Red light on Tesla Charger

[JetFalcon]

So previous night I plugged in my Tesla and when I left for the day, I realized the battery wasn't at 90% and it did not charge. I assumed I must have not plugged it in all the way, and it wasn't a big deal since 70% was more than enough for my 15 min commute each way.

Then after driving, my battery was down to 50% and this time I really had to charge it because I'm taking my bunny to get neutered at a clinic 30 minutes away from me. Then I see a red light on the Tesla wall charger and realizing my Tesla was simply not charging. Checked online and typed something like "red light wall charger" and found this old thread.

“Ready to Charge. Check Power Source”

It answered my question about restarting the switch board, so went outside and turned the EV charger breaker switch on & off. First time, it didn't work, but on the 2-3rd try, it finally worked. Thankfully it was labeled on my outdoor electrical switch panel so I knew which one it was.

Hopefully it doesn't happen again. It would be terrible if say my friend's wedding day, which is going to be a 90 mile commute from OC to San Diego, to realize I have no charge. Thankfully I could just borrow my parent's car, but still, if I don't have any minute to spare, it's gonna be a bad situation.

I wonder if I can still install a Nema-15 outlet as a backup, in case something went wrong with that wall connector. Or if I get a roommate who happened to have a Tesla or EV and we both need to charge up.

This is just copy / paste from the other thread, but this is the exact warning I got.
Ready to Charge. Check Power Source”

 

[Resist]

I wonder if I can still install a Nema-15 outlet as a backup, in case something went wrong with that wall connector.

Not sure what you mean by a Nema-15, a normal 120volt wall outlet is a Nema 5-15. Why not just install a 220volt Nema 14-50 outlet and charge at a faster rate?

 

[boaterva]

If you get the Check Power error with no issues (lights) on the HPWC, you might try powering the car down and back up from the menu. I’ve had this work to reset the charger in the car when it got hung for some reason. Still working with Tesla to replace it since they can’t duplicate it and need to witness it.

 

[lolder]

What type outlet are you usually charging from? If it's a 14-50 you need to get an electrician to check the connections if you got a red light on the UMC-2 and the car wouldn't charge. All wiring has to be perfect and the connections very tight for the 7-8 kw that are transferred by 14-50s.

 

[David29]

There's also a reset switch on the side of the wall connector itself. You might find using that reset switch more effective than switching the breaker on and off. Not sure but it might have some functionality unique to the wall charger.
In addition, there are trouble shooting tips in the back pages of the owners manual for the wall connector. If you don't have the paper copy that came with it, you can download a copy from your my Tesla page. The owner's manual will tell you how to generate a display of error codes using the red and green indicators. There's also a technical service number specific for home wall connectors in the back of that manual. Don't call the regular Tesla toll free number. I have found the service from the wall connector people quite good.

 

[Plug-n-Play]

I had similar issues which went away after replacing my GFCI circuit breaker with a standard one. Do you know if yours is GFCI?

 

[Hkbruin]

In a pinch just use the supercharger at San Clemente or Carlsbad near La Costa to top off. You won’t need to spend more than 15-20 minutes to get you back home each way. For your friend’s wedding day...

 

[JetFalcon]

Not sure what you mean by a Nema-15, a normal 120volt wall outlet is a Nema 5-15. Why not just install a 220volt Nema 14-50 outlet and charge at a faster rate?

Something like this picture. Of the plug so I can have a second option of charging, since I still have my charging cable that came with the car.

 

[JetFalcon]

There's also a reset switch on the side of the wall connector itself. You might find using that reset switch more effective than switching the breaker on and off. Not sure but it might have some functionality unique to the wall charger.
In addition, there are trouble shooting tips in the back pages of the owners manual for the wall connector. If you don't have the paper copy that came with it, you can download a copy from your my Tesla page. The owner's manual will tell you how to generate a display of error codes using the red and green indicators. There's also a technical service number specific for home wall connectors in the back of that manual. Don't call the regular Tesla toll free number. I have found the service from the wall connector people quite good.

Hmm I'll check it out, I had no idea there was a reset switch. Didn't try that option, since on / off on the breaker switch worked for me. But I rather not have to do that, so I'd rather use the reset switch if it happens again.

 

[JetFalcon]

In a pinch just use the supercharger at San Clemente or Carlsbad near La Costa to top off. You won’t need to spend more than 15-20 minutes to get you back home each way. For your friend’s wedding day...

My other option is to charge for 40-60 minutes during the wedding day in Mission Valley and get a full charge so I can get around SD. Because for the wedding, there is a two hour break where this is nothing planned for the guests when the church ceremony ends and everyone transitions to the next venue for dinner.

Or if this one of the friends is nice enough, the groom knows a guy with an apartment in downtown San Diego. He actually let me charge my Tesla when I went to Comic Con on Sunday in his apt complex. I dunno if he can do it again.

I'm staying at the Westin in downtown San Diego. Is there options to charge my car overnight that's less $25 for a parking garage? Because I'm not paying for parking, but I'd be willing to pay $5-15 if I can top off my car at an EV spot. To kinda get parking and charging at the same time. Otherwise, I'm going cheap and finding street parking, its free on Sundays.

 

[Solarman004]

This may not apply in your case, but when I had the fault indication with red light, I turned off the circuit breaker and pulled the cover off the HPWC. In checking the torque of the wire terminal screws, I found a loose connection at the ground wire. After tightening, I've had no further problems.

 

[doghousePVD]

I've had a "check power source" error a few times when the plug is not fully inserted into the car. It would charge very slowly. Remove and replug solved the problem.

As the prior poster noted, a loose ground would also cause an error. Many houses have poor ground connections.

