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Electrician came onsite today. As many stated, cables weren’t correct size. They didnt want to touch it to fix as they said it shouldn’t have been installed on the sub panel to start with.
They’re now installing a dedicated circuit off the main panel.
I am not an electrician, but looking at the cable size in the picture they look to be 10 gauge cables. For 10g cable you should set you charger to be roughly 29amps (you can go higher to about 32 amps, but i wouldn't, just stay under 30 for safety). If you want to charge at 50amps, your cable size should be a 6gauge wire. If you run 8gauge cables then set your charge to 40 amps (or lower).
Since the charging of electric cars is constantly pulling in power to charge the cars, the cables will heat up. If you are running at a higher amperage rate for the smaller cables, you will risk shorting/burning the cables out.
The above setting is for chargers that you can change the amperage on. For other chargers you need to ensure that you buy the correct charger for the cable size ran to the plug (31, 40, 50 amps).
Check the link below to have a good gauge on wire size to amperage.
Thanks
I am not an electrician, but looking at the cable size in the picture they look to be 10 gauge cables. For 10g cable you should set you charger to be roughly 29amps (you can go higher to about 32 amps, but i wouldn't, just stay under 30 for safety). If you want to charge at 50amps, your cable size should be a 6gauge wire. If you run 8gauge cables then set your charge to 40 amps (or lower).
Since the charging of electric cars is constantly pulling in power to charge the cars, the cables will heat up. If you are running at a higher amperage rate for the smaller cables, you will risk shorting/burning the cables out.
The above setting is for chargers that you can change the amperage on. For other chargers you need to ensure that you buy the correct charger for the cable size ran to the plug (31, 40, 50 amps).
Check the link below to have a good gauge on wire size to amperage.
Thanks
The NEMA 14-50 outlet is rated for 50 amps. If you install one you are required by code to size the wire for full rated amp load regardless of the actual draw of the particular device you intend to plug in. The reason is that someone may want to use the NEMA 14-50 outlet for its full rated load one day.
“ I have just had the exact same problem. Been running two years on the same charger and outlet with no issues then suddenly one day I walk out and smell something burning and the charge plug is melting pretty much the exact same way yours did.
Cord has never been unplugged, I use six gauge wire in the outlet and there is no evidence of any overheating or burning in the outlet itself. Just the plug cover melted and the prongs charred
I took the car to a supercharger and got it charged with no issues no warnings. Since then I have tried different outlets with various chargers from other manufacturers they all overheat. I have even tried two different 110 V chargers in different outlets and both overheat fortunately they have a heat sensor trigger that shuts them off but they are very hot to the touch when they do.
it is almost like the car itself is drawing too much amperage is this possible?
They cannot get the car into service until mid September and looks like it will have to be towed as I cannot charge it
Since then I have tried different outlets with various chargers from other manufacturers they all overheat. I have even tried two different 110 V chargers in different outlets and both overheat fortunately they have a heat sensor trigger that shuts them off but they are very hot to the touch when they do.
it is almost like the car itself is drawing too much amperage is this possible?
It's absolutely possible. The charger (actually, the EVSE -- the charger is in the car, not the thing you plug into the wall) does not have any circuitry inside that controls the current delivered to the car. The car is 100% in control of how much power it draws from the EVSE, and it expects to get an indication of the maximum allowable current by "listening" to the signal the EVSE is sending out.
When an EVSE is plugged into a vehicle, it tells the vehicle (via a 1kHz PWM signal on the pilot pin) how many amps it may draw. The car then sets up its own internal charger to start pulling power from the AC pins, up to (but not exceeding) the current specified by the EVSE. If the car sees a "you may draw 80 amps" signal on the pilot pin, it may pull that much power. The e-tron's onboard charger is capable of 11kW, which is 45 amps on a 240 volt system. So if the EVSE tells the e-tron "you can use up to 80 amps" (or at least, that's what the e-tron thinks the EVSE is telling it) then it will happily start pulling 45 amps even if the EVSE is only rated for 40 or 30 or 20.
So my guess is that your e-tron has lost the ability to interpret the signal it's getting from the EVSE properly, and it is "stuck" trying to charge at the onboard charger's maximum 45 amps. Since that's still less than 50 amps I bet that's why your circuit breaker on that 14-50 outlet didn't trip (but it was probably really hot and close to tripping).
If my theory is correct, then hooking up to an L1 charger should trip the breaker on a standard NEMA 5-15 or 5-20 circuit should have tripped almost immediately. But perhaps your L1 EVSE has overcurrent protection and disconnected itself when it detected an excess inrush current.
Charging at a DCFC station would still work even if your L1/L2 charger does not, because CCS does still use the pilot pin, but it does so using an entirely different protocol than the J1772 L1/L2 standard, and also completely bypasses the onboard charger.
02-13-2020, 04:10 PM
