Tesla to Upgrade Wall Adapters After Reports of Garage Fires - Bloomberg News

[Kalud]

Btw, if I try to unplug my HPWC during charge or right after charge, it is impossible to do without burning my hand. I mean the type of burn that leaves redness for several hours. I now have an oven mitt next to the car.

Get that replaced, mine is barely warm after 3h of 80A charging... The cable is a bit warmer but nothing to worry about... Like 95F...

 

[ibcs]

My daily use adapter is the 6-50, not the 14-50.

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The HPWC should not get that hot. You have an issue and need to notify customer care.

Agreed mine is warm, but it would never leave your hand red. The extra (s) in the fire statement was not accidental. Reporters want to get as much out of their headline as possible.

 

[araxara]

Btw, if I try to unplug my HPWC during charge or right after charge, it is impossible to do without burning my hand. I mean the type of burn that leaves redness for several hours. I now have an oven mitt next to the car.

I had the exact issue with my HPWC. Tesla provided me with a new plug/cable (which I installed myself). The new plug only gets slightly warm. The only reason I knew to ask about this was that I have a HPWC at another house and it would never get very hot. Only issue now with the new pug/cable is that the charge port opening is erratic.

 

[100thMonkey]

Btw, if I try to unplug my HPWC during charge or right after charge, it is impossible to do without burning my hand. I mean the type of burn that leaves redness for several hours. I now have an oven mitt next to the car.

Wow, I strongly urge anyone who is seeing this kind of heat to stop using the UMC and notify Tesla immediately, that kind of heat is super dangerous and suggests much higher than normal resistance. a litttle bit of warmth is normal, but scorching heat is exactly what is melting and leading to potential fire hazard, it's definitely not working properly.

 

[Rockster]

Btw, if I try to unplug my HPWC during charge or right after charge, it is impossible to do without burning my hand. I mean the type of burn that leaves redness for several hours. I now have an oven mitt next to the car.

My HPWC handle barely gets warm. Something seems wrong with your setup.

 

[Rainbow]

Btw, if I try to unplug my HPWC during charge or right after charge, it is impossible to do without burning my hand. I mean the type of burn that leaves redness for several hours. I now have an oven mitt next to the car.

I had the exact issue with my HPWC. Tesla provided me with a new plug/cable (which I installed myself). The new plug only gets slightly warm. The only reason I knew to ask about this was that I have a HPWC at another house and it would never get very hot. Only issue now with the new pug/cable is that the charge port opening is erratic.

They shouldn't get too hot to touch. If they are that hot on the outside, then they're likely much hotter on the inside. If they get that hot there is a risk of fire. That's too hot to safely use, contact Tesla ASAP. It's a fire hazard.

 

[afilm_guy]

I reported heating that I thought was unreasonable

Tesla adapter system for the UMC
since day one has been questionable.
I reported heating that I thought was unreasonable
when I took delivery of my car October, 2 years ago.

My recommendation would be to install smoke detectors over the charging cable
as a minimum safety requirement.

I think we should start talking about chopping off the factory connections.
And re-terminate the wires with a more suitable connector.
Keeping in mind we have to provide the proper resistance
on a sensing pins to set the power profile.

Is Tesla going to really address this problem.
Or should informed owners modify their own equipment for fire safety?

Curious to hear your thoughts, it's the end plugged into the wall socket were talking about.

 

[Cottonwood]

My HPWC handle barely gets warm. Something seems wrong with your setup.

Same with me, no excessive heat, and I regularly charge at 80 Amps with my HPWC. If your HPWC or UMC connector to the car, the UMC adapter plugging into the wall, or any other component gets uncomfortably hot, figure out why, or get someone (Tesla or your electrician) to figure out why.

I once plugged my UMC into a 14-50 with that got really hot. I stopped the charge, turned off the breaker and opened up the 14-50. The lug screws to the wires were very loose. I tightened them up, put things back together, and the heat problem went away.

If any part of the charging system is uncomfortably hot, there is most likely a problem that should be corrected. Don't fool around! The first time you use a new charging setup. Check for hot components 5 and then 15 minutes into the charge.

 

[100thMonkey]

Seriously folks, if you have to use an oven mitt to unplug your car, call 24 hour Customer care (866) 998-3752. I am quite sure Tesla will gladly overnight an upgraded replacement to you!

 

[PhilBa]

Seriously folks, if you have to use an oven mitt to unplug your car, call 24 hour Customer care (866) 998-3752. I am quite sure Tesla will gladly overnight an upgraded replacement to you!

Yes, and don't use it again until you have a replacement.

What i want to know is which wall adapter are they talking about? HPWC is the only wall adapter they have but all the reports are about the UMC. My guess is Bloomberg is using imprecise terminology and it's the UMC they are referring to.

 

[techmaven]

I'm really puzzled why we are hearing this from Bloomberg. For a company that is so social media savvy, hosts its own website, has its own forums, is on Twitter, why haven't we heard anything direct?

As a result, we get incorrect and partial information - what Bloomberg is famous for when it comes to anything it doesn't like.

 

[100thMonkey]

I'm really puzzled why we are hearing this from Bloomberg. For a company that is so social media savvy, hosts its own website, has its own forums, is on Twitter, why haven't we heard anything direct?

