EVEats Articles How to read charger details
How to read charger details
An EVEats location page is a short record: a name, an address, a charging network, a count of charging positions, and any notes a reviewer has published. It is enough to decide whether the stop is worth opening in the network app. It is not a live charger screen.
The name
The name usually tells you the host and the kind of charging, if you read it instead of skimming it. "Denver, CO - Pontiac Street - Tesla Supercharger" is a Tesla DC fast site. "Four Seasons Hotel Denver - Tesla Destination" is Level 2 at a hotel. "Kroger King Soopers 124 (Glendale, CO)" on Electrify America is a fast charger in a grocery lot. "FORT COLLINS FIREHOUSE ALLEY" on ChargePoint is a small downtown site, two positions in the catalog, and almost certainly not your highway stop.
Rivian is the ambiguous one. The catalog provider is Rivian for both Adventure Network DC fast sites and slower Waypoints. "Idaho Springs, CO" at 2325 Miner Street does not, by itself, tell you which. Open the Rivian app or your car's app and look at the power and the plug before you exit I-70 for it.
The provider
The provider is the network that operates the post, or "Independent / Non-Networked" when the catalog has no network. You need that name because the stall you can see from the road may require that network's account, a particular plug, or an adapter. Tesla, Electrify America, EVgo, ChargePoint, Blink, and Rivian are not interchangeable just because they all appear as pins. A non-Tesla parked at a Supercharger still has to be on the list of sites Tesla has opened, and it may need an adapter. EVEats does not show that status. The network app does.
Charging positions
Charging positions are a count, not a speed. When the U.S. Department of Energy record is imported, Level 1 ports, Level 2 ports, and DC fast ports are added together. Twelve positions at a site named Supercharger is, in practice, twelve fast stalls, because that is what those sites are. Twelve positions at a workplace ChargePoint can be twelve Level 2 cords. Four positions at a King Soopers EVgo site is a small fast-charge row, not a large one. Use the count to judge whether the site can absorb a busy afternoon. Use the name, not the count, to judge whether it is fast.
A big count at a bad host is still a bad meal stop. The Phil Long site on Motor City Drive in Colorado Springs has 10 positions in the catalog and sits at an auto mall. Colorado Mills has fewer Electrify America positions than that and a food court. If you are eating, pick the food court.
The address, and what is not on the page
The address is where the catalog says the pins are. It can be a range ("101-149 Richmond Avenue" in Pueblo is the downtown parking garage) or a mall's main street. Follow the pin in the app, not a guess about which door. The page does not show:
- Connector type. Common ones you will meet are J1772 for many Level 2 posts, NACS (the Tesla plug, now the North American standard on newer cars), and CCS for a lot of other DC fast posts. Your car has one inlet. The adapter in the trunk is either with you or it is not.
- Kilowatts. A 50-kilowatt post and a 250-kilowatt post can look the same in a position count.
- Price, idle fees, or whether the site is open to your brand of car.
- Live availability. A catalog row from the Department of Energy can be busy, broken, or iced in.
- Hours of the restroom or the restaurant. Those are not charger hours.
Notes sit under the charger facts because they are the part a driver can add: the restroom, the food, the door that was locked. How those notes get published is covered in how EVEats notes and moderation work. How long each kind of plug takes is covered in how long EV charging takes.