Lifespan for mobile charger?

[RubinRA]

My mobile charger just went bad on me. I bought a spare when I got my M3 in Feb 2020, kept one in the trunk for when I’m on the road, and kept the other plugged in to a 14-50 dryer plug in my garage, for charging at home. That’s the one that failed. Is 2-1/2 years a reasonable lifespan for home use (I’ve put about 30k on the car, mostly local)? I’m perfectly happy with the slower charging speed. Installing a permanent charger would be a lot more expensive than just getting another mobile; would it be likely to pay off in the long run by lasting 2-3 times longer?

 

[Sophias_dad]

You have it correct. The UMC is a limited lifespan item. I've heard 2-3 years is not uncommon for frequent use.

Even more reason to have a hardwired HPWC for home use.

 

[ucmndd]

You have it correct. The UMC is a limited lifespan item. I've heard 2-3 years is not uncommon for frequent use.

Eh? Do they like get electron fatigue or something after so many kwh?

Sure, things break sometimes, but I don’t think there’s any evidence that UMCs are disposable or intended to be maintenance items. Mine is pushing 7 years old and well over 100,000 miles of energy delivered at this point, still going strong.

OP, if it came with the car you can probably get it replaced under the car warranty. Many others have done this successfully.

 

[E90alex]

OP, if it came with the car you can probably get it replaced under the car warranty. Many others have done this successfully.

This. Shouldn’t be an issue to get it replaced for free. Just start a service request.

 

[stopcrazypp]

You have it correct. The UMC is a limited lifespan item. I've heard 2-3 years is not uncommon for frequent use.

Citation required? I haven't really seen much reports of UMC failing that often (especially the newer generations which presumably the OP has). Given Tesla covers it under the vehicle warranty, it would not make sense to design them to fail well within the warranty, even if there was planned obsolescence (in these cases manufacturers design them to fail just barely past the warranty).

Even more reason to have a hardwired HPWC for home use.

Is there any evidence HPWC failure rates are significantly less? I have seen reports of them failing too.

 

[stopcrazypp]

My mobile charger just went bad on me. I bought a spare when I got my M3 in Feb 2020, kept one in the trunk for when I’m on the road, and kept the other plugged in to a 14-50 dryer plug in my garage, for charging at home. That’s the one that failed. Is 2-1/2 years a reasonable lifespan for home use (I’ve put about 30k on the car, mostly local)? I’m perfectly happy with the slower charging speed. Installing a permanent charger would be a lot more expensive than just getting another mobile; would it be likely to pay off in the long run by lasting 2-3 times longer?

What are the error lights? Did you try cleaning the contacts of everything (including unplugging and cleaning the adapter)? Also try swapping adapter to a different one in case it is an adapter failure. For example this thread had a Gen 1 with red lights and they fixed it by cleaning all the contacts with alcohol.
UMC Failure

 

[Sophias_dad]

Citation required? I haven't really seen much reports of UMC failing that often (especially the newer generations which presumably the OP has). Given Tesla covers it under the vehicle warranty, it would not make sense to design them to fail well within the warranty, even if there was planned obsolescence (in these cases manufacturers design them to fail just barely past the warranty).

Is there any evidence HPWC failure rates are significantly less? I have seen reports of them failing too.

Doing a search, perhaps " 2-3 years is not uncommon for frequent use" was a bit severe, but here are some citations.

Is the model 3 mobile connector water proof?

With some of the places I will be visiting I will have to do supplemental charging from outdoor 120v outlets. The mobile connector will be outdoors for several days in rain or shine. Is it sealed and designed for outdoor use?

teslamotorsclub.com

Charging time at home admittedly a Gen1 UMC

Mobile charger quit working tonight

I have a mobile connector, 14-50, gen 1 with a charging problem. Just started tonight. I purchased this unit in 2016 and it has performed flawlessly until now. I plug it into a 14-50 plug, single green light glows (as always) I point it at the charging port, push the handle button, and the...

teslamotorsclub.com

As far as HPWC failure rates being less, the Gen3 HPWCs with earlier relays(model numbers ending with -F and before) were MUCH less reliable than UMCs. Their relays would overheat and with luck the HPWC would roll back the power, but even with that I've seen two that have outright failed as a result. The -G models and beyond seem to have improved that considerably, not unlike the Gen2 UMC being better than the Gen1 UMC.

The HPWC body is much more tolerant of bad weather, which isn't really an advantage if your UMC body is inside a garage. There are also two extra sets of connections to get power into a UMC, and each is its own potential failure point.