As a result, we get incorrect and partial information - what Bloomberg is famous for when it comes to anything it doesn't like.

Maybe Tesla is convinced that the real problem even when the plug melts is the wall side so rather than seeing it as "fixing" their product, they are merely upgrading it to detect faulty wiring, which is different than a recall of a faulty product. It's clear that the media would jump on anything that looks like a recall and "stoke the flames" so to speak so I guess it's understandable that they are trying to stay under the radar, though I agree that a notice directly to owners would be nice.

 

[techmaven]

Maybe Tesla is convinced that the real problem even when the plug melts is the wall side so rather than seeing it as "fixing" their product, they are merely upgrading it to detect faulty wiring, which is different than a recall of a faulty product. It's clear that the media would jump on anything that looks like a recall and "stoke the flames" so to speak so I guess it's understandable that they are trying to stay under the radar, though I agree that a notice directly to owners would be nice.

If that is the case, it is even more important that they directly control the message through the well established means they've used in the past so effectively. Why let this one come out garbled and incomplete through Bloomberg?

 

[Rainbow]

What i want to know is which wall adapter are they talking about? HPWC is the only wall adapter they have but all the reports are about the UMC. My guess is Bloomberg is using imprecise terminology and it's the UMC they are referring to.

Huh? Bloomberg quoted Elon Musk, as saying adapter. I also would like to know what peace or pieces of hardware is specifically being talked about.

I think the problem might be more complicated than a single type of adapter.

I think there may be more than one problem involved here. I think there are probably several risk factors that are adding up under some circumstances.

The Swiss Cheese model of accident causation.
Swiss cheese model - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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If that is the case, it is even more important that they directly control the message through the well established means they've used in the past so effectively. Why let this one come out garbled and incomplete through Bloomberg?

It seems many of you are out to scapegoat the media. When Tesla and Elon Musk were previously confronted about these problems, they denied that there was a problem. Instead they tried to blame house wiring and the media.

The article has some shortcomings, but it seems to be better than Tesla and Elon Musk. It's seriously wrong to try to cover up safety issues.

 

[ggr]

I just sent the following to ownership:

I hereby would like to save Tesla some money and request that you NOT ship me a new adaptor in response to the current silliness in the media. Nothing bad has happened to our outlets in 5 years of owning a Roadster and 18 months with a Model S, so we don't feel a need.

Your PR department can feel free to quote me on this.

with sincere appreciation for the car and the customer service,
Greg.

 

[TexasEV]

What i want to know is which wall adapter are they talking about? HPWC is the only wall adapter they have but all the reports are about the UMC. My guess is Bloomberg is using imprecise terminology and it's the UMC they are referring to.

The article seems clear to me. "The charger connectors, which tether Tesla-issued cables to wall outlets..." can only mean the UMC adapters such as the 14-50 adapter. Not the UMC itself and not the HPWC.

 

[Rainbow]

I think there might be several components in the charging system that may be inadequate for such high currents, for such long durations and other factors.

I recently opened one of the UMC's up, but it's a pretty destructive process due to the housing overmold and it being glued shut. It's a "one-way" trip, so definitely do NOT try this at home!

Tesla is really pushing the limits on the UMC design! When used with a 50A adapter, It's putting out a 66.7% Duty cycle, which equates to 40A. They use paired 2.5mm wires for each side of the line, (Equivalent to ~#13AWG) and inside the box they use the same P&B relay ClipperCreek uses on the LCS-25, a single 30A rated relay. (at 40A!)

 

[EarlyAdopter]

I think there might be several components in the charging system that may be inadequate for such high currents, for such long durations and other factors.

And yet there have been 0, zero, zip, nada, none, no problems with the UMC itself. It's been rock solid bullet proof from everything I've read here. For a year and half now, over 20,000+ of them in service.

No, the only problems have been in the adapters, wall side wiring, and some fuse problems in early HPWC's.

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What i want to know is which wall adapter are they talking about? HPWC is the only wall adapter they have but all the reports are about the UMC. My guess is Bloomberg is using imprecise terminology and it's the UMC they are referring to.

I think it's pretty clear they mean the $45 NEMA 14-50 socket adapter you plug in on the wall side of the UMC. You know, the one that's had a few melting issues of its own. Putting a thermistor in it is a sound engineering move.

 

[Rockster]

FWIW, I just ran a quick test on my HPWC using an infrared thermometer.

After 40 minutes charging at 240v/80 amps, with ambient temperature low 50's (F) in the garage:

Charging handle: 68 degrees F at charging port
Charging cable: 54-58 along length of cable
Body of HPWC: 78 degrees max


Later that same day...

Running the same test on the UMC:

After 30 minutes charging at 240v/40 amps with the UMC, with ambient temperature low to mid 60's (F) in the garage:

Charging handle: 65-73 degrees F, taking readings around the entire surface
Charging cable: 72-82 degrees F, along length of cable
Universal connector of UMC: 78-86 degrees F, taking readings around the entire surface
14-50 adapter: 83-89 degrees F, taking readings around the entire surface

 

[DriverOne]

My 40A plug gets pretty hot to the touch in 90+ºF temps. I haven't measured the temperature; it's not enough to burn but hot is an accurate description. I've dialed the amps down to 36A, and now its winter anyway so...