Drop charging

[HaveBlue]

To add to the confusion, the portable "charger" that comes with the rivian only does 7kw max in all cases

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[Jim4]

Was just coming here to post/look for a thread on this. I guess it's just due to the heat here as it's 91 degrees and I'm charging in full sun in my driveway.

 

[Manjeet.Lotay]

Over the last few weeks my charging power drops down quickly after I start charging
It start at 11.0 then drops to 7.4 and takes me a longer time
I have a wall charger and I was concerned that it may have a defect and brought the electrician back to check and connection is good
Tried to restart the car with no charge
Finally I tried to use one of the chargers at work and droppalso very significantly
I have appointment with them this month but I am con that it’s something related to the new update in the system
Any one has issues with charging also

I've encountered a similar issue with my Rivian L2 wall charger at home. Initially, the charging starts at 11 kW, but after some time (which varies), it drops to 7.3 kW. I opened a service ticket with Rivian, and they provided data showing that the temperature of my charger port reaches 150°F, which causes the charging speed to drop for safety reasons.

Just so you know, this issue only began in the third week of May 2024. Before that, everything was functioning normally. For context, I am located in Northern California. I hope sharing my experience helps you identify any similar patterns in your situation.

 

[Atlrivian]

So for the past three days I've been going back and forth with the Rivian charging team on this. The three keys to this problem are 1) it is a new development over the past 2 months, that 2) affects both my R1T and my wife's R1S, 3) even when we charge overnight in 75 degree temps.

I cannot attribute it to charging in direct sun or 100 degree weather.

As an aside, since I don't have any Torx tools Rivian wants me to go to drive to a hardware store and purchase some so that I can take a picture of the guts of the charger for them to help diagnose the problem. Seems my time is not super valued. Instead I offered to call a licensed electrician out at their expense who can talk with them over the phone. They have so far not taken me up on my offer.

Edited for content / clarity

 

[VSG]

As an aside, since I don't have any Torx tools Rivian wants me to go to drive to a hardware store and purchase some so that I can take a picture of the guts of the charger for them to help diagnose the problem. Seems my time is not super valued. Instead I offered to call a licensed electrician out at their expense who can talk with them over the phone. They have so far not taken me up on my offer.

I don't understand this attitude. You're willing to call an electrician and spend hours meeting them and getting an opinion, then calling back to Rivian and arguing about who is right? That's a couple of days right there and several hours of your time. But you're unwilling to spend $10 on Amazon and get free overnight delivery of a set of Torx screwdrivers? 15 minutes of your time to order and open up the charger and send Rivian the pictures they asked for. If it was installed properly in the first place, then they will see that and move on to the next steps. Frankly, that's probably less time than you're spending complaining about it on the forum ...

The three keys to this problem are 1) it is a new development over the past 2 months, that 2) affects both my R1T and my wife's R1S, 3) even when we charge overnight in 75 degree temps.

Well,
1) "Summer" is a new development over the past 2 months. The software that throttles the charging based on plug temperature is new as of last fall (?), so if this is weather related then it makes sense that it just started showing up now. Also, as the charger goes through repeated charging cycles the thermal stress on the internal connections to your panel can loosen the screws. It's not uncommon for a charger (of any brand) to initially work then start failing as time goes on. It's also (sadly) not uncommon for a licensed electrician to make a mistake installing a charger, wrong wire size or improper torquing of the screws for example. A quick picture that Rivian can use to verify the things they're worried about is a reasonable request - asking them to spend $500 on a service call isn't.
2) Points away from a vehicle-specific problem. Could be debris in the J1772 plug causing excess resistance, combined with hotter weather. Clean out the plug using compressed air and/or contact cleaner to see if that helps.
3) That doesn't really matter - excessive resistance in the connection is going to heat up the plug regardless of the weather. Did you measure the temperature of the plug?

 

[Atlrivian]

I don't understand this attitude. You're willing to call an electrician and spend hours meeting them and getting an opinion, then calling back to Rivian and arguing about who is right? That's a couple of days right there and several hours of your time. But you're unwilling to spend $10 on Amazon and get free overnight delivery of a set of Torx screwdrivers? 15 minutes of your time to order and open up the charger and send Rivian the pictures they asked for. If it was installed properly in the first place, then they will see that and move on to the next steps. Frankly, that's probably less time than you're spending complaining about it on the forum ...


Well,
1) "Summer" is a new development over the past 2 months. The software that throttles the charging based on plug temperature is new as of last fall (?), so if this is weather related then it makes sense that it just started showing up now. Also, as the charger goes through repeated charging cycles the thermal stress on the internal connections to your panel can loosen the screws. It's not uncommon for a charger (of any brand) to initially work then start failing as time goes on. It's also (sadly) not uncommon for a licensed electrician to make a mistake installing a charger, wrong wire size or improper torquing of the screws for example. A quick picture that Rivian can use to verify the things they're worried about is a reasonable request - asking them to spend $500 on a service call isn't.
2) Points away from a vehicle-specific problem. Could be debris in the J1772 plug causing excess resistance, combined with hotter weather. Clean out the plug using compressed air and/or contact cleaner to see if that helps.
3) That doesn't really matter - excessive resistance in the connection is going to heat up the plug regardless of the weather. Did you measure the temperature of the plug?

First, you are welcome to your opinion just as I am welcome to mine. Thank you for your clearly extremely knowledgeable (way beyond me) input.

The plug itself is very warm, while the charging cable is less so. I do not have a IR thermometer or the like to measure exact temps.

Could I possibly do what they ask? Yes. The problem I have here is the expectation that the user partially disassemble the product to aide in remote diagnostics. Do I trust my parents or my wife to follow the instructions without electrocuting themselves? Absolutely not. Just remember not everyone has the same time / patience / expertise as you.

 

[Garzee]

I get this all the time during summer when my garage is 95 degrees or 100 degrees or higher after Rivian released an update last summer.

I have this warm plug message on my OEM Rivian charger with no adapters.

This is perfectly normal during summer. I don’t have this issue once temps are no longer triple digits.

Yes, but what if you are going on a road trip? Does the same thing happen when using a level 3 charger? We are worried about our trip now and may use our other car since we are getting the same message with level 2 charging both from home and a few times today at level 2 chargers today.

 

[Mtbaddict]

I've encountered a similar issue with my Rivian L2 wall charger at home. Initially, the charging starts at 11 kW, but after some time (which varies), it drops to 7.3 kW. I opened a service ticket with Rivian, and they provided data showing that the temperature of my charger port reaches 150°F, which causes the charging speed to drop for safety reasons.

Just so you know, this issue only began in the third week of May 2024. Before that, everything was functioning normally. For context, I am located in Northern California. I hope sharing my experience helps you identify any similar patterns in your situation.

Did Rivian resolve this issue for you? I'm in Loomis and have a similar experience. My level 2 charging plug gets very warm to the touch and slows to around 7kW. Curious if you're just dealing with the new normal or if they were able to fix it. Thanks.

 

[DCFC]

Higher power charging = more heat. Too hot = vehicle damage and worse. Rivian put in a safety measure to keep things from getting too hot which also prolongs the life of all the parts. How come some other cars don't reduce charging power? Maybe they don't take safety as seriously.

 

[DCFC]

Yes, but what if you are going on a road trip? Does the same thing happen when using a level 3 charger? We are worried about our trip now and may use our other car since we are getting the same message with level 2 charging both from home and a few times today at level 2 chargers today.

Level 2 chargers use the tiny pins. Level 3 uses the big two pins that can handle a lot more power.

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