This is another technical charging story, for those interested.

Sometimes I go out of my way to find some weird charger to try it out. You wouldn’t normally bother with this.

On PlugShare, I noticed a charger in the car park of Terrigal Hotel. I found it easily enough and parked. It requires you to bring your own type 2 cable (which I now happen to have). I plugged it in okay, but bringing, uncoiling and connecting your own cable is a pain, compared to other chargers with a cable provided, which you simply plug into your car.

For this charger, I had to download a new app, "UpCharge", and set up an account. The app is pretty bad, not native iOS, not great UI. Nothing seemed to be happening. It took a few minutes to figure out that the hardware wasn’t providing any power. I managed to find the circuit breaker switches at the bottom of the unit, and turn them on. The the app eventually showed a `Start` button.

It’s supposed to charge $0.30 per kWh. But the app seems to indicate a $2 flat fee as well. I couldn’t figure out the costing. But at least it was finally working. 11kW, the maximum AC power that our Tesla Model 3 can take.

After a few kWh of charging, I had to leave for my appointment with the car wash. I hit `Stop` in the UpCharge app, but it just showed an error screen. After a few attempts, the charger unit still wouldn’t release my cable. In desperation, I turned off the breaker switches. Then it released. What a pain.

I had spent so long sorting this out, that I didn't actually have time to go into the hotel to be a customer while waiting for the charge.

I re-coiled my heavy-ish type 2 cable, packed it into my boot, and drove off.

My takeaways:

1. Terrigal Hotel thank you for installing EV chargers. But these particular ones are a pain. Please get ones that include their own cable. I think you'll get far more customers using them, and increased business.

2. I would only use this current charger if I was desperate. On the plus side, it’s unlikely to be in use (because it’s a pain), so I can probably always get in.