Gen 3 Tesla Wall Connector fail to light up

[Hopeqing]

We have been using our wall connector for over a year. No issue. Our electrician added a panel near the wall connector. So when we do not charge, the wall connector can be turned off to save some electricity. Last night, after turning on the power to the wall connector, it no longer lights up. We flipped all the relavent breakers. We tested voltage in this box both going in and coming out as well as the wiring at the base part of the wall charger. All have proper voltage. The electrician said that the wall charger must have gone bad.

Anyone else has wall connector quit working?

Has anyone dealt with warranty? I read online that home wall connector has 48 month warranty.

 

[Cosmacelf]

It is possible that the little ribbon cable connecting the Wall Charger’s LEDs came unseated. Have you tried charging with it?

 

[Mike728]

I thought you weren't supposed to use a GFCI breaker with a wall connector.

 

[Sophias_dad]

Have you tried plugging it into the car to check if its the entire unit(or just the lights) that are dead?

It should indeed be covered by warranty for four years.

Sorry to tell you, but the "flip the breaker to save energy" is a false economy. When its not actively charging, the power used by the HPWC in next-to-nothing. Not remotely exaggerating. I'll get a measurement later today, but if its more than a few watts I'll be 'shocked' Its also a bad idea to be flipping breakers on and off all the time. They are not designed to be light switches, although if we assume you are only switching them when there's a tiny amount of power flowing its probably not THAT bad.

 

[Hopeqing]

It is indeed dead. When I try to open the charging port by pressing the button, it no longer works.

 

[Cosmacelf]

I thought you weren't supposed to use a GFCI breaker with a wall connector.

Well, it isn’t required and is a waste of money to do so assuming the Wall Connector is hard wired (which it appears to be?). But as long as it doesn’t trip, it should be fine. There’s other weirdness in this install too, like it looks like they used romex inside conduit, which, again, isn’t needed and is a needless expense. Finally, turning on and off the Wall Connector is pointless IMHO. It uses about 2 watts while on standby and thus you’ll save about $3.50 in an entire year of flipping the connector on and off every day.

 

[Hopeqing]

Does anyone know what the red-white plastic buttons for? This is on the back side of the face. One close shot, one full view. Anyone know if GFCI in the wall connector is somehow tripped, how can it be reset?

 

[Sophias_dad]

Does anyone know what the red-white plastic buttons for? This is on the back side of the face. One close shot, one full view. Anyone know if GFCI in the wall connector is somehow tripped, how can it be reset?

Those are not buttons, they are connectors for individual conductors. It has never been revealed what they do.

There's no reset or 'tripping' of the GFCI in the HPWC. The GFCI function is achieved by cutting the power to the output relays which happens all the time when charging is stopped.

 

[Hopeqing]

Those are not buttons, they are connectors for individual conductors. It has never been revealed what they do.

There's no reset or 'tripping' of the GFCI in the HPWC. The GFCI function is achieved by cutting the power to the output relays which happens all the time when charging is stopped.

Thanks!

 

[Cosmacelf]

If you’re going the disassembly route, there might be a fuse on the low voltage power supply board/circuit to power the electronics in the unit. I haven’t heard of anyone replacing that fuse though, if there is one.

I think Wall Connectors have a 4 year warranty?

 

[Sophias_dad]

I finally did my own test of a Gen3 HPWC to see its power usage while idle. I had to wait a few days to get a proper 240V measurer.

For the first few seconds, it takes around 2 watts, presumably because all the lights are on and various cpus are going through self-test. After 10 seconds, it becomes a pretty steady 1W, plus or minus 0.03W as the singular green LED slowly fades off and on.

Thats 8.76kwh/year and even at our rather ludicrous electricity rates here in MA, that's all of $3 yearly.

