Charge Fuse blows

T

truleuneek1

New Member
Hi All,

Wanted to see if anyone had thoughts about this. I've had my Clarity for just over a year and I charge it almost nightly on the SMUD-provided charger in my garage, from midnight to 2 AM or so, to take advantage of the reduced electricity rate. No issues for the last year, until now.

About a week ago, I had my Clarity charging overnight and when I got into the car the next morning, it wasn't fully charged. I don't recall how much battery there was left that morning. When I got back home from my short errand, I noticed that the Power light on the charged was out, so I checked the circuit box and the fuse had tripped. I reset it, plugged the car in and charged it. First time. I charged it normally the last few days, didn't think much of it.

Last night, the battery was down to about 5 miles of range left and I plugged it in for charging overnight like normal. I get in the car this morning and again, the battery is low. It had just over 14 miles of range left. I drove off for my errand and came back with 0.4 miles of range left. The fuse had blown again. I reset the fuse, plugged it in and it started charging. Half hour later, I got a notification on my phone that charging had stopped. That was weird, because it usually takes just over 2 hours to charge from empty. I checked and the fuse had blown again. According to the HondaLink app, the car has 14 miles of range left. That's the same range left from last night, when the fuse blow. I'm not sure if the range from the first time was 14 miles either, but its possible.

Thoughts on this and ways to troubleshoot the issue? I don't know if it is the charger, the electrical connection from the charge to the circuit box, the car or the car battery. Has anyone had anything similar happen to them?

Thanks!
 
Can you identify the ampacity of the circuit feeding your EVSE (circuit breaker amps)?
What is the brand / model of the "SMUD-provided charger?
Is the charger plugged in, or is it hard-wired?
Have you tried charging with the Level 1 OEM EVSE since these problems began?

From your description, it seems more likey that this problem would be related to your home setup than the vehicle.

It is not all that uncommon for a circuit breaker to go bad. Once it is verified that the circuit breaker, and wiring are appropriate for your EVSE, it would be a quick and easy thing to simply try replacing the breaker...
 
I agree with @MrFixit that a bad breaker is a likely cause. A couple of other possibilities: a) if your charger is a plug-in type, is there corrosion in the wall receptacle? If so, it can increase resistance in the circuit enough to blow a breaker; b) are there other electrical items on the same circuit? If so, they might be coming on automatically at night (say, for example, a heater on a thermostat) and adding enough current draw to trip the breaker.
 
At the risk of assuming, I’ll assume that your SMUD? (I’m acronym challenged occasionally) provided EVSE is Level 2, since you mentioned a ~2hr charge time. The charger is built into the car.

A Level 2 device, should, be on a dedicated circuit. I’d image if the SMUD organization was involved there are probably a few rules, regulations, codes, approvals, permits, committee meetings, arm twisting, BS-ing and other hoopla that needs to take place before they will provide you with such a device. Did they install the device? The breaker? The circuit? Is it hard wired?

A properly functioning breaker will trip when an over current situation is present. What is the Amp rating of the breaker?
 
Thanks for all the replies.

SMUD is Sacramento Municipal Utility District and they provide either a L2 charger or $600 credit for EV charging. I chose the charger. Very simple process, no arm-twisting from them. I had an electrician install it and I was with him the entire time, so I saw exactly what he did. The city does require some arm twisting in terms of plans, schematics, building codes and a permit.

This is the charger SMUD sent:
https://store.clippercreek.com/hcs-40-hcs-40p-ev-charging-station

It is a 32A charging station with a 25 foot cord and the electrician installed a 40A breaker. Dedicated circuit directly to the charging unit. According to the manual, the charger can be plugged in or hard-wired, depending on the model/connector. SMUD sent me the hard-wired version, so it is hard-wired. Dedicated circuit, so nothing else is on this circuit. The wire between the hard-wired receptacle and the circuit board is also a 40A cable, to match the circuit breaker itself.

I haven’t tried charging with the L1 OEM unit since. This was only the 2nd and 3rd time it happened, albeit all 3 times have been within a week or so. After it tripped again in the morning, I reset it and completed the charging again. I used up the entire battery yesterday evening and it charged overnight again without a problem.

For the curious, we get a small discount for charging between midnight and 6 AM, which is why I charge it overnight on a schedule and went with a L2 charger to make sure it was charged full each night within the discounted window. We have time of day rates in the summer and the difference in price for charging at night vs the peak daytime period is significant. if the circuit trips while I’m sleeping, I have to complete the charging in the morning without the discount.
 
Thanks for the details. Intermittent problems are always a challenge.

I’d call the electrician and see if they could make a diagnosis over the phone. If not, they may need to do it on site. The device may be defective? Problems with the car typically manifest in, simply not charging. You could try the “hard reset” by removing the negative cable on the 12V battery for ~30 seconds.

Being in Sacramento, have you experienced any rolling brown outs or possibly a drop in voltage, due to the fire activity?
 
It sounds like your setup is very well done...

I agree that touching base with the electrician makes sense. A new circuit breaker is very low cost, and it is literally a 10 minute job to replace it. Given the intermittant nature, it would be perfectly reasonable to try a new breaker before launching into more complicated troubleshooting steps.

Some EVSE's can provide status information like the line voltage and actual current, but the Clipper Creek doesn't have that feature.

I continue to beleive that it is highly unlikely to be a problem with your Clarity.
 
very likely your breaker is on its way out - one sign is constant tripping. it's actual a safety design. But yeah do ask your electrician to check it out. If it's indeed breaker, it's a small job for the electrician.
 
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