 

[Hkbruin]

My other option is to charge for 40-60 minutes during the wedding day in Mission Valley and get a full charge so I can get around SD. Because for the wedding, there is a two hour break where this is nothing planned for the guests when the church ceremony ends and everyone transitions to the next venue for dinner.

Or if this one of the friends is nice enough, the groom knows a guy with an apartment in downtown San Diego. He actually let me charge my Tesla when I went to Comic Con on Sunday in his apt complex. I dunno if he can do it again.

I'm staying at the Westin in downtown San Diego. Is there options to charge my car overnight that's less $25 for a parking garage? Because I'm not paying for parking, but I'd be willing to pay $5-15 if I can top off my car at an EV spot. To kinda get parking and charging at the same time. Otherwise, I'm going cheap and finding street parking, its free on Sundays.

There is a Tesla Supercharger in a parking complex in downtown SD, about a mile away from the Westin:
350 Sixth Ave, San Diego, CA 92101

You can gauge availability and charge there.. I can't recall the amount of time the parking lot charges, but I imagine you can get your charging done fairly quickly there. It can be fairly crowded and cramped there, but it is a very close option for you.

 

[JetFalcon]

There is a Tesla Supercharger in a parking complex in downtown SD, about a mile away from the Westin:
350 Sixth Ave, San Diego, CA 92101

You can gauge availability and charge there.. I can't recall the amount of time the parking lot charges, but I imagine you can get your charging done fairly quickly there. It can be fairly crowded and cramped there, but it is a very close option for you.

My other option is to use a Blink Public Charger during the cocktail / dinner part of the wedding is happening at Balboa Park. And I see Blink is the only public charging available. Says $0.49 per Kwh, but does that mean its 49 cents an hour? I estimate my battery will be around 40-60% once I reach San Diego based on past experiences.

This would be ideal for me since my car will be parked there for several hours for level 2 charging. Then I can be fully charged over 70-80% when the wedding ends, since I may want to drive around San Diego the next day & have enough to make it back to OC.

So hopefully I can have a full charge after 5-7 hours of charging since it will be an all night event. And hopefully I can snag a spot near the venue so I can move it if its done charging.

 

[Hkbruin]

My other option is to use a Blink Public Charger during the cocktail / dinner part of the wedding is happening at Balboa Park. And I see Blink is the only public charging available. Says $0.49 per Kwh, but does that mean its 49 cents an hour?

This would be ideal for me since my car will be parked there for several hours for level 2 charging.

I estimate my battery will be around 40-60% once I reach San Diego based on past experiences. So hopefully I can have a full charge after the event so I'll have more than enough to cruise around SD and get back to OC the next day.

View attachment 462367

I've been to the Blink charger at Balboa Park, but I couldn't figure out how to use it

 

[JetFalcon]

I've been to the Blink charger at Balboa Park, but I couldn't figure out how to use it

Is there no credit card slot?

I downloaded the app, I think you select & pay for it through there. I was navigating and wanted to see how you pay, but it states I (or iPhone) must be within a mile of a charging station to select one & pay so I'll have to wait until I'm actually there.

Were the full or were they readily available whenever you went? I had to use google maps to find EV charging

 

[Hkbruin]

Is there no credit card slot?

I downloaded the app, I think you select & pay for it through there. I was navigating and wanted to see how you pay, but it states I (or iPhone) must be within a mile of a charging station to select one & pay so I'll have to wait until I'm actually there.

Were the full or were they readily available whenever you went? I had to use google maps to find EV charging

No credit card slot that I saw for those, and it was in a poor state. One cord was severed and a non-ev was parked there. Hopefully they are fixed now. There were 2 or 3 in the parking lot I was at, but it could have been some other one than the one you’re thinking of?

 

[srs5694]

Says $0.49 per Kwh, but does that mean its 49 cents an hour?

It would mean $0.49/hour only if you were charging at a rate of 1kW -- if the electricity is flowing at a rate of 1kW, you get 1kWh over the course of an hour. Most public Level 2 EVSEs provide about 6kW to a Tesla, so you'd consume 6kWh in an hour, and it'd be closer to $3 to charge for an hour. Once charging is complete, it'll either drop to $0/hour or you'll rack up idle fees, depending on the terms of the station.

I estimate my battery will be around 40-60% once I reach San Diego based on past experiences.

Put another way, the battery of a long range Model 3 has a capacity of about 75kWh. If you arrive with 50% charge and want to charge to 90%, that'd mean you'd be using 40% of 75kWh, or about 30kWh. At $0.49/kWh, that'd cost you about $14.70. (This calculation ignores charging inefficiencies, which would slightly raise both the power consumed and the cost.)

Either way you calculate it, this is quite pricey for electricity anywhere in the US; but if you need the charge, you need the charge. Personally, I don't worry about this sort of thing when I'm on a road trip or whatnot, since it's rare, and at other times my charging costs are relatively low.

 

[r1200gs4ok]

There's also a reset switch on the side of the wall connector itself. You might find using that reset switch more effective than switching the breaker on and off. Not sure but it might have some functionality unique to the wall charger.
In addition, there are trouble shooting tips in the back pages of the owners manual for the wall connector. If you don't have the paper copy that came with it, you can download a copy from your my Tesla page. The owner's manual will tell you how to generate a display of error codes using the red and green indicators. There's also a technical service number specific for home wall connectors in the back of that manual. Don't call the regular Tesla toll free number. I have found the service from the wall connector people quite good.

where is that switch located.....I can't seem to locate it

 

[SilverString]

It is on the left side of the charger. It's a red push blister switch that says RESET.