Powerwall breaker keeps tripping

[gnumeric]

My powerwalls were installed in April and everything was great until a couple of weeks ago. The breaker to one of the powerwalls (I have 3 total) started tripping when the powerwall is:

1) charging
AND
2) at about 97%+ capacity

This one breaker only trips during this scenario. Charging below that capacity doesn't trip the breaker, and neither does discharging the powerwall. It's just this one breaker. The other 2 powerwall breakers are fine.

If I flip the breaker back on during this scenario, then a few minutes later it trips again. I can hear a bit of fizzling in the breaker box before it trips. Already on hold with Tesla support, but just wanted to see if anyone else has had this problem before.

 

[miimura]

This is not normal. Breakers are cheap. Just change it out and see if the problem goes away. If you are at all uncomfortable or uncertain how to do it, get someone to help you, professional or otherwise.

 

[5170304]

This is not normal. Breakers are cheap. Just change it out and see if the problem goes away. If you are at all uncomfortable or uncertain how to do it, get someone to help you, professional or otherwise.

I agree. Breakers can and do go bad. It sounds like the breaker slowly heats up and by the time it reaches full charge it finally trips. Breakers should trip instantaneously when you have a short circuit, but a breaker that is exposed to an amperage that is close to its tripping point can slowly heat up over time and then trip. However, the arcing sound in the breaker box is not a good sign and I wouldn't trust it. Not an expert electrician just my opinion.

 

[Mike Swift]

numeric: This problem sounds like a defective breaker. To check it out, switch the suspect breaker with one of the other PowerWall breakers, if the same breaker trips, replace the faulty unit. If the replacement breaker now trips call Tesla, it is a PowerWall problem.

 

[JohnRatsey]

I can hear a bit of fizzling in the breaker box before it trips.

Did the installers forget to fully tighten a connection? A poor contact can generate heat which will warm up the breaker and cause it to trip.

 

[gnumeric]

Thanks all. I will take a look inside the breaker box and see. Before I do this though, how do you fully shut off the power with powerwalls+solar installed? Is there a proper shut down sequence documented somewhere?

Before getting the powerwalls, it was an easy flip of my main breaker and I could do work in my main panel. But now that just simulates an outage and my system goes into backup mode.

 

[woferry]

Given that each item is independent (well, except for the solar inverters which require some other grid(-like) source to run), order shouldn't matter. You just have to make sure that you turn off ALL sources to a panel before working on it, and turn them off at the other end (i.e. switch on the PWs, DC disconnects on inverters, feeding panel for grid service if there is one), not just throwing the breaker in the panel you're working on, or there will still be energized wires/terminals in the panel. And use any/all tools you might have that can confirm things are safe to work with before touching anything. I have both contact and inductive voltage testers as I had a side-job in concert lighting/sound for a bunch of years and was often tapping 2- or 3-phase power systems or big generators, can also use a multimeter, or even an outlet tester assuming you have an outlet you know is powered by that panel can help, but might not necessarily indicate that all power has been removed.