Have Gone Through 2 Tesla Gen 3 Home Chargers

[txtabby]

As the title suggests, I've gone through 2 home chargers in One year! The problem is currently being worked to get me a Third Tesla charger, but come on! MAYBE one going out, but two, within 12 months? The installation was done by an electrician recommended by the Tesla dealer and everything was working fine. Then the first one flaked out, and it was replaced no problem. Now this one just stopped working. No lights, nothing. I took it off the wall and was getting power to the charger just fine. It's just the charger isn't seeing it. I was using the "smart" feature, telling it to charge up by a certain time. That was working fine, until the last time, when I plugged it in and started charging right away. I didn't think much of it, but a couple of hrs later it just stopped all together. Has anyone else had issues like this with these chargers? On this new one, I'm not going to use the "smart" feature, just plug in and charge. If i'd of known about these problems, I would of installed a 220v outlet and spent $45 on an adapter.

 

[jjrandorin]

I have been using mine (gen 2 wall connector) for 2.5 years with no issues. My car is plugged in daily, as well.

If yours is a gen 3, there have been plenty of reports of issues with those, here.

 

[txtabby]

Update: Third charger DOA! (4th Gen charger-model # …-G) Having electricians come out to check things. I’ve had solar panels installed with extensive rewiring but still getting 220vac to mounting bracket.
This new charger I installed, no lights, nothing. And it took a month to get Tesla to replace it. This is getting very frustrating. Had I known it would be this much trouble I’d of just installed a regular dryer outlet and used a $45 adapter, never mind Tesla’s “smart” charger.

 

[brkaus]

Update: Third charger DOA! (4th Gen charger-model # …-G) Having electricians come out to check things. I’ve had solar panels installed with extensive rewiring but still getting 220vac to mounting bracket.
This new charger I installed, no lights, nothing. And it took a month to get Tesla to replace it. This is getting very frustrating. Had I known it would be this much trouble I’d of just installed a regular dryer outlet and used a $45 adapter, never mind Tesla’s “smart” charger.

The gen3 has known problems with the main relay heating up. I haven’t heard of any other issues with it.

I’ve had very good luck with a gen2 unit. I hope you can get you problems resolved!

 

[txtabby]

The gen3 has known problems with the main relay heating up. I haven’t heard of any other issues with it.

I’ve had very good luck with a gen2 unit. I hope you can get you problems resolved!

But this is a Gen 4 charger, the second one I’ve gone through. Right out of the box.

 

[Rocky_H]

(4th Gen charger-model # …-G)

The gen3 has known problems with the main relay heating up.

But this is a Gen 4 charger,

No it's not--that's not a thing. The 3rd gen is the newest there is.

 

[JCtx]

I'm also having charging issues, but somebody mentioned that when charging at home, the problem could be the car's on-board charger too. Therefore, if you already went thru 2 cables, I'd ask Tesla to check the car, to eliminate that as a possibility. In my case, charging was stopped almost immediately upon pushing the dongle into the charging port, with the screen just saying 'charging stopped'. But in reality, it never started. I tried FIVE times, and same thing. And the 'TESLA' LEDs were always on. After doing it slowly one last time, the mobile cable 'box' finally clicked twice, and it charged normally after that. And I noticed the 'clicks' happened after a second or two, not almost immediately, so not sure what was happening with my car that was rejecting getting charged before the relay had a chance to 'click' twice. I just plugged the car now, and it started charging like always, so not sure what's going on.

 

[azred]

I would be suspicious that there is another issue causing these broken chargers.

 

[txtabby]

I would be suspicious that there is another issue causing these broken chargers.

I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve done voltage checks at the wall mount and am getting the correct voltage. The new wall mount “charger”, adapter, whatever you want to call it, that I just received the other day has no lights at all after I installed it and turned the power on to it. Brand new, out of the box. This is the third one I’ve gone through. I see where people are saying there’s been issues with this newer unit. There must be some bad QC going on where they make them. I’m about to ask for my money back and have a 220/240vac outlet installed and spend $45 on an pigtail adapter lol

 

[txtabby]

I'm also having charging issues, but somebody mentioned that when charging at home, the problem could be the car's on-board charger too. Therefore, if you already went thru 2 cables, I'd ask Tesla to check the car, to eliminate that as a possibility. In my case, charging was stopped almost immediately upon pushing the dongle into the charging port, with the screen just saying 'charging stopped'. But in reality, it never started. I tried FIVE times, and same thing. And the 'TESLA' LEDs were always on. After doing it slowly one last time, the mobile cable 'box' finally clicked twice, and it charged normally after that. And I noticed the 'clicks' happened after a second or two, not almost immediately, so not sure what was happening with my car that was rejecting getting charged before the relay had a chance to 'click' twice. I just plugged the car now, and it started charging like always, so not sure what's going on.

My home “charger” won’t even power up right after installing it (brand new unit). Voltages are good.

