Can I charge from this outlet?

[Riviot]

Im using the Rivian travel charger that came with the truck. I throttled it down to 10 A thinking it was overpowering the circuit but it still repeatedly stopped, and then started again. And a minute later stopped, etc. Could it be that 240 V charging needs 32 A?

Absolutely does not need to be 32amp.

I've used the travel charger on all sorts of combinations of 110v-240v, 12amp-32amp. You just need to change the amperage in the truck when you plug in. Sometimes it likes to reset itself and go back up higher (this was very annoying and kept tripping a breaker for me, so I submitted a ticket to Rivian).

My best experience was a 10-50 with an adapter from a stove/oven outlet at a national forest cabin. In fact, there were two on separate breakers of a 200amp panel. Could've charged another!

My worst experience was almost frying my in-law's dryer breaker (30amp) because it kept resetting my selected amps from 20 back to 32. That thing was HOT.

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[Cosmacelf]

Absolutely does not need to be 32amp.

I've used the travel charger on all sorts of combinations of 110v-240v, 12amp-32amp. You just need to change the amperage in the truck when you plug in. Sometimes it likes to reset itself and go back up higher (this was very annoying and kept tripping a breaker for me, so I submitted a ticket to Rivian).

My best experience was a 10-50 with an adapter from a stove/oven outlet at a national forest cabin. In fact, there were two on separate breakers of a 200amp panel. Could've charged another!

My worst experience was almost frying my in-law's dryer breaker (30amp) because it kept resetting my selected amps from 20 back to 32. That thing was HOT.

Oh wow, that is not cool on Rivian's part. The Ford Lighting also has badly designed charging software. Do you know if that Rivian bug got fixed, or do we still have that behavior in our vehicles? If so, that could be the problem with the 6-20 receptacle - the car is trying to reset to draw 32A instead of staying at 16A or whatever.

If the bug is still there, then the only solution would to be to buy a portable charger that overrides the car's stupid buggy software. For instance, this one would work. You'd just dial the maximum charge rate on the charger itself.

https://www.evseadapters.com/produc...le-ev-charger-evse-with-timer-and-wall-mount/

 

[Riviot]

Do you know if that Rivian bug got fixed, or do we still have that behavior in our vehicles?

I don't :/
I charged on 120v GFCI plug the other night, set to 12amp on a 15 breaker, it kept tripping the GFCI so I gave to up and didn't look at amps. I think that's a different problem though.

 

[Firewired]

I’m down at our ranch this weekend. I’ve got this 50amp outlet (10-50?) for running a welder in the barn. Can I charge a rivian from it or do I need to get a 14-50 outlet installed?

That is a Nema 10-50. Here is a really useful resource of different types of plugs:

http://cosmacelf.net/Home Made Adapters.pdf

Basically, if there is power you can find an adapter for pretty much any common or uncommon plug you find.

 

[Cosmacelf]

I don't :/
I charged on 120v GFCI plug the other night, set to 12amp on a 15 breaker, it kept tripping the GFCI so I gave to up and didn't look at amps. I think that's a different problem though.

GFCI tripping is indeed usually caused by an older GFCI that just can’t handle 12A. Swapping out the GFCI usually fixes it.

I'm going to try charging tomorrow using the portable Rivian charger with some adapters in various lower amp receptacles and see what happens…

 

[virgnia_rivian]

They ramble a bit, but Sandy Munro recently did an episode with an electrician talking about plugs that are not meant to EVs and can melt due to the continuous draw of charging. Worth a look. Our electrician agreed with most of this.

 

[Dark-Fx]

They ramble a bit, but Sandy Munro recently did an episode with an electrician talking about plugs that are not meant to EVs and can melt due to the continuous draw of charging. Worth a look. Our electrician agreed with most of this.

If a 14-50 connector is UL listed, it's safe to use with an EVSE, full stop. The problem is always relative to the installation. Not torquing the wires down or using undersized wiring. Lots of them aren't rated for a lot of insertion cycles, but this typically isn't a concern for most people since their EVSEs stay plugged in on the wall all the time.

 

[JamesPolk24]

I’m down at our ranch this weekend. I’ve got this 50amp outlet (10-50?) for running a welder in the barn. Can I charge a rivian from it or do I need to get a 14-50 outlet installed?

Just keep it at 40amps or lower on plugs. The portable charger would work good.

 

[mini2nut]

A safe rule of thumb is to ever charge more than 80% of the rated amperage.

For example, a 220v 30 amp outlet would be 24 amps.

 

[Alan]

I'm not having any problem charging today. I moved to a different 220V 20A plug and pre set the charging rate to 16A. Last time I set the amperage after I'd started the charging session and it wouldn't stay put. So my hat is off to this community, thank you all. I'm charging at 4kW, twice the 110V. I'm pleased.

 

[jwardell]

Just beware when using the truck to limit current when charging, there is a longstanding Rivian bug that resets it back to 34A (!?!) and when it goes to top up again after charging completes, it can pop a breaker, or worse.
Better is to use a portable EVSE other than rivian's that has proper adapters for different plugs to properly limit the current (In other words, Tesla's mobile charger is the only one with a wide range of plugs available)

 

[Cosmacelf]

I'm not having any problem charging today. I moved to a different 220V 20A plug and pre set the charging rate to 16A. Last time I set the amperage after I'd started the charging session and it wouldn't stay put. So my hat is off to this community, thank you all. I'm charging at 4kW, twice the 110V. I'm pleased.

Thanks for the update. I did a test today on a 30A receptacle with the RIvian portable charger. First thing I did was to set amperage in the car to 24A. Then I turned off the daily schedule so that I could charge right away. And right then the software reset the amps back to 48A. So the RIvian car software sucks right there. I reset the amps back to 24A, and then plugged it in using the portable charger with an adapter from the 14-50. Anyways, it held at 24A. But as others have pointed out, if I had left it plugged in over a 24 hour cycle and it tried to top up, it might have reset to 32A (the limit of the portable charger).

So yes, the current vehicle software is not to be trusted with portable chargers (EVSEs) that don't have the ability to set amperage on the charger. I think I'll just use my Tesla portable charger with a J1772 reverse adapter from now on if I need to charge my Rivian on the road at a condo or something.

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