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[marubicon]

Here's my setup (a ChargePoint) ... hardwired to a 60A breaker by a professional.

pat----

I love the Rivian Charging Only sign! Did you make that or buy that somewhere?

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[psklenar]

I love the Rivian Charging Only sign! Did you make that or buy that somewhere?

I bought it from https://www.etsy.com/shop/RCSGraphics on June 20th, but they don't appear to offer it now.

pat----

 

[TeamPJ]

 

[FutureTruck]

And boom goes the dynamite.

...have no idea what happened. Charger has been installed for 1.5 years charging my other PHEV everyday. R1T took a full charge last night and unplugged it this morning. Went over to look at something on my wall outlet and noticed the plug was all melted. It was cold so have no idea how long it has been like this.

 

[Tomgriff]

This is a noob question for sure, but is there an issue with having the box inside the garage but running the cable under the door to charge outside? I'm concerned about the weight of my garage door damaging the charging cable over time as it will come down on top of it as the door closes... Any thoughts?
My issue is that for now, the truck will be parked outside and will need to be charged. In the future, I plan to reclaim the garage as a place to park an expensive asset instead of store garbage...

I just put a piece of wood a bit taller than the cable right next to the cable so the wood gets the weight of the garage door. No problem closing the door. Have since moved and can park both EVs in the garage so no longer an issue, but did that for 6-9 months.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

And boom goes the dynamite.

...have no idea what happened. Charger has been installed for 1.5 years charging my other PHEV everyday. R1T took a full charge last night and unplugged it this morning. Went over to look at something on my wall outlet and noticed the plug was all melted. It was cold so have no idea how long it has been like this.

Do you plug/unplug often? I wonder if that pin was loose and was arcing?

Glad you didn't experience a more catastrophic failure! This is one (of many) reason why hard-wired EVSE installations are superior for regular use, imo.

 

[Aroohoo]

And boom goes the dynamite.

...have no idea what happened. Charger has been installed for 1.5 years charging my other PHEV everyday. R1T took a full charge last night and unplugged it this morning. Went over to look at something on my wall outlet and noticed the plug was all melted. It was cold so have no idea how long it has been like this.

Massive short ... From the looks of it, doesn't seem as though the breaker was tripped, with that amount of damage would have expected it to pull a good amount of current. Did the breaker trip?

Hopefully this was the extent of the damage and nothing else was affected and you and the family are safe.
If you have access to the wire runs, I would suggest inspecting the wires before using the circuit again.

Also wonder if an arc fault breaker would have prevented this.

Do you plug/unplug often? I wonder if that pin was loose and was arcing?

I think this is why people recommend Hubbell/Bryant recepticles. $100, but built solid.

 

[FutureTruck]

Do you plug/unplug often? I wonder if that pin was loose and was arcing?

Glad you didn't experience a more catastrophic failure! This is one (of many) reason why hard-wired EVSE installations are superior for regular use, imo.

No, I've had to unplug/replug about 4 or 5 times in 1.5 years to reset the charger after a power outage. In hindsight I guess I should have just flipped the breaker.

Good advice on the hard wired, I think I'm going that route for my next charger....

 

[FutureTruck]

Massive short ... From the looks of it, doesn't seem as though the breaker was tripped, with that amount of damage would have expected it to pull a good amount of current. Did the breaker trip?

Hopefully this was the extent of the damage and nothing else was affected and you and the family are safe.
If you have access to the wire runs, I would suggest inspecting the wires before using the circuit again.

Also wonder if an arc fault breaker would have prevented this.



I think this is why people recommend Hubbell/Bryant recepticles. $100, but built solid.

No, it didn't flip the breaker...

No other damage, honestly I think it could have been like this for awhile. The charger did a full run from 11pm to 7am this morning (I have good off-peak rates). I unplugged the charger from the truck and went over to inspect the outlet for another reason and when I unplugged it I got a nice spark and then noticed all the damage. Went in and flipped the breaker inside and then disassembled everything.

I opened up the charger and everything inside looks fine. Now I have to decide if I want to fool with replacing the power cable (if the manufacturer of the charger will even give me one) or just buy a hard wired charger and then have an electrician come out and take a look at the wires to make sure everything is ok.

 

[shrink]

This is one (of many) reason why hard-wired EVSE installations are superior for regular use, imo.

I was actually going to suggest the opposite for back up practicality. E.G., if an EVSE plugged into a 14-50 has a malfunction, one can unplug it and still use the mobile EVSE to charge on the 14-50 outlet.

@FutureTruck - glad damage wasn’t worse and that you, your family, your vehicles, and property are safe.

 

[jpmc86]

Unistrut Trolley to deliver the charge cable.

Unistrut Trolley to deliver the charge cable.

Really nice! Can you point me to where you purchased the overhead rail system and specific hardware? This would actually work very nice in my garage.

 

[Sattman69]

In full disclosure, I don’t yet have an R1T and it will be my first non ICE. I may have the smallest 2-car garage and it will take a shoehorn to park the Rivian.

As for the charger, I went with the Juicebox 40A. Installed it myself and only had a 10’ run because we had a sub panel directly on exterior. I went with the plug v. Hardwire JIC I get a welder or other appliance that can use that power.

I have yet to charge but everything “lights up”, Wi-Fi works, App is ready to go. Just need a truck…

 

[ajdelange]

...have no idea what happened.

Poor contact between that "pin"and the socket causing it to get hot when 40A was drawn through it. Some plug in EVSE have temperature sensors in the plug to detect this or will detect the voltage drop under load and reduce allowable current draw if this happens.

Definitely not a short - that would have tripped the magnetic side of the breaker.

 

[ajdelange]

This is one (of many) reason why hard-wired EVSE installations are superior for regular use, imo.

I've never had this failure with a plug-in unit but I have had it with a hard wired one.

 

[FutureTruck]

Poor contact between that "pin"and the socket causing it to get hot when 40A was drawn through it. Some plug in EVSE have temperature sensors in the plug to detect this or will detect the voltage drop under load and reduce allowable current draw if this happens.

Definitely not a short - that would have tripped the magnetic side of the breaker.

Just to clarify, are you saying it was from poor contact between the male plug "pin" (that turned black) and the Nema wall receptacle (that melted)?

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