allow us to leave in one hour later as opposed to two.

I think it is also important to look down the road a little from a time perspective...if you will be keeping the car for 5+ years, but retiring next year, then you should examine your retirement planning to see if you will be travelling more frequently, or to places off the beaten track (with only destination charging available)...

Kandiru said:

If you have HPWCs and high amperage J1772s on rural routes YES.

I do 40A at home but will get the dual installed next service because my
favorite mall 2 hours away has HPWCs and I don't want to travel another 40 minutes to the SC.
In addition, my employer's headquarters are in the middle of nowhere, except a luxo B&B by a
waterfall, surprisingly for Appalachia it has both HPWC and Roadster adapters.

It makes no sense to get dual chargers, same as garage HPWC, unless you have
to make runs in the middle of the night a lot, mostly for docs and cops.

Click to expand...

spongdds said:

I'm not sure if I should get the Duel Charger ($2000 including installation) put into my Model S given how I currently recharge and use the car.

I mainly recharge using my installed 240v wall plug in the garage. I rarely charge at public charging places. On occasion, when I go out of town, I do use the superchargers along the way (although I hear that the Duel Chargers do not affect the charging times of the supercharger).

I guess the ultimate question is where under what circumstances would the Duel Charger be useful, and worth getting?

Any info on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

spongdds

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After my first LONG Road Trip (Even though it was on the supercharger network), I promptly had it retrofitted after I returned home. It would have made a night and day difference. While Superchargers get you to your destination, you need something else AT your destination. Faster the better. The trip would have been 100% better had I had the dual charger at the time. We could have gone many more places and done so much more, instead, we were stuck sitting at the hotel room waiting for more power.

Ames said:

I think a duel charger might be useful if you need to fight off smaller EVs at the Type 2 or Chademo stations...

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Just FYI, CHAdeMO is Level 3 direct current, and just like with the superchargers, there is no use of the chargers/transformers.

With the increasing number of Destination Chargers popping up along routes that do not have Superchargers I thinks it's very useful. Many Destination locations will allow you to charge without technically being a patron of the establishment. For example my only way to get to Chicago from Des Moines is to use the Destination charger at a B&B in Davenport. The owners are very hospitable, and have no problem letting you stop by for just a couple hours. (Of course I'd recommend at least offering some compensation for the electricity.) This allows a 2 to 3 hour stop to get me to the Aurora SC. Without dual chargers it would take twice the time.

Used mine yesterday. I went to the Space X launch, Foggy!! Then Back home. ~ 200 miles, and returned with 15 RM. I had only about two hours and I had leave to be at another destination about 50 miles away. Without the dual chargers, I would have had to take a different car (ice) for the 2nd trip.

It's only three or four times a year for me, but when you need them, you really appreciate them.

In some cases I think there is redundancy with dual charges if one expires - maybe it's the slave charger that can be non-functional and the master will still work?

In my case at delivery one was not functional (they must have been dueling with each other on the truck on the way to me) and had to be replaced.

redi said:

In some cases I think there is redundancy with dual charges if one expires - maybe it's the slave charger that can be non-functional and the master will still work?

In my case at delivery one was not functional (they must have been dueling with each other on the truck on the way to me) and had to be replaced.

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If the master fails you are unable to charge with AC current. If the slave fails you are limited to 40 amps.