To Dot or Not To Dot...

 For the 2nd time in 3 years, I was in the middle of a forced move due to new owners evicting me so family members could move in. This happened at a time that could not have been worse. A recent $250 excursion to Costco, a long put off purchase of a few pieces of furniture which meant double the amount to store or get rid of, etc. 

I was simply not prepared. To complicate matters, I will be eliminating the time clock from my existence in less than 18 months which was when I was going to move anyway taking several months to evaluate and re evaluate what I was keeping, tossing and most importantly; where I would be going next. 

But all that went out the window so back to temporarily staying with relatives (the same one as before actually) while I search. This meant no home charging so again, on the lookout for reasonable charging alternatives. Like last time, I had run out my purchase incentives so getting a reasonable bang for my buck was a top priority along with convenience. 

So I put out my plight on Facebook and received a suggestion to sign up with Blue Dot which was a type of finance company that provided discounts for EV charging and also required an EV to sign up with them. But the key attraction was 30 cents/kwh for both EVgo and Chargepoint!

I figured I had nothing to lose so sure, why not? I would give them a try so signed up and deposited funds on the books and took off on a trip to Bend Oregon to see my niece get married. 

I had also signed up with EVCS on their $9.99 a month plan. The one charger that is somewhat local to me isn't very convenient since its in Tumwater which isn't too far away but far enough away that its nit common that I would be in the area. They have "stuff" but for the most part, we have the same "stuff" so why go there when it was quicker and shorter to go here. But EVCS has a monster presence in Oregon so thought it was a good idea to have them as a backup. 

So off we went on our 300 mile journey to the Eastern Side of the Cascades with... 75% charge.

A bit down the road, we were looking ok for our first stop down the road at The Ridgefield Cafe  to fuel us and the car. 

For whatever reason, Ryland only eats hard boiled eggs so I got 4 eggs over easy. This charge went only to 85% and used most of my allowance from EVCS (9.99 a month for first 30 kwh then 39 cents/kwh after.  A fair deal. 

Plusses here; Service was fast but it was a Thursday so was expecting it to be. We plugged in, ordered, ate and were back at the car in 30 mins 42 seconds gaining 22.5 KWH. A near perfect charge stop on both ends! 

So off we went and after that big breakfast, I needed a nap. Keep in mind, we were on the road by 9:30 AM but I had gone to bed at 4 AM but I had it covered! 

Next stop; Mill City Oregon a place I had used before on our 10 Fall Hike at Silver Falls State Park which I also blogged but that was mostly pix with only a dash of EV added. But this would be the first test of the Blue Dot app. We arrived and as always, we had our choice of 4 of 4 stations. Now you know why I like this place! 

I launched the app, plugged in and hit charge now and...nothing. App kept spinning. I then realized I had very poor cell service here. Since it was a Chargepoint, using NFC would have automatically activated my Chargepoint app and I would not have gotten the discount. Mind you the other reason I like this location is off peak rates are 30 cents/kwh but it was way too early in the day for that.  

So after an extensive back and forth with chat support complicated by cell service bouncing between 5G, 4G and...well ZERO G, it was getting rather time consuming and we were in full sun and it was pretty warm. I finally gave up, and decided to chance what little range I had left (just under 40 miles) and move to the next station EVCS that was just under a mile away.  Now that I think of it, there were other reasons why I liked this stop. Needless to say, my first impression of Blue Dot wasn't good. 

So 2 mins later, we plug into the lone EVCS station and it pretty much works exactly as advertised. I also notice I am back on 5G... but even that didn't matter as the store across the parking lot had wi fi so I was covered either way. 

Again we were in full sun but the store had a full variety of food so ice cream it was! This proved to be a disastrous decision as we were walking back, I was stepping over this 10 inch curb only to realize about halfway over that it was actually a 12 inch curb and I literally fell flat on my face throwing my phone onto the pavement in the process. The phone not only survived but came out of it without a scratch. My face wasn't nearly so lucky. 

 The charge gave us 21.36 kwh costing $5.41 putting a total cost on the trip of $15.40 after adding in the $9.99 subscription cost. 

This was more than enough to get us to Bend which also had a few Blue Dot "enabled" stations we could try. The location downtown near the river we checked out twice in our 5 days there but it was generally full of Teslas using adapters so not much going on there for us but the Hyundai dealership was a few miles closer to our Air BnB and it was always available. 

So I pull in and there are 2 stations, one blocked by a dealership gasser (weird...) but the other one was open and naturally its the handicap spot but... plug is a plug so I launch the app, plug in and hit start charge with a small sense of dread and the car started charging so fast I can't say it took more than 3 seconds!  Impression level is on the rise! 

