Have Gone Through 2 Tesla Gen 3 Home Chargers

[txtabby]

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.

I watched the guy fix the burned out connections. He said it happens sometimes, especially when you have a 48amp draw for hours. 1, I've never charged my car at 48amps, and besides, it's not "for hours" at a time. He then said something about the hot and cold causing expansion and constricting of the connections over time. This makes no sense whatsoever. I sent them an email to run one continuous cables from the breaker to the charger unit. He replied that's illegal to run that long of a conduit, and you need a splice. Again, this makes no sense at all. Common sense tells you you can do this with wires inside a metal conduit, just use a larger wire gauge. He said everything is in code, that the splice was in a metal box so there's no way my house could of caught fire. I'm having a couple of other electrical contractors come out to take a look at their set up. If their codes aren't up to date for car chargers then they should of known this and gone above and beyond to make sure it never happens. I've been giving Tesla hell for giving me bad chargers when the whole time it was the electricians who screwed up. I'm getting an education but it's still aggravating. There was no reason for that splice to be there. And I'm sure they used a Polaris Block splice, if that's what you call it. It was a pretty heavy duty splice.

 

[brkaus]

A Polaris splice should be ok if torqued properly.

He is correct that you can only pull wires through a certain length of conduit (bends make this length shorter). But in most cases you can still use a single wire.

did they use splice blocks the first time?

 

[txtabby]

Yes, looked like the wires weren’t installed correctly and came loose. He was also going to leave the rubber insulation off the junction box cover to allow for better cooling (then why didn’t they use a bigger box? Said well, I guess they could have..) but I talked him out of it, saying I wanted it air tight/waterproof.

 

[brkaus]

Yes, looked like the wires weren’t installed correctly and came loose. He was also going to leave the rubber insulation off the junction box cover to allow for better cooling (then why didn’t they use a bigger box? Said well, I guess they could have..) but I talked him out of it, saying I wanted it air tight/waterproof.

Good choice. A proper junction/splice shouldn’t generate much heat.

Btw - there are rules for how many cubic inches a box must be based on conductor size, number, etc.

 

[txtabby]

Good choice. A proper junction/splice shouldn’t generate much heat.

Btw - there are rules for how many cubic inches a box must be based on conductor size, number, etc.

Just for good measure I’m going to limit my charging to 30amps.

 

[JCtx]

I ruled out a $500 Tesla wall charger for 2 main reasons: I don't like to push the envelope on my electrical system with 60A (or 48), and I don't need that. And the second is the wall charger would have to be installed across the garage (it doesn't reach to the other side of the car), needing a hefty run. My 14-50 outlet is right behind the electrical box, so the run is around a foot; it can't get any better than that. Plus electrician used 6GA wire (and 50A breakers), so 32A is very conservative. The outlet is not a cheapo either, but I wonder if we have to check lug torque over time. I should have told the electrician to use Loctite on the lugs, so I never had to worry about coming loose. If it's recommended to check them, how often?

 

[Jeremy3292]

I ruled out a $500 Tesla wall charger for 2 main reasons: I don't like to push the envelope on my electrical system with 60A (or 48), and I don't need that. And the second is the wall charger would have to be installed across the garage (it doesn't reach to the other side of the car), needing a hefty run. My 14-50 outlet is right behind the electrical box, so the run is around a foot; it can't get any better than that. Plus electrician used 6GA wire (and 50A breakers), so 32A is very conservative. The outlet is not a cheapo either, but I wonder if we have to check lug torque over time. I should have told the electrician to use Loctite on the lugs, so I never had to worry about coming loose. If it's recommended to check them, how often?

Your car will not charge more than 32 amps on a NEMA 14-50 per Tesla’s support docs. I would personally proactively replace that outlet every 2-3 years with an industrial grade quality outlet. $75 every 2-3 years is worth the peace of mind IMO. See article below also.

NEMA 14-50 Tesla Response | Seahurst Electric

Q: How does Tesla respond to NEMA 14-50 questions? A: While an existing NEMA 14-50 outlet will work to charge the car, you would need to purchase the $35 adapter from Tesla to make it work, they are not provided with the vehicle. Tesla does not recommend installing a new NEMA 14-50 outlet to...

www.seahurst.com

 

[txtabby]

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.

IMO as well. If anything just run heavier gauge wire. The garage is on the other side of the house from the Main panel, but my house isn't that big, 1200 sq ft. They said the Code states to put in a splice. Having another electrician come for his opinion. But seems to be fixed and am only drawing a 30 amp load from now on.

 

[Gasaraki]

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.

Nope. I've had mine for over a year.

 

[Gasaraki]

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.

Stop. You were talking about your MOBILE charger in the other thread, not like the home charger in this thread. Stop trying to confuse people.

