Free Public Charging - Any Users?

[SQ97]

Many of you are aware that the latest Tesla vehicles no longer ship with the mobile connector. Included in its place is a J1772 adapter. I noticed our nearby grocery store has two free Eaton chargers and decided to give them a try. To my delight, they provide 6 kW of power without a hitch and at no cost to me. Great top up while I shop!

Has anyone else tried free public chargers out? How frequently do you use them, and are they conveniently located?

 

[Eric33432]

Just noticed there were two level 2 charging stations installed at our public library, but they were both busy, on with an M3 and one with a Mustang. Nice to be able to top off but not a solution if you cannot charge at home.

I've used L2 chargers at hotels several times. Every time, the worked fine, and I left the next morning with a full charge.

 

[EVSince2011]

I used free public chargers more when I was driving a Leaf. They usually worked fine. I don't spend enough time shopping to get much charge on my M3. I have used destination chargers at hotels on trips and, when they work, are a great convenience and save a little money. With two level 2 stations at home, it's so easy to charge our M3 and Leaf when driving locally that public charging is rare.

 

[Supcom]

I rarely use free J1772 chargers. They often don't work and rarely am I at a place where would I get more than a few kWh from them.

The Mobile Connector that came with my car has been far more useful. I often use it as a destination charger at AirBnB houses or RV campsites. I was disappointed when Tesla stopped including it with new cars.

 

[RTPEV]

Many of you are aware that the latest Tesla vehicles no longer ship with the mobile connector. Included in its place is a J1772 adapter. I noticed our nearby grocery store has two free Eaton chargers and decided to give them a try. To my delight, they provide 6 kW of power without a hitch and at no cost to me. Great top up while I shop!

Has anyone else tried free public chargers out? How frequently do you use them, and are they conveniently located?

The J1772 adapter did not "replace" the mobile connector. It was always included with the car. They just simply stopped providing the mobile connector with their vehicles (which I think is a huge mistake, although I understand that supply chain difficulties may have forced them to take this approach--I had hoped it was only a temporary measure though).

As for free public chargers, yes, I do use them on occasion. As @EVSince2011 said, this was almost a necessity when I had my LEAF (I've also been driving EVs since 2011!). With longer range vehicles, it's usually not worth the effort to get the adapter out and use it...plus I don't necessarily want to tie up a charger when I don't actually need it--I like to leave it to vehicles (like those older LEAFs) that actually do need the charge. However, there is a charger in a parking deck near a place we frequent that is almost never used, so sometimes when my car is down near 30-40% I will plug in.

Some are very conveniently located. It sounds like you may be a relatively new EV driver, so maybe you haven't heard of plugshare.com but I highly recommend you check it out to find out exactly where all those chargers are.

 

[Big Earl]

Many of you are aware that the latest Tesla vehicles no longer ship with the mobile connector. Included in its place is a J1772 adapter. I noticed our nearby grocery store has two free Eaton chargers and decided to give them a try. To my delight, they provide 6 kW of power without a hitch and at no cost to me. Great top up while I shop!

Has anyone else tried free public chargers out? How frequently do you use them, and are they conveniently located?

I've become wary of free public chargers after two different Volta stations melted two different J-1772 adapters within about three months of each other. That's $55/each - a high price to pay for "free" charging. No response from Volta's customer service and the stations still haven't been fixed.

I'll still use ChargePoint if they're convenient and reasonably priced. Bl!nk is a sh!tshow and it's unfortunate that SemaConnect sold out to them, as I'm now seeing their quality deteriorate.

Tesla Wall Connectors are still the best and most reliable. I'm hoping that more businesses install them now that they offer billing services.

Good luck out there.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I've never used free-free, although my wife did once, which was useful in a busy parking lot.
Free-free is likely to be busy.

I have used free-in-paid-parking, or pay-but-free-parking both very usefully.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Tesla Wall Connectors are still the best and most reliable. I'm hoping that more businesses install them now that they offer billing services.

They're offering billing but only with installs of 6 or more units. But maybe that's deliberate, because destination charging will need large scale.

 

[Tronguy]

FWIW, I've been driving Teslas around in California and the East Half of the US since 2018. The further back one goes, the more likely one is to find the free chargers. They were all over California.

Parking garages are interesting. Many of them charge $$ to park, but include the charging gratis. Savannah SC's public parking garages, of which they have lots, had tons of these. So did the ferry to the Catalina Islands in Long Beach, CA.

Around here, one'll find free charging at Woodbridge Mall In NJ.

For whatever reason, I've found fewer of these around the Boston area.

