Car won't charge? Check your breaker box

[Liz G]

Last night we had some really bad thunderstorms. So to be on the safe side unplugged my UMC from the wall and didn't do my normal overnite charge. When I got up this mornimg, I went out and plugged Lithie in to start charging here. Unfortunately, when I plugged her I got the red ring of death. Now I'd been worried about s happening as I'd noticed my chargng cble had been getting hot lately and I thought "sh@$ my cables gone bad" So I unplug it from the wall and take off e adapter. Too my surprise it looks perfectly fine. So wi a confused look I put it back on and plug it in. Still nohting. "Sh!#!"

So I pick up the phone and call Matt at the service center. I explain to him what's going on and says bring Lithie and her charger downm to e service center and ey'll take a look at it. So I hang up and get ready to run down there. But first I have to do my hair. While I'm getting ready I start thinking, wondering if it could be my outlet. Especially, since we had such a bad storm last night.

So, I call Matt again and he suggests I try plugging the charging cable into a 110. I switchi adpters and sure enou I get the green light. Awesome! So we're thinking it's just the adapter. Then I ask him if I would get the red light if e outletbwas bad and he says maybe. So inking aboutne storm, I head down stairs to see if the breaker got tripped last night. Opening up e breaker box I se all the litle switches are still in the on possition. OK at's not it. But on a whim I flip the one for the circuit for e outlet we use to charge Lithie off and on then head upstairs. Not really expecting anything, I change adapters and plug it in. Wala, I get green. Looks like my breaker did get tripped last night even though it still loked like it was on.

The long and short of it is, if you ever get the red ring off death, check and make sure it's not your breaker first before calling.

 

[Doug_G]

A lot of breakers don't flip all the way to the "off" position when they fire; they just move slightly from the "on" position.

 

[yobigd20]

Is your outlet interior or exterior? Seems a bit fishy to me why it would trip if nothing was plugged into it and it was interior. If it was exterior did water short it out? I'd just be a bit cautious when a 50amp breaker trips for no good reason. I've had power go out during thunderstorms before but not random breakers tripping.

 

[mknox]

A lot of breakers don't flip all the way to the "off" position when they fire; they just move slightly from the "on" position.

Most breakers will trip with the handle in the center position. You have to move completely to off then on to re-set. The OP's scenario makes me think the breaker may be bad and should be replaced. It sounds like only one of the two legs opened (hence the red ring on the car). If the breaker tripped cleanly, power should have been off, and plugging in to the car should result in nothing happening.

 

[FlasherZ]

Most breakers will trip with the handle in the center position. You have to move completely to off then on to re-set. The OP's scenario makes me think the breaker may be bad and should be replaced. It sounds like only one of the two legs opened (hence the red ring on the car). If the breaker tripped cleanly, power should have been off, and plugging in to the car should result in nothing happening.

I was thinking about this myself, but that shouldn't be happening that way. My UMC is with my wife & the MS at the moment or I'd whip up a quick test to confirm.

As far as I know you will get a red ring if there is no wall power and you connect the adapter, but again a quick test isn't possible because my wife stole^H^H^H^H^Htook the Tesla today.

If one of the two poles tripped, then there would be 0V between L1 and L2 because one of the two wouldn't be connected and so the UMC should never power up. Unless the UMC steals a bit of leakage current from the EGC (ground) -- a big no-no even for timers and occupancy sensors nowadays -- there would be no way for it to know that only one pole was connected. The car only detects voltage when the contactor closes on the UMC, so a red ring for an error condition would have to be transmitted by the UMC and assumed by the car in this case, since the contactor would never close.

 

[mknox]

I was thinking about this myself, but that shouldn't be happening that way. My UMC is with my wife & the MS at the moment or I'd whip up a quick test to confirm.

Hmmm... I'll have to try myself. I had a bad UMC a while back and it did absolutely nothing when I slid it in and out of the charge port. The port just stayed white and wouldn't lock. I figured that is what an un-powered cord would do.