 

[Gasaraki]

I ruled out a $500 Tesla wall charger for 2 main reasons: I don't like to push the envelope on my electrical system with 60A (or 48), and I don't need that. And the second is the wall charger would have to be installed across the garage (it doesn't reach to the other side of the car), needing a hefty run. My 14-50 outlet is right behind the electrical box, so the run is around a foot; it can't get any better than that. Plus electrician used 6GA wire (and 50A breakers), so 32A is very conservative. The outlet is not a cheapo either, but I wonder if we have to check lug torque over time. I should have told the electrician to use Loctite on the lugs, so I never had to worry about coming loose. If it's recommended to check them, how often?

You don't need to use the home wall connector at 48A if you don't want to. It's can be set to a lower amperage.

 

[holeydonut]

I don't have a Model 3 yet (hence the squirrel avatar). But is the user allowed to select the charging amps when they plug the car in? Or is the amp draw kind of configured somewhere in the car settings and then it just uses that setting when it's plugged in?

I agree it probably makes more sense to default charging to 30 amps or something and only use the max 48 amps when there's a need to charge as quickly as possible at home. It just isn't clear to me how to achieve this 30 or 48 charging speed.

 

[dmurphy]

I don't have a Model 3 yet (hence the squirrel avatar). But is the user allowed to select the charging amps when they plug the car in? Or is the amp draw kind of configured somewhere in the car settings and then it just uses that setting when it's plugged in?

I agree it probably makes more sense to default charging to 30 amps or something and only use the max 48 amps when there's a need to charge as quickly as possible at home. It just isn't clear to me how to achieve this 30 or 48 charging speed.

Typically, the car negotiates with the connected equipment for max charging rate. But you can dial that down using the charging screen on the car’s display - set it to 30amps and fuggedaboudit.
If you’re installing a Wall Connector, you can also set a max amperage for that. Easy cheesy!

 

[jjrandorin]

I don't have a Model 3 yet (hence the squirrel avatar). But is the user allowed to select the charging amps when they plug the car in? Or is the amp draw kind of configured somewhere in the car settings and then it just uses that setting when it's plugged in?

I agree it probably makes more sense to default charging to 30 amps or something and only use the max 48 amps when there's a need to charge as quickly as possible at home. It just isn't clear to me how to achieve this 30 or 48 charging speed.

Yes, you can slow down the charging at the car if you want.

Normally, there is absolutely no need to "slow down" charging from the max configured at your location, unless you want to for some reason. All home charging is "slow charging" as far as the car is concerned. 48amp charging is considered slow, just like 12amp charging on a 15amp circuit. There is no benefit at charging at 32 amps vs 48 (for example) IF your equipment / install is correctly installed to charge at 48amps.

 

[Rocky_H]

But is the user allowed to select the charging amps when they plug the car in? Or is the amp draw kind of configured somewhere in the car settings and then it just uses that setting when it's plugged in?

It is both. The wall connector is a configurable device. If say 20A is all the spare capacity you have, then you can put in a 20A breaker and wiring, and then you configure the wall connector for a 20A circuit. That will then "announce" to any cars that plug in what the max allowed amps are (16 in this example). So then in the car, you are allowed to turn that down some further if you like, but it will not allow going above that allowed 16A max.

 

[techzelle]

Possibly some voltage spikes frying the units.
There should not have been any splices along the way. You had a sub-standard installer.. It happens.
Only crappy splices go bad - using undersized connectors, not tightening properly, etc.
Might want to check the wire gauge while you are at it. "use minimum 6 AWG, 90° C-rated copper wire"

 

[Ren.OG]

We installed the wall connector ourselves and it has flipped the breaker 3 times in 3 months. Has anyone else experienced this?
My installer is a career electrical engineer, so the install is fine. Wires are only routed about 4ft from the box, so it can't be length.
Would the wall connector 4 yr warranty be covered if we installed it ourselves? Running 48amps nightly.

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

@Ren.OG You probably have loose terminal screws at the breaker causing it to overheat. And hopefully you know that a 60A breaker is required, not 50A.

 

[brkaus]

We installed the wall connector ourselves and it has flipped the breaker 3 times in 3 months. Has anyone else experienced this?
My installer is a career electrical engineer, so the install is fine. Wires are only routed about 4ft from the box, so it can't be length.
Would the wall connector 4 yr warranty be covered if we installed it ourselves? Running 48amps nightly.

Can you say more about your installation and send photos?

 

[roywo]

Seems like issues with the wallchargers are related to incorrect installations.

I was lucky to have just upgraded my house's system a few years back, and having a pro electrician do my wall unit install ($1500) was spendy but no issues