 

[E90alex]

There are also two extra sets of connections to get power into a UMC, and each is its own potential failure point.

This is a point not often brought up.

People always praise the WC as being better over the UMC because it is hardwired instead of the extra connections needed for a 240V outlet, but it’s essentially the same since the hardwire goes into the baseplate of the WC and the main WC unit has prongs that insert into receptacles on the baseplate when installed…just like how an outlet works.

 

[mspohr]

My mobile charger just went bad on me. I bought a spare when I got my M3 in Feb 2020, kept one in the trunk for when I’m on the road, and kept the other plugged in to a 14-50 dryer plug in my garage, for charging at home. That’s the one that failed. Is 2-1/2 years a reasonable lifespan for home use (I’ve put about 30k on the car, mostly local)? I’m perfectly happy with the slower charging speed. Installing a permanent charger would be a lot more expensive than just getting another mobile; would it be likely to pay off in the long run by lasting 2-3 times longer?

All of these Level2 chargers are very simple. Just a relay and a circuit board. The circuit should last forever. The relay could be subject to wear from arcing with frequent use but not likely.
These should last a long time. I have several Level2 chargers which I have had for up to 8 years. Never any kind of failure.

 

[Sophias_dad]

This is a point not often brought up.

People always praise the WC as being better over the UMC because it is hardwired instead of the extra connections needed for a 240V outlet, but it’s essentially the same since the hardwire goes into the baseplate of the WC and the main WC unit has prongs that insert into receptacles on the baseplate when installed…just like how an outlet works.

Fair enough, there's only one set of extra connections on a UMC. Sadly, its the set that Tesla has little control over.

 

[mspohr]

Fair enough, there's only one set of extra connections on a UMC. Sadly, its the set that Tesla has little control over.

I think the failure of UMCs are mostly due the connection to wall power. These sockets are not always good quality.

 

[Rocky_H]

There's some nonsense in this thread.

No, the UMC is not a short life disposable item. Mine has been my permanent daily at home charger for over 9 years.

Doing a search, perhaps " 2-3 years is not uncommon for frequent use" was a bit severe, but here are some citations.

But you didn't search for failures of the wall connectors, did you? That's the point. Many of the wall connectors had failures running at their maximum 80A too, the same as the mobile connectors did at 40A.

All of these Level2 chargers are very simple. Just a relay and a circuit board. The circuit should last forever. The relay could be subject to wear from arcing with frequent use but not likely.
These should last a long time. I have several Level2 chargers which I have had for up to 8 years. Never any kind of failure.

I think it's usually not arcing, but heat cycling. The farther that difference is from the on/off conditions of hot and cold, the more expansion and contraction of the metals there is. That can make solder joints brittle and eventually crack. Things can be built in a way to try to compensate for that with thicker connections, but some products do that better than others.

That's also why there is a very strong correlation among vastly improved lifetimes of wall and mobile connectors when they are run a some lower level amps below their official maximum rating they are supposedly built for. It keeps them cooler and has less degrees of that daily temperature movement, so makes less materials stress, which usually makes them last longer.

I think there also might be some cases of misleading correlation that makes people accuse mobile connectors. It's like noting that increased ice cream sales correlates with higher rates of shark attacks. That's a true statistic, but the ice cream isn't causing the sharks to bite people. The mobile connectors are usually lower power devices, so they are more often being maxed out. Whereas people frequently were using an 80A max wall connector at 40 or 48A, which is already a lowered rate than it's built for, so it is that cooler functioning I was talking about.

 

[johnny_cakes]

My mobile connector just failed. It would randomly stop charging due to an error. Almost 4 years old. Tesla replaced it under warranty after the 3rd service visit.

 

[mbp11]

I had a strange event happen to me with my UMC- it seemed to be running a little hot, although it is plugged into a 15 amp 220 volt Nema 6-15 adaptor in my garage (I don't mind trickle charging over night at 3 kW per hour). The mobile charger was the one I got with my 2018 model X new. This morning I found the amperage dialed down to 6 amps and the 1 kW per hour, and the "T" in the Tesla insignia was flashing red. It was not appreciably warm. I unplugged the charger from the Nema 6-15 plug and then plugged it in again and the red "T" went away and the charger began charging at the 12 amp rate again. Is this a sign the the charger might be failing?

 

[timk225]

I've been using my power connector that was supplied with hte car as my at home charger connection for over 5 years now and 119,000 miles.

A couple weeks ago, I noticed it was charging at 16/32 amps and had the red "T", I unplugged it and reconnected it and it's been fine ever since. First time that happened.