Fun with public charging (not) --

[AZBill]

Recommend to not use the term "pump" when referring to a charging station. Nothing is being pumped when charge is added to your battery.

+1 to finding an Electrify America (EA) location, preferably with other EVs present. If theirs are working, then you know its something your vehicle.

I call my home charger a pump.

I recommend getting the ChagrePoint and Shell apps, rather than trying to use Ford Pass. Also set up Plug and Charge in the Ford Pass app for EA. I have only had plug and charge fail once in two years.

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[Mach-Lee]

I call my home charger a pump.

I recommend getting the ChagrePoint and Shell apps, rather than trying to use Ford Pass. Also set up Plug and Charge in the Ford Pass app for EA. I have only had plug and charge fail once in two years.

OMG do the numbers actually go up when you’re using it?

 

[Logal727]

I call my home charger a pump.

I recommend getting the ChagrePoint and Shell apps, rather than trying to use Ford Pass. Also set up Plug and Charge in the Ford Pass app for EA. I have only had plug and charge fail once in two years.

Damn, that’s cool, I’d be tempted to figure out a way to get the mechanical numbers to show the amount of kw dispensed. Or I’d just replace them with an LCD if I couldn’t figure that out lol

 

[ArthurDOB]

I used a Shell network in Madison, WI, and had no problems with it. Charging on trips has been no problem at all, other than having some of the chargers being down while others were available. Looking forward to having my home charger installed on Monday.

 

[ArthurDOB]

I call my home charger a pump.

I recommend getting the ChagrePoint and Shell apps, rather than trying to use Ford Pass. Also set up Plug and Charge in the Ford Pass app for EA. I have only had plug and charge fail once in two years.

This is awesome! Where did you get this?

 

[Phil Martin]

I mostly charge at home but last weekend I did some extra driving and decided to stop by an EA location I have used a few times. It was full and when a station finally became available it was stuck on the previous user’s account. The screen was frozen on “Unplug your vehicle” and warnings about idle charges. I tried all the buttons on the screen and it wouldn’t re-set.

So I left and went to a nearby Chargepoint station I have also used before. That one gave me the orange flashing circle of lights on my charging port and a “Charging Station Fault.” Ended up going home where my car charged normally.

Just sharing my story. This has got to get better with more and more EVs on the road!

It hasn't gotten any better either.
At some point, something will give and EV sales slow because of these issues.

Perhaps the answer is the Tesla SuC but that's still a ways away.

 

[Garbone]

My one time using Shell recharge was about a week ago with Duke Energy in Saluda NC. My take is the app works well enough for activation if you have good cell coverage. I did not. I know the one I used was prepay and it took a bit of fiddling to load some money into it. Once it started charging it shut off at $10 as that is all I had loaded, really, it does not just bill your card on file? I was unable to load more money thru the app I had to call and the operator started the charger for me and I was able to finish the session.
Soooo......Not seemless.

 

[curtisfinney]

Is it possible to charge using a credit card payment, similar to gas stations? I'm planning a trip to an area that has a few Blink chargers - do I really need to load their app?

I’ve never tried any without their app. I don’t understand why your resistance to installing an app. With the app you get a history of your charge and payment. Once you have a given app setup, it’s all a tap from your phone and many allow you to add a wallet pass (not sure if Android has this feature). They all connect to a credit card and my experience so far, only ChargePoint has you load money in set amounts. I think it’s their way of keeping cars transaction costs down.

 

[curtisfinney]

My one time using Shell recharge was about a week ago with Duke Energy in Saluda NC. My take is the app works well enough for activation if you have good cell coverage. I did not. I know the one I used was prepay and it took a bit of fiddling to load some money into it. Once it started charging it shut off at $10 as that is all I had loaded, really, it does not just bill your card on file? I was unable to load more money thru the app I had to call and the operator started the charger for me and I was able to finish the session.
Soooo......Not seemless.

Based on poor reviews, I’ve avoided Shell and I’ve never been in a situation where it was my only choice.

 

[serspcv2003]

I have found it much less hassle, to just know what chargers I will encounter on my trip. Then I have the apps downloaded setup and in a folder tile on my phone. For most slow chargers it's free you just need an app to start the charger. The EA chargers I just plug in and it starts.

 

[luckie]

Does anyone have any suggestions as a method that usually works? Or, am I just unlucky, or stupid? I've watched the video for the Blue Oval network on the Ford site and it seems like a no-brainer. But, I'm not having that kind of success.

Tip#1: Use "A Better Route Planner" ABRP app and website for planning your roadtrips, and use Plugshare app and website to verify the chargers you intend to stop at are properly functioning recently. Ford Navigation is good but not perfect and it's less stressful to avoid errors. Also if you have an iPhone and are using Apple CarPlay in the Mach-E you can also even check on how many chargers are currently available before you arrive via the EA or Plugshare app in CarPlay on the car's big SYNC screen.

Tip#2: Use a Chargepoint account at a Chargepoint charger, and use a EVgo account at an EVgo charger. This eliminates the possibility that a 3rd party account, eg FordPass from Ford, is creating a problem that prevents you from using that company's charger network. The goal of Ford Pass is to serve as the single app for all networks but that doesn't mean it is perfect yet at achieving this goal.

