Is there an extension cord with thermal chips on the ends like a Tesla charger has?

[macmee]

I need an extension cord for my charge for regular slow charging use.

I was going to buy just a typical 10awg cord since I think that's safe. I need to go about 25 additional feet.

Then I was reading that the slow charger Tesla gives us actually has a thermal censor in the terminal sides of the cable. If too much heat is detected it shuts off.

I guess if we use /any/ extension cord with the Tesla charger then we're losing that safety element.

So my question really is: does an extension cord exist with similar censors like that? If not, are there other things I should be doing to monitor safety when regularly charging with an extension cord?

 

[Sophias_dad]

No, there's no such extension cord like that and there really can't be one. It would have to have an active heater that would precisely heat the outlet-end of the cord the same amount as the plug end was seeing. If you were really handy, you could chop the adapter in two and splice an extension cord in the middle with an extra (probably two wire) cable on the outside to carry the thermal sensor information. But that thermal sensor information might be very sensitive to the length of wiring its attached to, so that might not even work.

If you really want, you can get an extension cord for the tesla-side of the UMC, but its very expensive.

When charging with an extension cord, particularly for the first time, check the temperature of the plug(at the outlet). Do so first with your hand on the plug, intermittently for a half hour or more of continuous charging then turn off charging and immediately pull the plug and feel the face of the outlet and maybe the prongs of the plug. Be aware, that these might be hot enough to burn skin, if the outlet is questionable. Repeat that check after a few hours of continuous charging, periodically just checking the plug without stopping charging. (The reason to stop charging before pulling the plug is that sliding connectors under heavy load will cause sparking, which itself will cause a worse connection forevermore.)

 

[MLXXXp]

No, there's no such extension cord like that and there really can't be one.

Sure there can.

It would have to have an active heater that would precisely heat the outlet-end of the cord the same amount as the plug end was seeing.

No it wouldn't. You could have a temperature sensor in the plug end and circuitry there that cut off power to the rest of the cord (including the outlet end) if the plug end overheated. You wouldn't get the same errors from the UMC or car that you would get if the UMC pigtail plug itself overheated but it would safely stop charging and you might get a "charging stopped" message from the car. The circuitry in the cord could have a "thermal fault" light or other indication when detected.

Whether there is enough of a market, that someone would actually make (or has made) such a thing, is another story.

 

[MLXXXp]

You could have a temperature sensor in the plug end and circuitry there that cut off power to the rest of the cord (including the outlet end) if the plug end overheated.

Thinking about this further:
It would probably be better, and possibly cheaper, to instead make a wall outlet with this type of thing. Sort of like a GFCI outlet but for thermal faults instead of current leakage to ground. This way, anything plugged in, extension cord or otherwise, would be thermally protected at the plug-outlet connection.

 

[Sophias_dad]

Sure there can.

No it wouldn't. You could have a temperature sensor in the plug end and circuitry there that cut off power to the rest of the cord (including the outlet end) if the plug end overheated. You wouldn't get the same errors from the UMC or car that you would get if the UMC pigtail plug itself overheated but it would safely stop charging and you might get a "charging stopped" message from the car. The circuitry in the cord could have a "thermal fault" light or other indication when detected.

Whether there is enough of a market, that someone would actually make (or has made) such a thing, is another story.

OP was specifically asking for an extension cord with a sensor that would communicate with the UMC. Your solution is a smart extension cord, and may solve OP's problem, but it isn't remotely what OP was asking for.

I might have well written something akin to "No, they don't make an extension cord, but you can head on over to Home Depot and get the materials to install an outlet closer to where you want to plug the UMC into". That would undoubtedly be cheaper than any of the aforementioned solutions, but still wouldn't be what OP was asking for.

 

[Genie]

Won’t the UMC pigtail still sense overheat in an extension same as in a wall outlet?

 

[Sophias_dad]

Won’t the UMC pigtail still sense overheat in an extension same as in a wall outlet?

Yes, but it'll only be sensing overheat in the end of the extension cord its plugged into. It won't know if the wall outlet is overheating or not.

 

[MLXXXp]

OP was specifically asking for an extension cord with a sensor that would communicate with the UMC.

How did you read that into the OP? The OP specifically wrote:

the slow charger Tesla gives us actually has a thermal censor in the terminal sides of the cable. If too much heat is detected it shuts off.

I guess if we use /any/ extension cord with the Tesla charger then we're losing that safety element.

So my question really is: does an extension cord exist with similar censors like that?

I don't see anything about communicating with the UMC.

 

[Sophias_dad]

How did you read that into the OP? The OP specifically wrote:

I don't see anything about communicating with the UMC.

Perhaps I was reading more into it than was actually there. Many times people on these forums don't know enough to formulate the questions they want to ask, and we have to interpret them as best we can. Perhaps @macmee can respond with exactly what they were asking for.