I have a hardwired Gen 1 HPWC that has failed. The HWPC is installed on a 100Amp circuit breaker. I am planning to replace it with a Gen 3 Wall Connector. Do I need to have an electrician downsize the circuit breaker to 60amp to match the rating of the Gen 3 Wall Connector? Or would it be okay to install the Gen3 Wall Connector on the 100amp circuit breaker?
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Gen 3 Wall Connector installation question
- Thread starter ticron44
- Start date
You can if you want. But is not a requirement the breaker exactly matches. The breaker spec is a minimum rating, based upon the wire size installed.
What I would suggest, is that you try and find a Gen2 wall connector, and install it instead. It has the capability to fully use your 100 amp circuit. While it is true that no new Tesla available today needs more than 48 amps (60 amp breaker), larger capacity batteries are inevitable eventually, and who knows how much AC charging capacity might be desirable.
BTW, did you try getting Tesla to replace your broken Gen1? Back in 2018, they replaced my Gen1 with a new Gen2 as a warranty swap, although they would not cover the installation. Which was perfect for me, because I had installed it myself.
Uuuhhhh, that does not sound correct to me. I am pretty sure you would need to replace that with a 60A breaker.
Yeah, I would highly recommend this instead. That damn Gen3 is buggy junk, and Tesla was stupid for discontinuing the great Gen2 units when the Gen3 was worse and not ready to be released.
I'll correct my own mistake. It actually is a maximum rating based upon the wire size it was designed to protect. If the circuit was sized (wire gauge is correct) for 100 amps, and has a 100 amp breaker. It is perfectly fine to connect something on the end of it, that requires less than 100 amps. The breaker is not trying to protect the end equipment. its purpose is to protect the wiring. Thus you could downsize the breaker if you want, but there is no necessity to do so.
I know I'm late to the dance, and no one asked, but here's my opinion anyway.
The wiring on the 100 amp circuit won't even fit the HPWC Gen3 connectors(4 AWG maximum). Its not a real big deal though, there are way to adapt the wire down to 4 awg, or I bet there are lugs that fit in a 4 awg space that will accept somewhat larger wire.
I'm also not sure if a 60 amp breaker would fit the 100 amp wire.
The manual itself doesn't say anything about going to a more-than-60A breaker, either. If there's a really awful fault within that HPWC and it starts drawing 90 amps, that hundred amp breaker won't blow until after the HPWC has literally melted off the end of the wires and they cross.
Would I swap the breaker? Probably not. The likelihood of a really awful fault is near zero. The only way I could reasonably expect there to be a failure that shorted the L1/L2 terminals would be physical damage, like a car or lawn tractor crushing the HPWC.
The wiring on the 100 amp circuit won't even fit the HPWC Gen3 connectors(4 AWG maximum). Its not a real big deal though, there are way to adapt the wire down to 4 awg, or I bet there are lugs that fit in a 4 awg space that will accept somewhat larger wire.
I'm also not sure if a 60 amp breaker would fit the 100 amp wire.
The manual itself doesn't say anything about going to a more-than-60A breaker, either. If there's a really awful fault within that HPWC and it starts drawing 90 amps, that hundred amp breaker won't blow until after the HPWC has literally melted off the end of the wires and they cross.
Would I swap the breaker? Probably not. The likelihood of a really awful fault is near zero. The only way I could reasonably expect there to be a failure that shorted the L1/L2 terminals would be physical damage, like a car or lawn tractor crushing the HPWC.
Similar threads
