Got screwed by a charger 1st time... Thankfully, no big deal

merkurmaniac · Aug 1, 2017

So I drove to the woodlands, and put the car on a chargepoint level 2 charger and rode the bike I brought with me to my sister's house a mile away. About 4 hours later, I went back and the charger said:

4.4 hrs, 0.00KWhr

"Oh crap!" I opened the door, and yep, 17 miles range. I redid the process and it said that it was charging.... I rode my bike back to my sister's in shame and told her that it would be 9:52 pm before my car would be charged. Thankfully, I would probably have spent that same amount of time there anyways, but it was a really uncool surprise. So what happened ?

The next day, I called chargepoint, but they had no real info since it was a free to charge session, they don't gather info. He read from the manual online and said that I am supposed to set the brake (I know I have never pulled the brake lever once since I have had the car.) Also, the car should be powered off and locked, he said. I am thinking that I most likely parked the car, but didn't hit the "Start/power" button to turn the car off, before I plugged in the charger. Doh ! Bummer of a way to learn. Oh, and MyFordMobile kinda sucks. How can I refresh the data without logging out and then back in ? How do yall do it ?

Richard

jmueller065 · Aug 1, 2017

merkurmaniac said:
So I drove to the woodlands, and put the car on a chargepoint level 2 charger and rode the bike I brought with me to my sister's house a mile away. About 4 hours later, I went back and the charger said:

4.4 hrs, 0.00KWhr

"Oh crap!" I opened the door, and yep, 17 miles range. I redid the process and it said that it was charging.... I rode my bike back to my sister's in shame and told her that it would be 9:52 pm before my car would be charged. Thankfully, I would probably have spent that same amount of time there anyways, but it was a really uncool surprise. So what happened ?

The next day, I called chargepoint, but they had no real info since it was a free to charge session, they don't gather info. He read from the manual online and said that I am supposed to set the brake (I know I have never pulled the brake lever once since I have had the car.) Also, the car should be powered off and locked, he said. I am thinking that I most likely parked the car, but didn't hit the "Start/power" button to turn the car off, before I plugged in the charger. Doh ! Bummer of a way to learn. Oh, and MyFordMobile kinda sucks. How can I refresh the data without logging out and then back in ? How do yall do it ?

Richard

1st: Install the chargepoint app on your phone--you can check the charging that way as well (and you can initiate a session from your phone)

2nd: To refresh the data on the latest my ford mobile app: drag the screen down (that seems to be the new UI for a lot of apps for them to "refresh")

You could have checked both My Ford Mobile or the Charge Point apps long before you waited for 4 hours (you can even setup notifications in both to let you know the vehicle is fully charged)

EVA · Aug 1, 2017

Oh that is a bummer, not having the car charge.

I find that the swipe thing doesn't work most of the time on my iPhone (just call me stupid, I can't see to get the bottom up swipe to work for any app). Normally when you open the app, it will refresh. The app will also tell you at the bottom how long ago it was updated. And the home screen shows you how much charge is in the car, with status, charging, unplugged, fully charged.

One other way to force a refresh is to open the Vehicle Locator (menu at the bottom of the home screen, opens up a long list of options, starting with Trip Planner), and at the bottom left corner there is a circle arrow thing with Refresh at the bottom. Touching that absolutely forces a full refresh of the data, not just location. You can also see the charge status just above the refresh icon, and % charge in a blue box to the right.

Yeah - Chargepoint can be weird sometimes. Their tech support is horrible, and they clearly gave you a bunch of wrong information. Their biggest problem, they don't own most of the stations, they only manage how they are used. So they really can't fix a problem.

WattsUp · Aug 2, 2017

I don't think it is required for the car to be off to charge.

Once plugged in, you can't shift out of Park, but you can turn the car on/off all you want. It will keep charging.

kalel14 · Aug 2, 2017

The car also doesn't need to be locked. I start the charge, the light ring lights up, then I lock the doors.

davideos · Aug 2, 2017

Every once and awhile I've had a similar issue. Something happens where the car doesn't charge...for whatever reason. I've had it happen at work and at home...although rarely at home as I have a leviton 6.6kw charger. At work, I'd use the 120V charger that came with the car. 99 times out of 100, the issue was with the 120V connection. The 120V socket was wearing out from over-use

and the connection was getting intermittent. However, I was always ensure the car was charging when I left...either looking at the charge ring or checking the app. That way, if something ever happened during the charge process, I'd get a text or an e-mail....these are 2 of the 3 options in the myfordmobile app/online tool. The 3rd is a push notification to your phone if you have the app installed.