R1S not charging from a dryer plug

[KBabione]

Yeah, the charger works with a 110v outlet. That's what I've been doing. It charges at about 1%/hour

Great - If you take the car out while you're away look for L2 chargers that you might have ignored previously. We took an ICE to a brewery over Thanksgiving so I could leave Rosey plugged in to the 120V outlet only to find four unoccupied L2 chargers (not listed on the website or PlugShare) waiting as we pulled in. A quick call to wherever you're going for dinner might allow you add a quick 50 miles while you eat if they have chargers or if there are some nearby.

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[moosehead]

Blackened Fish Tacos tonight!

 

[R.I.P.]

Hi, I have an old school dryer plug (3 prong 220v 10-30p plug). I got an adapter from amazon to connect it to the rivian portable charger. I set amps to 32 (24 didn't work for some reason) and this worked for a few hours (car was charging at 7.2kw), but I eventually got a "Vehicle error" and the charging stopped. I restarted the car, and unplugged/replugged the connector (and plug) but my car wouldn't charge.

Why doesn't the car "just charge" when the dryer works just fine with the 220v. Thanks!

Yeah, this willy-nilly adapter mish mosh stuff is dangerous.

For those that want to be able to charge from dryer outlets and such, please buy the Tesla Mobile cord with the NEMA kit. It is the safe way to charge from any NEMA outlet, and is the most reliable setup on the planet.

 

[Hillbilly]

WTF do you think you are doing? Stop that right now.

First, you need the correct adapter. You didn't say what adapter you are using, so it may be entirely the wrong thing. But an adapter is NOT a good solution for anything other than a temporary situation.

Second, a 30A circuit can provide AT MOST 24A continuous. Don't even try to get anything more.

You don't seem to know what you're doing here. I don't care if you burn your own house down, but you're endangering your neighbors by doing this.

Calm down, Skeeter. He ain't hurtin' nobody.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Does the dryer still work on the outlet? Guessing there's a good chance you could have burned up something in the circuit since that outlet is not rated for 32A continuous. Breakers are supposed to be sized to protect the wiring. 40A breaker ain't doing it for the outlet.

 

[sub]

Yeah, this willy-nilly adapter mish mosh stuff is dangerous.

For those that want to be able to charge from dryer outlets and such, please buy the Tesla Mobile cord with the NEMA kit. It is the safe way to charge from any NEMA outlet, and is the most reliable setup on the planet.

I agree that the Tesla mobile charger is the way to go, but many people seem to balk at buying another charger.

Rivian is really doing it's customers a huge disservice by not providing a charger that is able to safely be used on 30 amps circuits. If Rivian sold 10-30 and 14-30 pigtails that passed along the circuits capacity we wouldn't see people trying (and failing) at DIY solutions.

 

[DCRiv]

WTF do you think you are doing? Stop that right now.

First, you need the correct adapter. You didn't say what adapter you are using, so it may be entirely the wrong thing. But an adapter is NOT a good solution for anything other than a temporary situation.

Second, a 30A circuit can provide AT MOST 24A continuous. Don't even try to get anything more.

You don't seem to know what you're doing here. I don't care if you burn your own house down, but you're endangering your neighbors by doing this.

No need to be a d*ck about it Ike Turner

 

[mkhuffman]

Calm down, Skeeter. He ain't hurtin' nobody.

VSG was definitely condescending, which I don't agree with. But his underlying point is valid. What the OP is doing is dangerous and it could hurt or kill someone, including the OP. Personally I am concerned for his safety and the safety of his family.

As others have already said, that outlet is probably not grounded. Old dryers that used that outlet likely didn't require a ground or a neutral line. And the outlet is only rated for 30 Amps. Sending 32 Amps continuous current (like with a EVSE) through that outlet will damage it, melt it, and very possibly cause it to catch the wall on fire. Not only that, I bet you will find the wire to that outlet is only rated at 30 Amps also. Which means with 32 Amps continuous going through it, it could melt and possibly catch the wood on fire inside the wall.

