Same Home charger....not the same

[Vitaman]

Excuse me if this has been covered, but my search yielded no results.
My 2016 MS came off lease last month and I replaced with an inventory 2018 version.
Naturally already had gone through the find an electrician to install your garage charger phase years ago.
Charged my new car for about 10 days just fine. On the 11th day it throw a red light and refused to charge.
Spent an hour with phone tech support. They ran out of ideas. Their final advice? Call an electrician.
Turned out to be necessary but would have been nice if they started our conversation with "your charger from a few years ago is now just a paperweight....buy a new charger."
Of the myriad of people who all knew it was my 3rd Tesla (3 sales people, 2 Delivery specialists out of state and 2 in town), not a single one mentioned that I would need to invest in a new Charger.
Unless this is arcane knowledge, that rarely ever comes up, I'm surprised that nobody gave me a head's up.

 

[Big Earl]

You're surprised nobody gave you a heads up on what?

The only reason why you need to invest in a new charging station is because the old one failed. It's not due to some compatibility issue with the new car. It would have been impossible for anyone to have foreseen or predicted this failure, so I'm not really sure why you're expecting them to have made a replacement recommendation just because you bought a new car.

 

[Rocky_H]

The only reason why you need to invest in a new charging station is because the old one failed.

That's not the only reason. It could be another problem, like....

It's not due to some compatibility issue with the new car.

Which is almost certainly the problem. This has been known about and documented here on this forum for a while.
Gen 1 HPWC with newer Model Xs?
Series 1 HPWC issues with 2018 model S

The newer computer units in the 2018 and later cars have some incompatibility with the first generation wall connectors. But yes, it's a frustrating problem that it even came up in the first place, and it's obscure enough that a lot of the Tesla staff don't know about it yet or remember to warn people about.

 

[animorph]

OP stated the old charger worked OK for 10 days. Does that fit in with the Gen 1 HPWC problem others have seen? Not a problem I've had, but I thought it consistently wouldn't charge from day 1.

 

[Rocky_H]

OP stated the old charger worked OK for 10 days. Does that fit in with the Gen 1 HPWC problem others have seen? Not a problem I've had, but I thought it consistently wouldn't charge from day 1.

I don't quite know how the symptoms show, since it hasn't happened to me. I don't know if it always fails from every charge attempt or just frequently. But going from a 2016 wall connector to a 2018 vehicle does seem like it would be the old/new scenario that has a problem with this. But maybe it is something else. Tesla told this guy to have an electrician check it, so maybe something has gone bad or loose or something.

 

[Big Earl]

That's not the only reason. It could be another problem, like....

Which is almost certainly the problem. This has been known about and documented here on this forum for a while.
Gen 1 HPWC with newer Model Xs?
Series 1 HPWC issues with 2018 model S

The newer computer units in the 2018 and later cars have some incompatibility with the first generation wall connectors. But yes, it's a frustrating problem that it even came up in the first place, and it's obscure enough that a lot of the Tesla staff don't know about it yet or remember to warn people about.

You’re right about that and thanks for pointing it out. However, it worked for several days before failing, so I’m not convinced that’s the issue.

 

[swegman]

That's not the only reason. It could be another problem, like....

Which is almost certainly the problem. This has been known about and documented here on this forum for a while.
Gen 1 HPWC with newer Model Xs?
Series 1 HPWC issues with 2018 model S

The newer computer units in the 2018 and later cars have some incompatibility with the first generation wall connectors. But yes, it's a frustrating problem that it even came up in the first place, and it's obscure enough that a lot of the Tesla staff don't know about it yet or remember to warn people about.

I’ve used my 6 year old Gen 1 UMC (40 amp max charging rate) that came with my 2013 P85 to repeatedly charge the Model 3 without any issues whatsoever. On the other hand, I’m on the third Gen 2 UMC (32 amp max charge rate) that ships with the Model 3 due to their breaking.

 

[Vitaman]

"You're surprised nobody gave you a heads up on what?

The only reason why you need to invest in a new charging station is because the old one failed. It's not due to some compatibility issue with the new car. It would have been impossible for anyone to have foreseen or predicted this failure, so I'm not really sure why you're expecting them to have made a replacement recommendation just because you bought a new car."

Yes I am surprised.
The electrician who has installed over 200 Tesla home chargers said it was a common problem. He wasn't the least bit nonplussed.
There was no mechanical issue with my circa 2014 charger. It was simply compatibility. He did say for some unknown reason an older charger will work for a limited amount of time on a newer car. He guessed I had bought the car 7-10 days prior.

 

[Vitaman]

" Tesla told this guy to have an electrician check it, so maybe something has gone bad or loose or something."
Actually she gave up. Her knowledge bank was limited (out of the 20 or so tech support reps I have called over the years, she was right at the bottom in terms of knowledge/experience). The Electrician suggestion was not born of certainty but rather desperation. Of course it turned out to be right on.

 

[sorka]

That's not the only reason. It could be another problem, like....

Which is almost certainly the problem. This has been known about and documented here on this forum for a while.
Gen 1 HPWC with newer Model Xs?
Series 1 HPWC issues with 2018 model S

The newer computer units in the 2018 and later cars have some incompatibility with the first generation wall connectors. But yes, it's a frustrating problem that it even came up in the first place, and it's obscure enough that a lot of the Tesla staff don't know about it yet or remember to warn people about.

So what about the 10s of thousands of existing destination chargers that were installed years ago that show up on everyone's nav even on the newest Teslas?

 

[Rocky_H]

You’re right about that and thanks for pointing it out. However, it worked for several days before failing, so I’m not convinced that’s the issue.

Well yeah, that one would make me doubt the incompatibility thing. I thought it would always have a problem, but the comment a couple down from this mentioned maybe it does sometimes work for a few days.

I’ve used my 6 year old Gen 1 UMC (40 amp max charging rate) that came with my 2013 P85 to repeatedly charge the Model 3 without any issues whatsoever. On the other hand, I’m on the third Gen 2 UMC (32 amp max charge rate) that ships with the Model 3 due to their breaking.

The mobile connectors never had this issue. It was unique to the wall connectors for some reason.

So what about the 10s of thousands of existing destination chargers that were installed years ago that show up on everyone's nav even on the newest Teslas?

BINGO! Those two threads both bring up that very real concern that doesn't really have a solution. There are a ton of those Gen1 wall connectors out there at hotels as Destination Chargers, and people with newer cars may show up and discover that it won't work on their cars. This is a big problem that Tesla has created for itself with this incompatibility problem. I think some very few of those may have been replaced with Gen2 versions, but only if someone found out about this issue and told the hotel (or Tesla), and Tesla and the hotel worked out sending replacements and getting them installed. That's a lot of work, which is why I don't think many of them have addressed this.