 

[Hopeqing]

Great points everyone! I was taking pictures of various voltages to send to tesla for warranty. After I finished, I put the front unit on the base. Guess what! The green light lit up. It turns out that for some very strange reason, we lost three out of the four screws that secure those two parts. We only found this out after we started disassembling the two on the first night that it quit working. We have a habit of wrapping the charging cord around the unit. I think with time, the weight of the cord dislodged the two. Now, I wrap the cord somewhere else and the Wall Connector is working fine. I went online trying to order a replacement set of screws that cost $20 per suggestion of customer service, only to find out that shipping is $10. I went on ebay and got some there. The screws are a bit interesting. The threads that actually secures the two parts are very short...

I don't thing the red and white plastic parts on the back of the wall connector front unit is where electricity goes through. The power is transferred by metal clips that are in the center of the unit.

Glad that this is an easy fix. Yes, also good to know that there are 4 years of warranty. Customer service said that if after installing all screws, I still experience problem, then we can start exchanging the unit.

 

[Sophias_dad]

I don't thing the red and white plastic parts on the back of the wall connector front unit is where electricity goes through.

That is correct. They can only take like 18 gauge wire(!).

You can also trace the connections from where the wires attach to the backplate to the various sliding spade connections, and none of them come anywhere near the red/white bits.

Here's some fun pictures of the innards, if you are curious. Gen3 HPWC disassembly, with overheating issues explained!

 

[ATPMSD]

With respect to GFCI, from the manual:

”For maximum power output, install a standard double pole 60 amp circuit breaker. Wall Connector
includes integrated GFCI protection - do not install a GFCI circuit breaker.”

 

[ATPMSD]

I finally did my own test of a Gen3 HPWC to see its power usage while idle. I had to wait a few days to get a proper 240V measurer.

For the first few seconds, it takes around 2 watts, presumably because all the lights are on and various cpus are going through self-test. After 10 seconds, it becomes a pretty steady 1W, plus or minus 0.03W as the singular green LED slowly fades off and on.

Thats 8.76kwh/year and even at our rather ludicrous electricity rates here in MA, that's all of $3 yearly.

@Hopeqing

What he said! It is also worth noting that circuit breakers are not intended to be used as switches, Using them as such will cause premature failure.

 

[Hopeqing]

Points well taken everyone. We are busy and not EE inclined. We trusted this electrician sincerely because he did fine jobs for us in the past. After this experience, I'd say that no matter what, we need to do our own research!

 

[posity]

Looking at that subpanel picture, it is fair to say your electrician's competence is questionable. There are so many things wrong at first glance:
1) Using a GFCI breaker, as already discussed. A GFCI breaker should not feed an internally GFCI-protected device (the wall charger), just ups the odds of nuisance trips. Your electrician does not read installation manuals?
2) A GFCI on a 2 wire load circuit MUST include the neutral wire from the line side, per manufacturer documentation. So the feed wire should have been 2 hots, a neutral and a ground, not 2 hots and a ground. That is improperly wired and should be replaced with a standard (non-GFCI) breaker. See https://download.schneider-electric...nstruction+sheet&p_File_Name=48840-435-03.pdf for 2-pole GFCI wiring details.
3) The connection of the GFCI pigtail looks like it was done by a 3 year old. Very poor quality.
4) Running NM-B (Romex) inside conduit is poor practice. Simple individual THHN wires is the proper way to run wire inside conduit.
5) Your electrician should have advised you not to use that breaker as a switch to 'save money'.
6) Your wire looks potentially undersized. Looks like 6/2 or possibly 8/2 NM-B 'Romex', so there is a possibility your breaker is oversized for the wire. Hard to tell from the picture, but bears further scrutiny given the other errors here. Proper breaker & wire sizing is a significant safety issue.
7) The hot wires in and out of your breaker must not be white wires. White means that wire is a grounded conductor, which yours most certainly is not. The electrician should have used a sharpie to color them black or wrapped with black electrical tape. This is a very basic mistake and speaks highly to just how poor your electrician is.

Are you sure your electrician is licensed? So much is wrong or suspect here. This would have never passed an inspection. I suggest you never hire that electrician to touch another inch of your wiring in the future. This is a glaring example why installations should be permitted and inspected, even when done by 'professionals'.

