Rivian advised me to not use my Tesla wall charger

[RivianDriver]

Hey all,

Just got off the phone with Rivian Service and was advised that Tesla wall chargers are not “approved” systems to charge my R1T with and reminded me that “Rivian is only advising you to not use the wall charger…it’s up to you to use it.”

I then asked Rivian what are the wall chargers that Rivian “approves” (aside from theirs) and is this information available publicly.

This is the first I’ve heard this statement from Rivian and wondered if anyone else has seen or heard of this.

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[Jacopa]

Nope, never heard this…

 

[Mathme]

Never heard of this as well. I'd guess there are 1,000s of people about this very forum who use Tesla chargers on a daily basis.

Beings as how Level 2 chargers are glorified electrical outlets that range from 24-48 amps, I'm confused as to why one particular brand of charger is bad. That's the equivalent of saying a Legrand electrical outlet is inherently worse than a Lutron on the 110 side. Without any additional info, I say that rep was full of it...

 

[TTedP]

Hey all,

Just got off the phone with Rivian Service and was advised that Tesla wall chargers are not “approved” systems to charge my R1T with and reminded me that “Rivian is only advising you to not use the wall charger…it’s up to you to use it.”

I then asked Rivian what are the wall chargers that Rivian “approves” (aside from theirs) and is this information available publicly.

This is the first I’ve heard this statement from Rivian and wondered if anyone else has seen or heard of this.

one minor nuance, did you/they distinguish between a NACS only one where you have to use a 3rd party adapter or the Universal one that has an adapter built in? They might've been defaulting to "no" assuming plug incompatibility?

I have the universal one and it works great.

 

[tate16t]

I use a Tesla Wall Charger since ’23. When I purchased my R1S I was told the Tesla Wall charger will work fine, and it has.

 

[NY_Rob]

If you have the "Universal" Tesla EVSE that includes the J1772 end that fits over the Tesla NACS connector there is no reason at all you cant use it on your Rivian. J1772 is a standard, not a suggestion.. you can use any legitimate/certified J1772 EVSE with your Rivian.

 

[Yossarian]

Is this Rivian Service, or Customer Support saying that? I don't know about the former, but the information provided by CS has proved to be a bit less than fully reliable in my experience.

 

[KRG]

Completely false imo

 

[RivianDriver]

I currently have a v3 NACS wall charger (connected to a 60amp breaker). I’ve ordered the Tesla Universal but they stood by their statement even when I told them I bought the Universal wall charger. All conversation are with Rivian service manage.

Backstory: I posted a while back that my 60amp breaker melted and a couple others next to it, while charging the Rivian. The Electric company (certified Tesla Installer) replaced everything from main breaker box to wall challenger breaker (located in the garage). After testing, by charging my Model Y and my Rivian, they detected a “noticeable buzzing sound at the main breaker”. Curious, they also connected my Rivian to a separate NEMA14-50 (50amp) circuit in the garage with the Rivian mobile charging and heard the buzzing again. So, they connected my model Y to the NEMA outlet with the Tesla mobile charger and no buzzing. Switched back to the Rivian and Rivian mobile charger and the 50amp breaker started buzzing again. They quickly advised me to NOT plug my Rivian into ANY outlet in my home.

Rivian ran tons of diagnostics on my truck and found nothing wrong with my truck. I hired another electrician to check the certified installer’s work and he witnessed the buzzing as well. Ran similar test between the Rivian and Tesla, the 60amp and 50amp circuits and concluded in a report that it is not advised to charger my Rivian at home.

Rivian loaned me a Rivian mobile charger to see it that fixes my NEMA issue and it worked for a week but quickly started getting g warning lights on the Rivian Mobile charger that Rivian service didn’t even know what the lights meant. A couple days later I walked into the garage and smelled a fishy smell (same as the basement breaker melt) and discovered that the NEMA outlet was starting to show signs of overheat and burning.

All of this started in January and in May (~25th) I requested a buy back. Rivian denied it the end of June and said that nothing is wrong with vehicle. Yesterday is when I was told by service not to charge my R1T on the wall charger and “this is not directed towards your vehicle and is an advisement for anyone using a Tesla wall charger.”

 

[Polar]

100% legal cover their ass

The rest of us can just keep on keeping on.

 

[NY_Rob]

^ the buzzing sound you hear is somewhat normal and is produced by delivering a heavy AC current at 60 Hertz... the buzzing is at 60Hz. I can hear it when I'm charging my Rivian, Tesla and i3 when they are pulling 32 amps @ 240V using the Tesla EVSE or the JuiceBox EVSE as they share the same breaker. As long as the breaker isn't getting hot (somewhat warm is normal during a prolonged charge) you should be fine. If it's really objectionable.. reduce the current your Rivian draws to 32amps.

 

[DuoRivian]

Glad I have a Rivian wall charger for my Rivian.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Backstory: I posted a while back that my 60amp breaker melted and a couple others next to it, while charging the Rivian. The Electric company (certified Tesla Installer) replaced everything from main breaker box to wall challenger breaker (located in the garage). After testing, by charging my Model Y and my Rivian, they detected a “noticeable buzzing sound at the main breaker”

What's the frequency of the buzzing? 60Hz is "normal" coil whine noise that will increase in volume based on the current being passed, but it could indicate that you have a loose connection somewhere. Here's a square-d bulletin on it:

https://ckm-content.se.com/ckmContent/sfc/servlet.shepherd/document/download/0698V00000ecS7YQAU

If it's something other than 60Hz, like 120 Hz or 240 Hz then it should probably get investigated further since harmonics could indicate something else entirely.

 

[VSG]

Well the backstory makes it more clear. You should have led with that.

Rivian isn't saying you can't charge Rivians with a Tesla wall charger.

Rivian is saying that YOU shouldn't charge YOUR Rivian with YOUR Tesla wall charger.

Big difference.

The important fact here is that you melted your circuit once already, and since Rivian looked at your vehicle and didn't find a problem, and since you don't know what the problem is, Rivian is giving you really good advice when they say don't charge at home with that setup or you may be likely to repeat the problem.

 

[Zoidz]

^ the buzzing sound you hear is somewhat normal and is produced by delivering a heavy AC current at 60 Hertz... the buzzing is at 60htz. I can hear it when I'm charging my Rivian, Tesla and i3 when they are pulling 32 amps @ 240V. As long as the breaker isn't getting hot (somewhat warm is normal during a prolonged charge) you should be fine. If it's really objectionable.. reduce the current your Rivian draws to 32amps.

Agree. Buzzing is not in and of itself indicative of a problem.

Call me skeptical, but did either of these "experts" do the proper troubleshooting by attaching a clamp-on ammeter to see what the current load actually is in each of these scenarios? Amperage data is far more informative than buzzing....

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