It's a concern, but I've felt the conductors of my plug after drawing 16A for hours and they are near room temperature.
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Nice pictures.Here’s a few shots of what a premium receptacle does when it faults (not the HD $.79 variety, keep that in mind when you’re passing 16 amp’s through your car charging on successive nights...Again keep that fire insurance paid up...
PS there was only a few amps load on this, prior to when it failed...
No this was in my own home, and was installed by myself. Nothing was loose, and no insulation under the clamping screw. The problem was the proximity of grounding yolk, that’s pointed out in by the picture with the pen and the new design of that’s same manufacturer’s heavy duty receptacle. The insulation melted back because of the heat produced by the Heat of the fault, which I’m attributing to the the clamping force of the hot on the plug prong, which had to be cut off as it had welded itself together inside the receptacle and that created the heat. I posted it because of the amount of time between install and it’s ultimate failure. Anyone charging their car via a 120/or 240 volt receptacle need to use industrial rated receptacles, to help avoid this situation. PS every thing was pigtailed, not daisy chained...Nice pictures.
I am guessing that the screw was not torqued down enough or that insulation was caught under the screw. This causes heating obviously.
This is a great example of why quality work is so critical and why I don’t recommend charging EV’s on daisy chained 120v circuits. Too many possible locations for failure!
It is also a good example of why we require electrical connections to be inside fire resistant boxes
I am so glad it was not more serious!
Interesting.No this was in my own home, and was installed by myself. Nothing was loose, and no insulation under the clamping screw. The problem was the proximity of grounding yolk, that’s pointed out in by the picture with the pen and the new design of that’s same manufacturer’s heavy duty receptacle. The insulation melted back because of the heat produced by the Heat of the fault, which I’m attributing to the the clamping force of the hot on the plug prong, which had to be cut off as it had welded itself together inside the receptacle and that created the heat. I posted it because of the amount of time between install and it’s ultimate failure. Anyone charging their car via a 120/or 240 volt receptacle need to use industrial rated receptacles, to help avoid this situation. PS every thing was pigtailed, not daisy chained...
Interesting.
I don’t know what caused this heat for sure. I would first suspect it was due to a loose connection from the wire to the screw, but as you point out it could also be an issue between the plug blade and the clamp in the receptacle.
With these photos I can’t tell which (and even if inspected in person I don’t know that I have the knowledge to tell).
I would think it possible that the plug being welded in the socket could be caused by heat from a loose wire, but super hard to say. (Maybe not truely welded but just stuck?)
I am glad nothing more serious happened! Indeed, I am anti 120v charging in general.
I agree that if you are going to do it, get a high quality receptacle (but also you have to worry about every receptacle or wire nut in the chain…)
Super useful thread. Thank you all.
I looked through and didn't see mention of a related question.
Apologies if I missed it.
Related question:
Will the same approach work on a dedicated circuit 120v TT-30?
There are a number of 240v 30amp receptacles obviously.
6-30?
14-30?
10-30?
Humm…. I would think you would need a 30a / 240v (double pole) breaker, a 6-30 receptacle, plus a 3rd party adapter.Thank you much.
My google-fu suggests that I need:
1 strand of 10 gauge wire
1 6-30 receptacle
1 6-30 adapter for my charger, likely to come from a 3rd party
Thanks!
-Russell
It's only 2 wires now, for 120v.
I'll need a wire on the other phase to get to 240v.
Please do straighten me out if I'm wrong.
An electrician I am not.
The other question that's arisen overnight is that if I can add a neutral wire that I could have a 14-30.
That seems preferable for several reasons, even if Tesla chargers don't make use of the neutral wire.
14-30 adapters are UL approved, some of the 3rd parties are not. Etc...
I don't quite follow what the neutral wire connects to on the panel unless it's ground.
-R
Im not sure about your region, but an many places conduit is unlikely. Hence the suggestion for a 6-30.I can try and elaborate:
I'm likely to hire a professional electrician. Just trying to educate myself as much as possible going in.
Electricians seem to be like everyone else, sometimes they're smart and thinkers. They get me to the best option.
Others just blindly do what I ask of them. Prepping in case I end up with the latter.
Don't yet know about conduit (new house).
Starting point is is a 120v TT-30, I now see that it's very likely I can go to 6-30 (without even pulling wire).
That lead me to wondering about how feasible it would be to get to 14-30.
Seems like if I have conduit that there's a decent shot that could be done cheaply too.
I'll find out.
-R
Most likely the wire in the wall is Romex (NM-B) 10 gauge. I will assume as much for this post.I can try and elaborate:
I'm likely to hire a professional electrician. Just trying to educate myself as much as possible going in.
Electricians seem to be like everyone else, sometimes they're smart and thinkers. They get me to the best option.
Others just blindly do what I ask of them. Prepping in case I end up with the latter.
Don't yet know about conduit (new house).
Starting point is is a 120v TT-30, I now see that it's very likely I can go to 6-30 (without even pulling wire).
That lead me to wondering about how feasible it would be to get to 14-30.
Seems like if I have conduit that there's a decent shot that could be done cheaply too.
I'll find out.
-R
Charge rate on NEMA 6-20 on my Model 3
You gotta derate (limit ie lower) a constant amperage draw by 80%, because electrical codes and potential heat build up and stuff. 20a * .8 = 16aTo my understanding 6-20 means 240v 20A, how come Tesla app or screen showing 16A ?