P100D loaner won't charge on my mobile charger

[SeminoleFSU]

Team,
Looking to pick your collective brains on this one. Tesla has kindly allowed me to do an "overnight" with a P100D loaner (good lordy this thing is fast)... When I got the car they didn't provide any adapters or a mobile charger....

Luckily I have mine at home. I have two 14-50 plugs in my carport and one mobile charger circa 2013 (came with my P85).

The problem I'm running into is that when the P100D tries to charge, it seems to not want to honor the max amps I dial in... No matter how low I set it (even down to max of 5A), as soon as it starts to draw power, my circuit breaker pops. This happens on BOTH 14-50 outlets.

Out of curiosity and to rule out the on-board chargers as being the issue, I took it down to a local destination charger that delivered the full 72A on 3phase power. I just can't for the life of me get this thing to charge on mine at home.. Any thoughts?

I ran into this same issue with a P100D MX I had months back. I remember calling customer support and they walked me through a procedure and we got around the issue. I called them last night on this P100D MS and they had me power off the car, wait 2mins then try again. We did this 2-3x and it failed each time...

Since I'm unable to charge the car, I'm hesitant to really get it out on the road and try out both the performance and/or AP2.0... Damn shame. I have enough to get me to work and then back to Tesla to drop off but so much for getting it out tonight and really having some fun... Thoughts on anything else I can try?

 

[brkaus]

Do you have a GFCI breaker?

 

[SeminoleFSU]

Do you have a GFCI breaker?

yup!

 

[SeminoleFSU]

plugs are both outside in a carport that can get wet... so we went with GFCI... worked fine for 2+yrs (since we put them in?)

 

[brkaus]

I'd have to bet the newer car is testing the ground in a way that is tripping a marginal GFCI. Been a few similar reports here recently, they replaced the breaker and all was OK.

No guarantee of course...

GFCI is definitely good idea for an outside 14-50. I'd do the same.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

I'd have to bet the newer car is testing the ground in a way that is tripping a marginal GFCI. Been a few similar reports here recently, they replaced the breaker and all was OK.

No guarantee of course...

I may have the spare 50A breakers around here that came with the panel... the GFCI were "upgrades"... I could swap one out and see if that fixes the problem...

 

[brkaus]

I cannot find the thread. Someone had similar within the last few weeks. The put in a new GFCI breaker and all was good.

I'll try to look later.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

I cannot find the thread. Someone had similar within the last few weeks. The put in a new GFCI breaker and all was good.

I'll try to look later.

Oh so GFCI was ok, they just had to be new? These are approx 2yrs old (were purchased new back then), and both trip... I've really only used one since we put them in since we only have one Tesla ATM....

 

[SeminoleFSU]

Perhaps this is the thread? They just said GFCI's wear out (pretty easily) with age. Strange thing about that is I've only been using one this entire time and they both pop now.... Someone also mentions that the charger has built in ground fault interrupt checking... so I'm wondering if GFCI on the breaker isn't needed??

GFI Pops

 

[SeminoleFSU]

And this:
HPWC 2 connected to 50 AMP Breaker w/GFCI

Does charge cable that comes with car have built-in gfci?

 

[brkaus]

The built in GFCI doesn’t protect at the actual plug/outlet. The charging end is protected.

Code now requires GFCI on 14-50 outlets, but not hard wired EVSE.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

The built in GFCI doesn’t protect at the actual plug/outlet. The charging end is protected.

Code now requires GFCI on 14-50 outlets, but not hard wired EVSE.

Gotcha.. I saw your edit above and realized GFCI is probably a good idea for an outdoor outlet.

OT: Do you know if it's possible to combine two 50A circuits into one HPWC? The new car I'm getting will be capable of 72A charging so now the HPWC at >40A makes sense...

 

[brkaus]

Sorry, no clue on combining wiring. I would tend to doubt it, seams like a safety risk for an unsuspecting person messing with it in the future. Is it in conduit and new larger wires could be pulled?

 

[SeminoleFSU]

Sorry, no clue on combining wiring. I would tend to doubt it, seams like a safety risk for an unsuspecting person messing with it in the future. Is it in conduit and new larger wires could be pulled?

Yea.. that's what I figured. Nope no way to pull wire through the conduits it would have to be a new run and I don't need faster charging that bad

 

[Rocky_H]

I took it down to a local destination charger that delivered the full 72A on 3phase power.

That's not really three phase--certainly not at 72A. The building may have a 3 phase supply at its main transformer, but that wall connector certainly doesn't have 3 phase in it. The North American cars aren't configured to take 3 phase electricity.

Thoughts on anything else I can try?

The Atlanta Supercharger for now, so you can try out that P100D.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

That's not really three phase--certainly not at 72A. The building may have a 3 phase supply at its main transformer, but that wall connector certainly doesn't have 3 phase in it. The North American cars aren't configured to take 3 phase electricity.

The Atlanta Supercharger for now, so you can try out that P100D.

I'm not an expert on electrical (obviously) but the voltage was showing like 200-ish not the typical 240-250ish but it was hitting 72 amps. I always thought that commercial power vs residential power was lower in voltage. I first discovered this charging at a HPWC when I noticed it was slower than normal and researched it and found that it was normal if the power is commercial vs residential.

The Atlanta Supercharger is about 30-40mins from where I am so I won't be hitting it tonight... but I'll def hit it on the way home from work tomorrow since it's looking like I won't be able to swap out a breaker tonight. I'm not sure I want to swap anything until I get my car back and try it... If it works fine I'm not going to touch anything until I get an inventory 100D I have a deposit on (hopefully by the end of this month) *fingers crossed*

 

[brkaus]

Three phase power at the location, but it’s single phase to the WC.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

Coming back to update. I have a 2018 Model S 100D loaner that I tried to charge tonight on my 14-50 plugs using the gen2 mobile charger and the damn thing is popping my GFCI breaker just like all the other loaners I've tried to charge using my gen 1 mobile charger. Same results... Charge tries to sfarsbut breaker trips. Meanwhile my old 2013 Model S charges just fine.. this is leading me to the conclusion that it's something with the new ONBOARD chargers in the new cars that do 72A.
I guess I'll ask my electrician to swap one of the 50A breakers for a non-GFCI version to see what happens? Thoughts?

 

[brkaus]

It does sound like it would be onboard if both umc exhibit the same thing.

I assume this is a different loaner from before?

Changed the way they are testing for faults?

 

[SeminoleFSU]

My electrician buddy came by today and we swapped one of my 14-50 plugs in the carport to a standard 50A (non-GFCI) breaker and the 2018 car now charges fine. This seals it for me.. Something is funky with the new 32A onboard inverters and GFCI breakers...

So I can now charge the 2018 loaner, but I'm not up to code on an outlet that is in a carport where there can be moisture on the ground, etc. This is a major safety issue.... I'm surprised more people aren't running into this but I suppose it's because most people don't charge their cars outdoors, and some who do use a plug that isn't properly GFCI protected...

If you get zapped by one of these plugs your family will likely be casket shopping once they peel you off the plug... I wrote [email protected] because the customer service line is OVER AN HOUR wait to speak to someone.

I have zero faith I'll see an email back from anyone....