First EV, first Tesla...Using a Tesla wall charger, I received three “charging interrupted” notifications on my Tesla mobile app last night. Each time I disengaged and reinserted the charger. After the third time, charged the rest of the night with no interruptions. I’ve owned my Tesla Y for a week and put about 500 miles on it. Have not had any prior home charging issues. Before last evening’s charge, drove the Y hard from Vail to Denver. Depleted the battery to 20% and charged to 90%. Are charging interruptions normal? I had the wall charger installed by an electrician. Required another sub panel. Glad to be part of the Tesla family. Thanks in advance.
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Charging Interrupted
- Thread starter Teach
- Start date
Charging interruptions are not normal. There are many possible reasons for an interruption.
What lights are flashing in the Wall Connector when these interruptions occur? There are many troubleshooting conditions corresponding to these lights in the Wall Connector Installation Manual.
- Power glitch(es) to your house.
- Excessive voltage drop in your charging circuit (leading the car to believe there is a poor connection in your charging circuit. This is a safety mechanism in Tesla cars)
- Wall Connector programmed to an excessive high charging current (not all electricians are good a setting these rotary switches, or even read the installation guide fully)
- Wire gauge to Wall Connector too small for programmed charging current (actually the same problem as #3)
- Loose contact in electrical circuit.
- Intermittent ground fault in your charging circuit
- Intermittent ground connection in your charging circuit.
What lights are flashing in the Wall Connector when these interruptions occur? There are many troubleshooting conditions corresponding to these lights in the Wall Connector Installation Manual.
We have two Model 3’s and a single charger. Generally my wife can plug in and charge with zero issue. Conversely my car will often (but not always) post 6 or more “charging interrupted” notifications in a night. Usually it restarts on its own. But some days I wake up and it has not fully charged. It’s a bummer and so far Tesla has had no answers.
I am charging on a NEMA 14-30 that was installed last month and I am using a 2nd mobile connector. The installation looks clean and everything was inspected and the permit approved.
Being cautious I set it to 22 amps from Day 1 and it's been charging since then with no problems. I've seen the voltage start from 240V then go down to about 234 then go back up to 237-238 sometimes. The first few nights I stayed up until charging completed to ensure everything was ok. Piece of mind was reached
but an hour ago I got a charging interrupted for the first time.
1. Do I need to worry yet? What should I be on the look out for?
2. I would expect some level of warmth is expected from the UMC and conduit right?
Thanks in advance for any insight.
Being cautious I set it to 22 amps from Day 1 and it's been charging since then with no problems. I've seen the voltage start from 240V then go down to about 234 then go back up to 237-238 sometimes. The first few nights I stayed up until charging completed to ensure everything was ok. Piece of mind was reached
but an hour ago I got a charging interrupted for the first time.1. Do I need to worry yet? What should I be on the look out for?
2. I would expect some level of warmth is expected from the UMC and conduit right?
Thanks in advance for any insight.
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I doubt there is anything wrong with your home charging circuit. The afternoon thunderstorms that came through the area of N. Virginia and DC today 7/14/21 knocked out power to 1000s of homes. As power is restored there may be brief interruptions in service. Some interruptions are a fraction of a second but may cause the Tesla charging session to get interrupted.
It is normal for the charging connector, charging cable and the Mobile Connector chassis and power plug adapter to all feel warm to the touch while charging.
Also, the Mobile Connector chassis (the electronics unit) needs to be properly supported/mounted to the wall. You don't want to leave the Mobile Connector chassis hanging supported by the only power plug adapter and the receptacle. (Tesla sells a Cable Organizer that includes a wall bracket for the Mobile Connector chassis. There are similar kits sold on Amazon or you can improvise your own means of supporting the Mobile Connector chassis.)
It is normal for the charging connector, charging cable and the Mobile Connector chassis and power plug adapter to all feel warm to the touch while charging.
Also, the Mobile Connector chassis (the electronics unit) needs to be properly supported/mounted to the wall. You don't want to leave the Mobile Connector chassis hanging supported by the only power plug adapter and the receptacle. (Tesla sells a Cable Organizer that includes a wall bracket for the Mobile Connector chassis. There are similar kits sold on Amazon or you can improvise your own means of supporting the Mobile Connector chassis.)
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Watts_Up
Well-Known Member
I guess you have this problem occuring already few time and you have been able to reproduce the same charging interrupted issue?
1. Did you noticed any heat by touching the plug or smelling burning?
There is a little thermistor inside the Tesla plug to protect from overheating, which could damage the plug by melting and create a short.
So one possibility is that your wall plug might not be correctly inserted and the plug overheat a little bit, or there is a bad connection with one of the pins of the plug.