The Plugshare app does allow one to filter for free charging locations.

 

[hey8you]

We have free Volta charges at work. Normally they are limited to 2hrs but someone complained and Volta removed the limit. I charger there every other day.

 

[MOE J]

I only use free chargers, level 2 takes 4-6 hours. I love it

 

[cwerdna]

Have used them on-off for years, since probably late 2013 or early 2014. I used them a lot less starting end of Jan 2019 until COVID due to having a much larger capacity pack car (60 kWh instead of 24). Then once COVID hit, things changed again due to not going to the office (couldn't or not safe or discouraged (nobody there, no food, no coffee, etc.)).

Except while on vacation, for awhile (post-COVID vaccines) I've been going to my work every weekday and we have free L2 charging there and 64 kWh pack card, so not as much need to use public charging.

Check Plugshare.

 

[miimura]

During the pandemic my wife decided that she was going to get exercise on the weekend by driving the Model 3 down to the local elementary school and get some free juice and walk back home. Every school in the district has more than a dozen PowerFlex load balanced J1772 stations. They used to be free except 4pm-9pm and available to the public outside of school hours. The price is now $0.40/kWh 7am-9pm and $0.20/kWh other hours. School employees get different pricing which may or may not still be free.

 

[MOE J]

i assume thats where the money flows to tesla bank accounts-charging ev vehicles. I am wanting to see how the TYPE 4 chargers speed is and cost. Maybe on my next road trip......b4 the snow starts.

 

[BillRadio]

I live in the mountains and away from the home charger in the summer. Our condo there has 8, 6kwh chargers at .20/kwh, but the town's parking garage has over a dozen FREE chargers. I charge as much as I can (3/6kwh) while in town, but if I'm looking for a full charge, I will leave the car charging in the public garage and take the bus home for a few hours and return when it's charged.

When a Free town charger doesn't work, a call to Chargepoint gets it reset and back in service. Cellular service inside the parking garage is spotty so I carry the Chargepoint card which works instantly. The next town down the highway has free chargers right on the street, which are usually broken, but those spaces are available for electric cars because ICE drivers have no idea they don't work.

 

[MOE J]

Cool

 

[David99]

I use free public chargers quite a bit. I travel a lot and then stay in a town for a few days. I look at PlugShare for free chargers. Often the local city hall, or library or city owned parking facilities have free chargers. I leave my car there while I work. Works great. I only use them when convenient. L2 chargers are just too slow unless you spend a good amount of time. Volta chargers are a hit and miss. Volta, IMHO, isn't really a charging provider. They are just using EV charging as an excuse to place advertising space in places that are frequented by lots of people. They cut off power after 2 hours.

 

[cwerdna]

I live in the mountains and away from the home charger in the summer. Our condo there has 8, 6kwh chargers at .20/kwh, but the town's parking garage has over a dozen FREE chargers. I charge as much as I can (3/6kwh) while in town, but if I'm looking for a full charge, I will leave the car charging in the public garage and take the bus home for a few hours and return when it's charged.

Not sure what's meant by "6kwh" chargers. Charging rate is measured in kW, a unit of power. Energy is measured in kWh.

Charge at 6 kW * 1 hour --> 6 kWh came out of the "wall". Multiply units and values. 6 kW * 2 hours --> 12 kWh

Not sure what's meant by "I charge as much as I can (3/6kwh) while in town, but if I'm looking for a full charge, I will leave the car charging in the public garage and take the bus home for a few hours and return when it's charged."

If you only got 3 or 6 kWh, that's not much energy in relation to whatever you car's battery pack usable capacity is.... 75 kWh?

i assume thats where the money flows to tesla bank accounts-charging ev vehicles. I am wanting to see how the TYPE 4 chargers speed is and cost. Maybe on my next road trip......b4 the snow starts.

What are "TYPE 4" chargers?

 

[gtae07]

The parking deck next to our church has two Tesla wall chargers and two J1772 ones, all free. I've used them once or twice just because I could but charging at home is so cheap I generally don't bother trying to get free L1/L2.

 

[mborkow]

In my eGolf, which has a lot less range, I use any free, available public charger I happen to come across (and am always tickled when I pull into a parking lot and happen to find one; I always go back to those locations, I’ve noticed). With Model Y, I prob wouldn’t bother…its range is so much better and there are plenty of other EVs out there with far less range that prob need to use those free chargers. There are a couple of free L2 chargers near the Trader Joe’s where I go shopping and I often see Teslas parked there (with their drivers sitting in their cars killing time) even though in the same parking area there’s a Tesla Super Charging site with tons of stalls…