LVL 1 charger tripping breaker

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TempoHouse

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I should probably call an electrician, but here's the deal. We use the charger that came with the SE (I'm not sure we got a nylon or a plastic bag with it) to charge at home. We don't drive enough that we can't easily charge with a level 1 EVSE.

A couple of weeks ago, the 20A breaker started to trip a couple of minutes into charging. The wires in question are 12 gauge. After this happened three times, I replaced the outlet, which was old, with a heavy duty one we had. That solved the problem until this morning, when the circuit breaker tripped again in the same way.

Both outlets are GFCI, if that matters. Drawing 10A the EVSE shouldn't be too hard on this circuit, right? We do have the car set to draw at maximum, and I haven't experimented with lowering the draw to see if it doesn't trip then.

Finally, the problems also started the first time we charged the car after we had a few extra solar panels installed. They didn't mess with that circuit, but the timing of events makes me wonder if there's some connection.
 
EVSEs have their own GFCI so they often don't get along with another GFCI on the same circuit. I don't know if that applies to L1. My garage 20 A service has a GFCI outlet but my L1 cable worked fine on a non-GFCI outlet on the same circuit.
 
Yeah, I wondered about that, but things worked fine for two months.
I've just plugged it in to another (non GFCI) outlet in the garage, so far so good. I'll just have to wash clothes by hand.
 
Are you sure there aren’t any other loads on that breaker? We just found out that our garage and our storage closet are on the same circuit. Not a problem until my wife plugged the vacuum cleaner into the closet.
 
We could try swapping breakers. I've never changed one out before but I gather it isn't too complicated.
And yeah, there's no other load on that breaker.
Did manage to fully charge the car from a different outlet today without incident. The EVSE seems fine.
 
TempoHouse said:
We could try swapping breakers. I've never changed one out before but I gather it isn't too complicated.
And yeah, there's no other load on that breaker.
Did manage to fully charge the car from a different outlet today without incident. The EVSE seems fine.
Click to expand...
Be safe and turn off the main power first. Good luck!
 
TempoHouse said:
We could try swapping breakers. I've never changed one out before but I gather it isn't too complicated.
And yeah, there's no other load on that breaker.
Did manage to fully charge the car from a different outlet today without incident. The EVSE seems fine.
Click to expand...

When doing electrical like this, I would highly recommend purchasing a contactless voltage tester (like this https://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-...e-Tester-Pen-50-to-1000V-AC-NCVT1PR/317460355 ) to make sure the power is off. They cost like 20$ and can save your life. It has certainly saved mine at least once when I thought the power was off...


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
If anyone cares, we removed the panel and the wires going into that circuit breaker were loose and burned at the tips. The solar panel installers had forgotten to re-tighten them. Same thing with some of the other breakers in the box, all of which go to the garage. Everything is working fine now.
 
TempoHouse said:
If anyone cares, we removed the panel and the wires going into that circuit breaker were loose and burned at the tips. The solar panel installers had forgotten to re-tighten them. Same thing with some of the other breakers in the box, all of which go to the garage. Everything is working fine now.
Click to expand...

These types of stories (and numerous personal experiences) are exactly why I do as much as I can myself... There are so many careless "professionals" out there.

I'm glad you caught it before something worse happened!
 
TempoHouse said:
If anyone cares, we removed the panel and the wires going into that circuit breaker were loose and burned at the tips. The solar panel installers had forgotten to re-tighten them. Same thing with some of the other breakers in the box, all of which go to the garage. Everything is working fine now.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the resolution report--everyone in this thread is glad you could fix it and happy to hear how you did it. Your experience will undoubtedly help another forum member with a similar problem.
 
Yikes, that’s scary! I’m glad you resolved it before it caused serious damage.

I would also recommend putting some contact grease in there for even better conductivity.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
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