I bet a previous homeowner had trouble with a dryer on that outlet. Maybe he got a new dryer that needed a 50 Amp outlet and he used an adapter on that 30 Amp outlet. I bet the 30 Amp breaker kept throwing, and in order to "fix" it, he popped out the 30 Amp breaker and put in a 40 Amp breaker. That is exactly what someone would do if they didn't know any better.

@fishtacos, please, please do not use that outlet again until you have a 30 Amp breaker installed. In fact, I would remove the 40 Amp breaker so that nobody else can use it until you can get a 30 Amp one installed. It is very dangerous like that.

On a side note, I agree with previous posts that suggest the EVSE is failing because there is no ground connected. Thank God. Because it likely prevented a very serious problem from occurring.

 

[Microdowns]

Hi, I have an old school dryer plug (3 prong 220v 10-30p plug). I got an adapter from amazon to connect it to the rivian portable charger. I set amps to 32 (24 didn't work for some reason) and this worked for a few hours (car was charging at 7.2kw), but I eventually got a "Vehicle error" and the charging stopped. I restarted the car, and unplugged/replugged the connector (and plug) but my car wouldn't charge.

Why doesn't the car "just charge" when the dryer works just fine with the 220v. Thanks!

The Rivian charger checks for ground and Neutral when you plug it in using the 14-50 adapter. Your 10-30 (3 prong) plug only has a neutral connection. If it does not see a ground, the lights on the charger will be red after initializing. You need an adapter that also provides a ground connection. This type of adapter has a wire connection that you can plug in to the ground of a nearby 120v plug. Here is a link to this type of adapter:

CircleCord Dryer Adapter 4 Prong to 3 Prong, 4P Newer Dryer to 3P Older House, Dryer Convert Cord NEMA 10-30P Plug to 14-30R Receptacle, 220V 30 Amp 10 AWG STW Blue with Safety Ground Wire, ETL Listed - Amazon.com

As others have mentioned, you must reduce the maximum amperage setting to 24 amps to avoid overheating problems in the home electrical circuit (and possibly burning down the house!). This is especially important for older homes, since they are much more likely to have compromised wiring or connections. I recommend that you use a voltmeter to test each leg of the circuit (120v hot to neutral) to see if there is a significant voltage drop between no load and when charging the vehicle at 24 amps. If the voltage drop is greater than 3.5 volts in either leg, you may have a compromised circuit that should be checked out by an electrician.

As others have noted. a much better solution is to buy a Tesla charger. You can purchase a 10-30 adapter from tesla that permits it to charge without a ground and automatically limits the maximum current to 24 amps. The tesla charger continuously monitors the incoming power and adjusts the amperage automatically if it sees excessive voltage drop. If there is a significant power quality issue, it will shut down.

 

[Dark-Fx]

The Rivian charger checks for ground and Neutral when you plug it in using the 14-50 adapter. Your 10-30 (3 prong) plug only has a neutral connection. If it does not see a ground, the lights on the charger will be red after initializing. You need an adapter that also provides a ground connection. This type of adapter has a wire connection that you can plug in to the ground of a nearby 120v plug. Here is a link to this type of adapter:

CircleCord Dryer Adapter 4 Prong to 3 Prong, 4P Newer Dryer to 3P Older House, Dryer Convert Cord NEMA 10-30P Plug to 14-30R Receptacle, 220V 30 Amp 10 AWG STW Blue with Safety Ground Wire, ETL Listed - Amazon.com

As others have mentioned, you must reduce the maximum amperage setting to 24 amps to avoid overheating problems in the home electrical circuit (and possibly burning down the house!). This is especially important for older homes, since they are much more likely to have compromised wiring or connections. I recommend that you use a voltmeter to test each leg of the circuit (120v hot to neutral) to see if there is a significant voltage drop between no load and when charging the vehicle at 24 amps. If the voltage drop is greater than 3.5 volts in either leg, you may have a compromised circuit that should be checked out by an electrician.