 

[Eric33432]

Looking at that subpanel picture, it is fair to say your electrician's competence is questionable. There are so many things wrong at first glance:
1) Using a GFCI breaker, as already discussed. A GFCI breaker should not feed an internally GFCI-protected device (the wall charger), just ups the odds of nuisance trips. Your electrician does not read installation manuals?
2) A GFCI on a 2 wire load circuit MUST include the neutral wire from the line side, per manufacturer documentation. So the feed wire should have been 2 hots, a neutral and a ground, not 2 hots and a ground. That is improperly wired and should be replaced with a standard (non-GFCI) breaker. See https://download.schneider-electric...nstruction+sheet&p_File_Name=48840-435-03.pdf for 2-pole GFCI wiring details.
3) The connection of the GFCI pigtail looks like it was done by a 3 year old. Very poor quality.
4) Running NM-B (Romex) inside conduit is poor practice. Simple individual THHN wires is the proper way to run wire inside conduit.
5) Your electrician should have advised you not to use that breaker as a switch to 'save money'.
6) Your wire looks potentially undersized. Looks like 6/2 or possibly 8/2 NM-B 'Romex', so there is a possibility your breaker is oversized for the wire. Hard to tell from the picture, but bears further scrutiny given the other errors here. Proper breaker & wire sizing is a significant safety issue.
7) The hot wires in and out of your breaker must not be white wires. White means that wire is a grounded conductor, which yours most certainly is not. The electrician should have used a sharpie to color them black or wrapped with black electrical tape. This is a very basic mistake and speaks highly to just how poor your electrician is.

Are you sure your electrician is licensed? So much is wrong or suspect here. This would have never passed an inspection. I suggest you never hire that electrician to touch another inch of your wiring in the future. This is a glaring example why installations should be permitted and inspected, even when done by 'professionals'.

All good points but the 60 amp QO GFCI breaker is available without a neutral connection for the load and is designed for 240 volt 2-wire loads, not 120/240 volt loads, as no 240 volt only device has a connection for a neutral. See the note at the top of page 2 of the instructions, and see Figure 3 also on page 2. However, the white neutral wire on the line side of the breaker is needed for the breaker to work and should be connected to a line side neutral connection, not the ground.

Since the Tesla Wall Connector is a 240 volt only load, that should be OK, but of course as you say a GFCI breaker should not be used for the Tesla Wall Connector to begin with.

It also looks like the "electrician" used neutral lugs for the ground wires. If that be the case, they are insulated from the box and the box is not properly grounded.

 

[posity]

Hey @Eric33432, I think you disagreed with me but then ended up saying the same thing as my post regarding the GFCI neutral wiring. The line side of a 2-pole GFCI must include a neutral wire from the feeder (per the Schneider Figure 3 drawing): the GFCI pigtail connects to this neutral wire. No neutral is required on the load side of the GFCI breaker (unless the load side also requires 120V, which the wall charger does not).

Good catch on the lack of chassis bonding ground connection: another bush league, potentially dangerous oversight by this 'electrician'.
When an electrician tells you to skip permits, that is a red flag they may be doing substandard work like shown here. Pay for permits, have the installation inspected so terrible work like this is found and remedied before put into service.

 

[Eric33432]

Hey @Eric33432, I think you disagreed with me but then ended up saying the same thing as my post regarding the GFCI neutral wiring. The line side of a 2-pole GFCI must include a neutral wire from the feeder (per the Schneider Figure 3 drawing): the GFCI pigtail connects to this neutral wire. No neutral is required on the load side of the GFCI breaker (unless the load side also requires 120V, which the wall charger does not).

Good catch on the lack of chassis bonding ground connection: another bush league, potentially dangerous oversight by this 'electrician'.
When an electrician tells you to skip permits, that is a red flag they may be doing substandard work like shown here. Pay for permits, have the installation inspected so terrible work like this is found and remedied before put into service.

Yes, I missed you were discussing the line side. Sorry about that!