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Expected Lifetime of a Home Charger
- Thread starter Jeeves
- Start date
Rustybkts
Member
That will be the contactor connecting power to the car.
Usually rated in thousands if not millions of operations as the load is never on the contacts when it closes/opens.
The rest of the controls/electronics should last over 15 years at least if kept dry inside. The plug is the only wearing item.
It’s the same as any other electrical equipment, it’s often the luck of the draw. Some people have a unit that fails after 13 months, another might go on for 20 years.
Also I’d suggest that not all chargers are created equal. The old Rolec charger I had looked inside like it was cobbled together from a variety of off-the-shelf components, linked together with a rat’s nest of little cables. It didn’t inspire confidence. The Tesla Wall Connector that replaces it seems a much neater, integrated design.
Often the points of failure on these are the cables, either flexing or winding causing the cable to kink and one of the conductors breaking, or damage to the plug or where the cable enters the wall unit.
Also I’d suggest that not all chargers are created equal. The old Rolec charger I had looked inside like it was cobbled together from a variety of off-the-shelf components, linked together with a rat’s nest of little cables. It didn’t inspire confidence. The Tesla Wall Connector that replaces it seems a much neater, integrated design.
Often the points of failure on these are the cables, either flexing or winding causing the cable to kink and one of the conductors breaking, or damage to the plug or where the cable enters the wall unit.
My (first) TWC lasted 15 months. Well, to be fair, the TWC is probably still going strong. But one of the signalling (not power) wires in the cable went bad, rendering the whole thing belly-up. Fortunately the whole thing (Wall connector and 7M cable - they're one unit, even under the main cover you can't get to separate the two) got replaced under warranty but it does emphasise your point that it's the whole thing as a system that's important.
Look after your cables, folks.
Jason71
Well-Known Member
Its sad. The only moving part in these is the relay they should be out living all of us 
I had a Zappi installed inside my garage yesterday. That lasted all of 5 minutes. The electrician fitted it and when tested said it wasn't charging the correct amount. He spent a long time on the phone to Zappi who said it must be a faulty unit so now I need to wait for a replacement. Oddly there is no fault message or code on the device it just doesn't work :-(
MrBadger
Badger out
I suspect the smart charging software will go care and maintenance long before most hardware will suffer terminal electrical failure.
I had a Zappi that only lasted a couple of months ... which was longer than the Hub that had died almost immediately (it needs the Hub to enable the Zappi to phone home, link to the app and to other devices ... the new items have been working ok as far as I can tell.
Cnixon
Member
MrBadger
Badger out
TWC warranty is 12 months unless fitted by a Tesla approved installer in which case it is 4 years. It must be attached to your Tesla account.
In my experience, Tesla approved installer prices are significantly higher than than a non Tesla installer price such that you could probably buy a TWC or two as a spare with the money saved.
In my experience, Tesla approved installer prices are significantly higher than than a non Tesla installer price such that you could probably buy a TWC or two as a spare with the money saved.
Last edited:
LongRanger
Active Member
If you could find out the make/model of the relay you can get an idea of the MTBF / test rigour that has gone into the bit that could wear through repeated on/off cycles.
Beyond that it’s contact points, joins in the circuitry, screw housing strength, waterproof seals and internal wiring integrity - have to say it’s all of this that has put me right off the Rolec stuff, saw some pictures of the internals and it looks like £30 of parts in a £800 unit for the BasicCharge Pedestal.
Looking briefly at the A2 internals it looks like they use their own PCB designs, plus at least Bosch and Schneider industrial controls type ancillaries, I can’t make out from the picture on their website which is the relay part but the design of the internals looks far superior to e.g. Rolec stuff I’ve seen.
It also looks like the Anderson internals architecture is all modular, but with an overall integrated single design - whereas on other makes internals it’s basically a load of separate components chucked into a plastic housing with flimsy wires linking the components together, if you’re lucky on some sort of DIN Rail mounting.
Beyond that it’s contact points, joins in the circuitry, screw housing strength, waterproof seals and internal wiring integrity - have to say it’s all of this that has put me right off the Rolec stuff, saw some pictures of the internals and it looks like £30 of parts in a £800 unit for the BasicCharge Pedestal.
Looking briefly at the A2 internals it looks like they use their own PCB designs, plus at least Bosch and Schneider industrial controls type ancillaries, I can’t make out from the picture on their website which is the relay part but the design of the internals looks far superior to e.g. Rolec stuff I’ve seen.
It also looks like the Anderson internals architecture is all modular, but with an overall integrated single design - whereas on other makes internals it’s basically a load of separate components chucked into a plastic housing with flimsy wires linking the components together, if you’re lucky on some sort of DIN Rail mounting.
Cnixon
Member
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