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Putting a Wet Towel on a Tesla Supercharger Handle Gets Faster Charging Speeds
- TomatoCo 2y agoThe article makes it sound like this sensor is only to avoid the handle itself heating up to the point that it would burn the user.
- mitthrowaway2 2y agoIt might be. Often the most restrictive thermal limit most products face is for touch safety (50 ~ 80 C, depending on the material's thermal conductivity and the extent of contact). For a handle that will be quite restrictive, because you'll be firmly gripping it. The materials themselves would probably survive substantially higher temperatures before failure. I'd guess that the first to fail would probably be adhesives and plastics, but they'd be engineered to survive hot days in direct sun, even if the handle gets too hot to touch safely. (Disclaimer: I don't work for Tesla, and did not design the supercharger cabling, this is educated speculation).
- advisedwang 2y agoIs this just tricking a sensor into thinking it is cooler, or actually keeping the parts that matter cooler? If its the latter this is a great trick. If its the former, it's a hazard.
- malfist 2y agoConsidering the super chargers only have the single temperature sensor in the termination point, this is certainly a fire hazard. However, it does raise the question if a shaded plugin spot, or rain could also present a similar fire hazard.
- bryanlarsen 2y agoAccording to the article, there are also multiple temperature sensors inside the car that can trigger lowered current.
- vipa123 2y agoNext week the article will be "Tesla battery fires linked to use of wet towel during charging"
- seanhunter 2y agoThat classic combination of water with electric current, and tricking a safety sensor to boot. What could possibly go wrong?
- TheTxT 2y agoIt’s only 250 kilowatts of energy, so nothing really.
- s0rce 2y agopedantically, 250 kW of power
- Reason077 2y agoNothing pedantic about it. We live in an era where people ought to understand the difference between power (measured in watts) and energy (measured in joules, or calories, or watt-hours). But for some reason this is widely misunderstood, resulting in frequent errors and poor decision making. The Times, a generally-reputable UK newspaper, once published a front page headline declaring that electric vehicles would require the equivalent of 20 new nuclear plants to be built in the UK. None of their fact checkers noticed that the entire article was based on an error that confused GWh (energy) with GW (power).
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- phyzome 2y agoAs long as the units are correct and people understand those, I'm not too worried about "energy" vs "power".
- Rinzler89 2y agoMethinks safety sensors shouldn't be designed to be so easily fooled.
- noodlesUK 2y agoI’d be seriously concerned about the risk of water ingress, but I figure it would be much safer to just have a little fan blasting the thing.
- outop 2y agoA fan wouldn't cool down a dry plastic handle. Fans cool you down because you are wet and the air flow makes the water on you evaporate a bit quicker.
- recursive 2y agoThese things have to run in downpours of rain. A wet towel is nothing.
- OJFord 2y agoIt's different, it's sort of very shallow submersion. IPX2 is the rating for angular rainfall; immersion (admittedly up to a meter of pressure, as it were, not just a towel wrap) is IPX7. I think certainly you could have a 'rainproof' product not withstand a wet towel.
- dghlsakjg 2y agoI assure you that a wet towel is nothing like immersion. Immersion has significant pressure differentials, which is why IP ratings factor time as well. If you don't believe me, wipe your computer down with a wet towel. Still works right? Now submerge it, even briefly, and observe its functioning.
- pfdietz 2y agoAll these people being wet blankets on this idea. I'm shocked, shocked.
- StevenXC 2y agoIt's just a little spark of inspiration.
- mark242 2y agoDo you think it's possible to get the placement of the towel correct if you've gotten your finger chopped off by your Cybertruck?
- trsohmers 2y agoThis is a lesson that like all good Hitchhikers, you should always carry a towel.
- justahuman74 2y agoOP should have posted this on Towel Day
- renewiltord 2y agoInteresting that the V3 superchargers use a liquid-cooled cable. Without knowing anything specific, this implies that maintaining cable temperature is the objective, not just the handle. That means that the handle sensor proxies the temperature of the entire cable. I would imagine they measured the heat-dissipation site where the coolant flows to to be where they measure the temperature for regulation, rather than the handle. All quite interesting.
- SmellTheGlove 2y agoThe handle is probably the hottest point. There’s a mechanical connection there, so more resistance. At least, I think that’s the case.
- ssl-3 2y agoJust because they advertise "liquid-cooled cable" doesn't mean that the primary intended beneficiary of the cooling effect is the wire-bits. It could instead be the handle-bits. Both of these bits are constituent parts of the greater assembly commonly called a "charging cable," which includes [at least] both wire and connectors, and sometimes a handle.
- renewiltord 2y agoIt could mean that, yes. Do you know what it actually means? I am curious to know.
- ssl-3 2y agoNope. I am also pretty far removed from Tesla's engineering folks.
- roflchoppa 2y agoReminds me of a watercooled tig welder setup. Probably a market for setups that have water cooling jackets.
- TOMDM 2y agoFrom a safety design standpoint, surely multiple redundant temperature sensors is the only way to go right? The user might "life-hack" the cable into acting like a fuse with it in the handle, having it halfway down the cable risks complications like that portion of the cable lying in a puddle etc. With good enough coverage, if they can all be kept cool, the cable likely is as well.