 

[brkaus]

Sounds like you got a bum unit. Sorry. Like I said, I have read about a string of known issues, but to the best of my knowledge they were addressed.

Good luck with either direction. A wall plug would serve the purpose as well.

 

[txtabby]

Update: Electrician came out, wires fried, but everything was in code. Now it works fine, trying to get it all set up, but it now charges the car.

 

[JCtx]

My home “charger” won’t even power up right after installing it (brand new unit). Voltages are good.

Oh man. But to be clear, I think you're talking about the $500 (or thereabouts) Tesla wall charger, and not the cable that came with the car, right? I was talking about the cable that came with the car, which I use with a 14-50 pigtail, connected to a dedicated 14-50 240V outlet in my garage. I'm not 100% sure the unit was responsible for not wanting to charge the car yesterday, since apparently the car could be the culprit as well. Today it charged like nothing happened yesterday. Weird. But I'm almost sure it was like a 'communication' issue, and the relay never received current to open the juice. Wish I had a phone number to call Tesla, and see what they could see from their computer, since it's an intermittent problem now. The app is when you have an issue that you can duplicate at will, I'd imagine.

 

[txtabby]

Oh man. But to be clear, I think you're talking about the $500 (or thereabouts) Tesla wall charger, and not the cable that came with the car, right? I was talking about the cable that came with the car, which I use with a 14-50 pigtail, connected to a dedicated 14-50 240V outlet in my garage. I'm not 100% sure the unit was responsible for not wanting to charge the car yesterday, since apparently the car could be the culprit as well. Today it charged like nothing happened yesterday. Weird. But I'm almost sure it was like a 'communication' issue, and the relay never received current to open the juice. Wish I had a phone number to call Tesla, and see what they could see from their computer, since it's an intermittent problem now. The app is when you have an issue that you can duplicate at will, I'd imagine.

Yes that’s correct. Electrician came out and found the wire splice was burnt out. And the install was done less than a year ago. It was fixed and everything is fine now, mailed off the old charger. But that opens another question: Why did the wires burn out if everything is in code?? Most likely Texas?? But there should be a universal electrical code out there, right? Something really screwy is going on. Going to call another electrician out to look at the whole set up so my house doesn’t burn down. Ive adjusted the car to only take a 30 amp charge….I might drop that to a 25 amp to be safe. I’ll keep updating everyone. And thanks to all for the advice.

 

[Rocky_H]

found the wire splice was burnt out.

Why did the wires burn out if everything is in code??

I'm really not liking hearing that there was/is(?) a splice in this. I would be really curious what that was, how it was done, and what it looked like. For high current circuits like this, you generally want to avoid splices if you can. Wires should go all the way to some kind of box or device where it can be screwed in tightly to a lug. On low power circuits like a regular 120V 15A wall outlet kind of thing, it usually works fine to twist two wires together and screw a wire nut onto them, but that's not a very tight connection if you try to do that with thicker wires using high current, so can easily be very resistive and make a hot spot and melt something.

Disclaimer: I am not that familiar with what code requirements there are for how wire splices are done and if there's some threshold of doing it differently for higher amp circuits.

Could you take a picture and post it of what this splice is?

But there should be a universal electrical code out there, right?

Yes, there is. It's NEC, the National Electric Code. But it gets revised and updated every few years, so there is the 2014 version, 2017, 2020, etc. and different states decide to adopt the next version at different times, so states can be on different versions.

 

[brkaus]

Who said it was in code? When the Austin building department came out to sign off on my permit completion he looked at the breaker and didn’t even go into garage where the WC was installed.

Really up to the electrician to know what they are doing. I did watch the electrician through the entire process.

 

[Jeremy3292]

I don't understand why you need to splice a wire for the install? Not seeing that anywhere in the Tesla install video.

Installing a Wall Connector

The Tesla Wall Connector is designed for easy installation and fast home charging. Learn more about installing a Tesla wall charger.

www.tesla.com

 

[Rocky_H]

I don't understand why you need to splice a wire for the install? Not seeing that anywhere in the Tesla install video.

It obviously wouldn't be in the installation instructions. It shouldn't be intentional, but this is sounding like someone needed to go some distance but didn't have a single piece long enough, so tried to attach two shorter pieces of wire together.

 

[Jeremy3292]

It obviously wouldn't be in the installation instructions. It shouldn't be intentional, but this is sounding like someone needed to go some distance but didn't have a single piece long enough, so tried to attach two shorter pieces of wire together.

And became an obvious failure point unfortunately. Can't cut corners with EV charging as it is a constant draw. Things that might work for washers, dryers, or HVAC units won't work for EV charging IMO.

 

[dmurphy]

It obviously wouldn't be in the installation instructions. It shouldn't be intentional, but this is sounding like someone needed to go some distance but didn't have a single piece long enough, so tried to attach two shorter pieces of wire together.

That can be done safely, but at these amperages, either a split bolt or a Polaris block are used. Either of those create a great splice, but it has to be done correctly.