Tip#3: Try to avoid using an "app" on your phone whenever possible. The phone, its battery, the cellular connection strength, and the flaky app itself, can be a problem that day at that location. That eliminates another step that can get in the way of success. EVgo and Chargepoint have physical RFID cards that you wave at the charger and it immediately gets to work. AND since you have a Mach-E that means you just plug-in at the Electrify America station and do nothing else (but smile as you watch the charger's screen). Don't touch your phone, do not use Ford Pass, heck rule of thumb is don't launch any apps whenever possible, only use apps when you just absolutely must.

Tip#4: As you experienced at the gas station, if a charger is not working, if you do have a cellular signal and can phone the charger company it can help a lot. They can reboot chargers like those stuck in a software loop or just misbehaving in general. Savvy drivers often report success at EA stations once the charger was rebooted by someone they called on the phone.

 

[PharaohHound138]

I don't think there are many EA locations around these parts (Ohio). It seems most are Charge Point, and Meijer seems to have mostly Shell Recharge and a few ChargePoints. There are Meijers all over in these parts and most seem to have DC chargers. There is one EA location on the west side of town, about 20 miles from me. There's one in the Dayton area, one on the southeast side of Toledo. 2 in Cincinnati area. Not
Sorry about the "pump" reference. I changed several to recharge stations, but apparently I missed one or two. Old habits die hard.

I am

 

[PharaohHound138]

I purchased a 2023 Mach-e three weeks ago. I have a home charging station that works fine. I have tried 4 different charging locations near my home to practice so when I make a trip out of town, I will have confidence that I can charge when I'm not near my own charger. So far, I have had very limited success with 4 different chargers. Are there any "best practices" or hints and tips to successfully charge at a public station. Here are my experiences:

First time: A Shell network L3 charger that is listed in FordPass and shows as In network. 2 charging stations. It is newly installed at a local gas station with free charging and showed multiple successful uses on PlugShare, I think.
Tried the first pump. Activated it with the App, plugged in no success. I tried with and without plugging in first several times. the app said it activated the pump.
Switched to the second pump. Similar results. One of the attendants in the gas station noticed me and came out to see if he could help. We tried plugging and unpugging. No joy. He called the help number on the charger and they reset it and had some kind of failure. The attendant suggested switching pumps and tried a credit card. It kind of started. I heard a clunk in the big control unit like I might expect to hear if you were flipping a switch on a high current electrical circuit. But, then it got a fault. The

 

[OhioTodd]

Thanks for the responses so far. I looked for things nearby at first. As I mentioned, the majority around here seem to be Charge Point (many are local L2 chargers) and Shell Recharge and a few others. Looking at the EA website, they seem to be well positioned for long distance driving, but fairly far apart. Around here, they seem to be roughly 100 miles apart (Dayton, Cincinnati, Toledo) are between 90 and 120 miles from here. I'll try drivin over to the one in Columbus and try it out and put a couple KWH in just to practice.

I call my home charger a pump.

I recommend getting the ChagrePoint and Shell apps, rather than trying to use Ford Pass. Also set up Plug and Charge in the Ford Pass app for EA. I have only had plug and charge fail once in two years.

That is awesome! I remember when I was a kid, I'm pretty sure it was Sinclair, almost always seemed to have some kind of giveaway promotion, like NFL glass cups, and things like that.

 

[OhioTodd]

Tip#1: Use "A Better Route Planner" ABRP app and website for planning your roadtrips, and use Plugshare app and website to verify the chargers you intend to stop at are properly functioning recently. Ford Navigation is good but not perfect and it's less stressful to avoid errors. Also if you have an iPhone and are using Apple CarPlay in the Mach-E you can also even check on how many chargers are currently available before you arrive via the EA or Plugshare app in CarPlay on the car's big SYNC screen.

Tip#2: Use a Chargepoint account at a Chargepoint charger, and use a EVgo account at an EVgo charger. This eliminates the possibility that a 3rd party account, eg FordPass from Ford, is creating a problem that prevents you from using that company's charger network. The goal of Ford Pass is to serve as the single app for all networks but that doesn't mean it is perfect yet at achieving this goal.

Tip#3: Try to avoid using an "app" on your phone whenever possible. The phone, its battery, the cellular connection strength, and the flaky app itself, can be a problem that day at that location. That eliminates another step that can get in the way of success. EVgo and Chargepoint have physical RFID cards that you wave at the charger and it immediately gets to work. AND since you have a Mach-E that means you just plug-in at the Electrify America station and do nothing else (but smile as you watch the charger's screen). Don't touch your phone, do not use Ford Pass, heck rule of thumb is don't launch any apps whenever possible, only use apps when you just absolutely must.

Tip#4: As you experienced at the gas station, if a charger is not working, if you do have a cellular signal and can phone the charger company it can help a lot. They can reboot chargers like those stuck in a software loop or just misbehaving in general. Savvy drivers often report success at EA stations once the charger was rebooted by someone they called on the phone.

Thanks for the observations and experiences. I have loaded and signed up for an account on Chargepoint. I have installed the app for EVgo and Shell Recharge, but haven't set up an accout yet. In my first set of tries, I figured it would probably cut the complexity, or give an alternative method if I had trouble with a given charger with the FordPass app, I'd have a back plan. WIth your experience, it sounds like it would just be better to use the specific app and/or their RFID card.

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