This could happen if your mobile charger is suspended under the plug, and the fix is to use a small brace to hold it, or even use a bicycle water bottle holder.
2. To determine if your mobile charger is the origine of the problem or if the plug on the back of your cat is the problem, use a public L2 charger to check if you get or not the same issue.
I have an older Model 3 and there was a recall to replace the pins inside the car plug, I never had any problem however my plugs have been replaced.
Note: Some L2 chargers have a 2 or 3 hours charging time limit, especially during the day, this was the only case I got a charging interrupted alert.
3. When charging, if you turn off the circuit breaker and turn it back, does the car starts charging again as it should, unless you reached your charge limit or your end of charging?
1. Did you noticed any heat by touching the plug or smelling burning?
There is a little thermistor inside the Tesla plug to protect from overheating, which could damage the plug by melting and create a short.
So one possibility is that your wall plug might not be correctly inserted and the plug overheat a little bit, or there is a bad connection with one of the pins of the plug.
This could happen if your mobile charger is suspended under the plug, and the fix is to use a small brace to hold it, or even use a bicycle water bottle holder.
2. To determine if your mobile charger is the origine of the problem or if the plug on the back of your cat is the problem, use a public L2 charger to check if you get or not the same issue.
I have an older Model 3 and there was a recall to replace the pins inside the car plug, I never had any problem however my plugs have been replaced.
Note: Some L2 chargers have a 2 or 3 hours charging time limit, especially during the day, this was the only case I got a charging interrupted alert.
3. When charging, if you turn off the circuit breaker and turn it back, does the car starts charging again as it should, unless you reached your charge limit or your end of charging?
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I do have it hanging and I bought the Tesla cable organizer. The problem is that the outlet is surface mounted in the garage. In order to get the adapter into the wall bracket, I would have to bend the adapter cable back over the outlet for it to reach the bracket. ....Unless there's something clean I could do to raise up the bracket.
As stated, this happened once, today.
1. There is no burning smell. The chassis is warm but not hot. Also, the adapter plug is properly seated into the outlet and I don't unplug it -no need.
2. If it happens again, I'll give that try
3. Er, I am not comfortable with just doing that while the car is charging.
Watts_Up
Well-Known Member
I agree, I have in fact a safety power switch next to my plug, something not required but recommend
if you cannot see if the breaker might have be turned on by someone when you are working on your installation,
because my EV plug is installed in the garage of a building far away from my circuit breaker.
What I tested was to turn off the safety switch (or the circuit breaker) while the car was not plugged.
Then I inserted the charging plug to the car. And then I turned on the safety switch (or the circuit breaker).
The charging in fact started progressively from 0 Amp to 24 Amp.
Note: I wanted to test if the car would restart charging after a surge, something the car did indeed.
I was reading a posting where people were complaining that the car was not charging if there
was no power when the car starting time was reached. In some countries, like in the UK, you might
get a special meter with reduce rate at night. But the meter starting time is not always constant
and could be usually around 1:00 am, or some time later like 1:30 am. I don't know if those users
have been able to solve the problem but it seems that it was a Tesla issue in UK,
or maybe I misunderstood the problem those users encountered.
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See the photos of the Mobile Connector chassis holder on the Tesla store site. The Mobile Connector chassis holder can be used with the power plug oriented up or down (see photos #2, #3).
Cable Organizer
If that won't work then post a photo, someone will have a suggestion for a clean way to support the Mobile Connector chassis.
Here's what my surface-mounted 14-30 looks like. It's either mount directly to the wall -thereby bending the adapter cable - or use some type of riser that doesn't look tacky
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What I've seen my electrician do is use a stiff piece of scrap wire to temporarily support a connection to the old service panel. This was a 30A bypass that enabled me to use some essential 15A circuits while the new service panel was being installed. What I would do in this case is use a bungee cord hooked to or run behind the conduit that captures the bottom of the Mobile Connector chassis where the charging cord exits the Mobile Connector. The bungee cord or similar (you could use a Velcro strap) will relieve the strain of the weight of the Mobile Connector and the charging cord from the power plug and the receptacle.
Long term, for a neater installation, I would cut a small piece off the end of a 2X4 that matches the depth of the surface mount box with the receptacle. Account for the thickness of the base of the wall mount bracket so the power cord will hang straight down. After screwing the 2X4 spacer to the stud (placed in the area of the shadow of the Mobile Connector chassis in the photo) I would paint the wood spacer to match the wall. Then screw the wall mount bracket to the spacer. The wall mount and Mobile Connector chassis will appear to free float off of the wall, the spacer will not be visible.
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