"AMPERAGE REDUCED: Charger overheating"

[Rade]

We have a Rivian R1T and a Tesla Model Y. My husbands daily routine is; come home from work, plug the Y (using the Tesla charger) in and recharge it for the next day. He's home by 3:30 and we take advantage of the solar energy. Yesterday was particularly hot and humid here; the garage was in the upper 90f-degree range. Plugged the Y in as usual. I noticed on the app that, after an hour, it was still reading almost two hours to recharge. Usually that means that the plug into either the Tesla or the Lectron splitter had come loose. Went out to check, both were solidly connected. Then I opened up the app to see "AMPERAGE REDUCED: Charger overheating" warning notice. The amperage was knocked down from 32 to 12. Never saw that before, but took it as a something not to ignore. Even though both the plug and charger were not hot, or even unusually warm to the touch, I unplugged the car and left it until we got back from errands (after sunset) and the garage had cooled down a bit. Plugged it back in and if charged up fine.

Just wondering if this is a fail-safe built into the L2 wall charger; say, in a scenario where I would NOT be readily monitoring the unit (like if we were away on vacation and left the car plugged in), would it constitute a fire hazard or would it just stop charging if the temps went too high?

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[BCondrey]

Its not unusual for a EVSE to do a temperature related derate to a lower amp like that. My wife has a Gen 2 Tesla UWC, and it will sometimes do that. If I use that EVSE on my R1T it will happen too. You will see a single red flashing LED, with the other ones flashing green as normal. There is a temperature sensor in the handle of the EVSE that sets it off. Can also happen if you use an adapter, which is another connection point and more heat.

 

[SANZC02]

We have a Rivian R1T and a Tesla Model Y. My husbands daily routine is; come home from work, plug the Y (using the Tesla charger) in and recharge it for the next day. He's home by 3:30 and we take advantage of the solar energy. Yesterday was particularly hot and humid here; the garage was in the upper 90f-degree range. Plugged the Y in as usual. I noticed on the app that, after an hour, it was still reading almost two hours to recharge. Usually that means that the plug into either the Tesla or the Lectron splitter had come loose. Went out to check, both were solidly connected. Then I opened up the app to see "AMPERAGE REDUCED: Charger overheating" warning notice. The amperage was knocked down from 32 to 12. Never saw that before, but took it as a something not to ignore. Even though both the plug and charger were not hot, or even unusually warm to the touch, I unplugged the car and left it until we got back from errands (after sunset) and the garage had cooled down a bit. Plugged it back in and if charged up fine.

Just wondering if this is a fail-safe built into the L2 wall charger; say, in a scenario where I would NOT be readily monitoring the unit (like if we were away on vacation and left the car plugged in), would it constitute a fire hazard or would it just stop charging if the temps went too high?

I see that in the desert with our charger on very hot days. In my experience, once it derates for a session it does not increase the rate until the next session. That is probably why things were not hot to the touch when you went out there.

 

[Zoidz]

Just wondering if this is a fail-safe built into the L2 wall charger; say, in a scenario where I would NOT be readily monitoring the unit (like if we were away on vacation and left the car plugged in), would it constitute a fire hazard or would it just stop charging if the temps went too high?

It's a fail safe, most likely for product liability reasons but also best practices. In the US, I have never seen a code/legal requirement that EVSE employ temperature monitoring. National Electric Code does not mention it. However, it appears that some other countries do require it, so between those laws and best practices it makes sense that most/all have temperature monitoring and throttling. It's a 5 cent component in bulk quantity and a few lines of code. Cheap liability insurance for the manufacturer.

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