As others have noted. a much better solution is to buy a Tesla charger. You can purchase a 10-30 adapter from tesla that permits it to charge without a ground and automatically limits the maximum current to 24 amps. The tesla charger continuously monitors the incoming power and adjusts the amperage automatically if it sees excessive voltage drop. If there is a significant power quality issue, it will shut down.

Unless they changed something recently, no issues here with a floating neutral on my Rivian portable. Absolutely must have a ground though.

 

[Chris TX]

10-30 has two hots and a neutral, not a ground. Sure, the neutral might be bonded to ground at the panel but you're rolling the dice. When the charge cord (EVSE) first boots up, it does a GFCI test to see if there is a certain amount of voltage between one of the hots and what should be ground. The charge cord might be seeing that and it won't start charging.

Another problem could be the 10-30 adapter you're using. Do you have a link for the one you got? Most of those adapters won't have a connection to the ground pin used by the 14-50 end of the Rivian unit. To make it work, one would need to create a connection between the ground pin and the neutral on the 14-50 side. Unless it's an emergency, you'll probably want to just get a different adapter or make your own with a j-box mounted 14-50 receptacle and a 10-30 pigtail.

 

[fishtacos]

Thank you for all the comments. I finally called in to the Rivian customer support line and the charging team was quite helpful and helped me resolve the issue.

1. As Michael mentioned above, the charger looks for ground. The adapter I bought had a ground wire and I plugged it into another outlet and that resolved the ground issue
2. According to support, the phone app only limits amps on the Rivian wall charger. It does nothing for the portable charger. The right way to limit amps is to do it in the car via the Energy tab.

Everything worked fine once I set that to 24 amps.

 

[fishtacos]

VSG was definitely condescending, which I don't agree with. But his underlying point is valid. What the OP is doing is dangerous and it could hurt or kill someone, including the OP. Personally I am concerned for his safety and the safety of his family.

As others have already said, that outlet is probably not grounded. Old dryers that used that outlet likely didn't require a ground or a neutral line. And the outlet is only rated for 30 Amps. Sending 32 Amps continuous current (like with a EVSE) through that outlet will damage it, melt it, and very possibly cause it to catch the wall on fire. Not only that, I bet you will find the wire to that outlet is only rated at 30 Amps also. Which means with 32 Amps continuous going through it, it could melt and possibly catch the wood on fire inside the wall.

I bet a previous homeowner had trouble with a dryer on that outlet. Maybe he got a new dryer that needed a 50 Amp outlet and he used an adapter on that 30 Amp outlet. I bet the 30 Amp breaker kept throwing, and in order to "fix" it, he popped out the 30 Amp breaker and put in a 40 Amp breaker. That is exactly what someone would do if they didn't know any better.

@fishtacos, please, please do not use that outlet again until you have a 30 Amp breaker installed. In fact, I would remove the 40 Amp breaker so that nobody else can use it until you can get a 30 Amp one installed. It is very dangerous like that.

On a side note, I agree with previous posts that suggest the EVSE is failing because there is no ground connected. Thank God. Because it likely prevented a very serious problem from occurring.

All of this makes sense. It was a temporary location I was passing through (not my home) and I needed a little charge to get going. I now know how to limit amps from the car so I'll charge safely from here on.

Also noted that I'll buy a tesla portable charger with the right adapters to be even safer.

 

[KBabione]

I set amps to 32 (24 didn't work for some reason) and this worked for a few hours (car was charging at 7.2kw), but I eventually got a "Vehicle error" and the charging stopped.

I don't think any of us thought that you were doing this from the app - we all (at least I did) assumed you were doing it from the car. That piece of charging is not so clear, but you definitely need to know how to adjust the amperage from the car when you're using the portable charger.

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

2. According to support, the phone app only limits amps on the Rivian wall charger. It does nothing for the portable charger. The right way to limit amps is to do it in the car via the Energy tab.

This is good to know. Experienced an issue a few times where I was plugged into a normal 120v outlet (20A breaker) and had the breaker trip even after setting the app down to 14 or 12A. Gotta do it in the car. Don't use the app if using the portable charger. Good to know. Would be nice if Rivian gave ya a warning, LOL.

Glad you got your issue resolved!

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