Don’t Do This Trick to Charge Your Car Faster, Tesla Warns
Tesla’s Superchargers are some of the fastest EV chargers around and also boast some of the highest satisfaction rates, but drivers always seem to want more.
For the past several weeks, a new hack has become a viral trend among the Tesla community: placing a wet or damp towel on the cable handle in order to cool it down on hot days and improve charging speeds.
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On teslamotorsclub.com, for instance, one Tesla Model S owner claimed to have increased the charging rate from 60 kW to 95 kW using this technique. Others online have reported being able to bring the charging rate back to 119 kW after it previously dropped to a mere 58 kW.
The automaker has finally responded with a post on X, urging owners to stop doing this.
Placing a wet cloth on Supercharger cable handles does not increase charging rates and interferes with temperature monitors creating risk of overheating or damage. Please refrain from doing this so our systems can run correctly, and true charging issues can be detected by our…
— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) July 25, 2024
According to Tesla, placing a wet or damp towel on the cable handle prevents its systems from operating properly and detecting true charging issues when they arise.
As InsideEVs pointed out, the hack is most useful on older Superchargers (V2), but it can also come in handy on the newer V3 units—even though they incorporate a cooled handle—especially with the Cybertruck which uses an 800V system instead of a 400V system.