Did I mention you get a sign up bonus making your first charge pretty much free with a $10 credit covering the first 33 kwh?  Made me wish  I had run the SOC down more but I wasn't sure how much driving I would be doing and didn't want to charge up too much either so only grabbed 25.11 kwh in 37 mins. 

But that was more than I wanted as Blue Dot doesn't have termination of charge in the app so it must be done at the station...something I have no experience doing. I always terminated thru the Chargepoint app.  So I attempted to stop the charge but sunlight combined with a less than responsive touch screen made it very difficult to stop,  Several times I got the stop charge button to appear but couldn't activate it. Eventually a salesman noticed me and came out and was able to get the charge stopped but even he had issues. 

As it turned out, the location was nearly perfect for the many events we attended being pretty much in the center of things sort of. This was my first trip to Bend since the mid 90's and I easily say I didn't recognize much simply because IT WASN'T HERE! The Bend I remember was surrounded by farms and 90% of the town was within a mile of the river.  The Bend we were in now was a sprawling network of housing developments, shopping enclaves and restaurants connected by the multitude of roundabouts that has transformed the town of Bend not only into of city of 100,000+ people but now they had a "metro" area exceeding a quarter million people! 

Over the next few days we charged 17.53 kwh for $5.25, and 10.01 kwh for $3.00

On the last charge, we were doing a wind up of the weekend celebration surrounding my niece's wedding and only wanted enough charge to be able to plug into the Air BnB at 10 amps 120 volts using the modified EVSE I got so many years ago. It was after 8 PM and the dealership was abandoned. So plugged in, launched Blue Dot and started charging away. Although the place "seemed" closed, the lobby lights were all on and I had to pee so I walked in, used the bathroom and walked out and there was obviously no one in the building. By now, it was getting pretty dark so wondering if someone forgot to lock up? 

Either way, when I reached the SOC I wanted, I noticed that the screen had been cleaned and now the touch response was perfect! It was also after sundown so guessed that helped. 

BUT... the other thing that caught my eye was off peak charging was only 21 cents/kwh and I thought I would be paying much less than 30 cents/kwh since the Blue Dot app mentioned 20% off charging rates so 20% off the 30 cents? That would be awesome! 

But, not to be. Blue Dot still charged me 30 cents/kwh so moral of that story is check Chargepoint pricing for a possible lower off peak rate. FYI; I don't think I have seen any station in WA do this but it seems to be common in OR. 

The next morning, we finally got out of town after eating a MONSTER breakfast at a great local restaurant in Bend. Decided to take the more direct route home up 97 and crossing the Cascades on highway 26 thru the Mt Hood National Forest. 

Was hoping to make it to Vancouver but personal needs dictated an earlier stop so it was the Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Hall near Portland instead. Several Chargepoints that were immediately responsive to the Blue Dot app. These stations were new or "new looking"  and the touchscreens worked easily. 

This would not be the case for the station closest to my temporary home; Fast Fuel in Olympia. At just over a mile away, I thought it would be a great place to charge but there are two stations but only one appears on the Blue Dot app and it went thru 4 days of being off line for some reason necessitating a Charge Point charge at least once.  During the time it was not communicating with Blue Dot the stations were unused and functional thru Chargepoint so....

But these stations were older and the touchscreens beat up so I quickly realized my only option to terminate the charge was flipping the breaker which was conveniently located near by and unlocked. I did check thru the Charge point app and both stations were off line for only a few minutes at most.  Obviously, this would be a problem if someone else is charging on the other station. 

Plusses; 

Cheap especially in WA where the better prices are 10-15 cents  per kwh higher w/o a subscription plan.

Availability;  Having access to EVgo and Chargepoint gives make finding a location  easy

I should add that the Blue Dot app provides discounts and perks covering all kinds of other things but I have not really looked into those and I will unlikely be using any of them as I have those perks thru other financial vehicles so... 

Negatives; 

Interface. Blue Dot has no control of the station thru the app.  This is an obvious problem since the entire process has to rely on cellular service. Chargepoint uses NFC so they are perfectly operational in cellphone dead zones. Blue Dot wont work. 

Money; Some see this as negative but I don't.  Chargepoint currently just charges my credit card for every charge I get.  I have no balance on their books, etc.  This is not how I remember Chargepoint working in the past but that is how it works now.  EVCS is the same way. 

Recommendations;

At 30 cents/kwh if you rely on public DC charging frequently, this is a very good deal but doesn't eliminate the need for a backup charge plan as my trip proved. I started with $100 on my account and still have $81.57 left so it will be a while before my Blue Dot adventure ends but I think its a worthy app to investigate. Some have reported great success will no issues so its very dependent on the network you have to use.