Mine was only a 120V outlet, but my wife pulled the plug after a charge and it was way too hot to hold. Old outlet. Getting a better one in wasn't a big bill, so a decent outlet is worth the money before you pay for hardwiring. I'd feel the plug after the first couple of charges though.
Same kind of thing with the portable charger that came with my used Leaf. It was an off-brand one, and the 3-prong end felt like it was starting to melt. I stopped using it and ordered the official Nissan one. Might be the cord's plug and not the outlet at all.
Mine did something similar, but it wasn't the outlets. Level 1 tripped the GFCI right away, and my Emporia L2 just beeps loudly and won't start, even set anywhere from 12-40A. The breaker doesn't trip on the L2 at all. DC fast charging worked fine though, so I'm leaning toward the car's onboard charging side (ICCU) and not the charger. Worth trying a DC fast charger if you can, to rule that out.
@kpoole_19 mine was the same kind of melt, plug and receptacle both. In our case the 14-50 just wasn't torqued properly when it went in (electrician's apprentice did it). So I'd have the plug end looked at as well, not just swap the outlet.
Ha, same here, my $15 Leviton 14-50 from Home Depot melted after about 4 years on our 40A line. Junction box held it together luckily. Did yours get re-torqued after the first few charges? Either way I'd go hardwire or a commercial-grade outlet this time.
No, never re-torqued it, didn't know that was a thing. Mine was a Leviton too and it melted, just found it one day with the face of the outlet all warped and brown.
Mine was just a regular 120V outlet, not a 14-50, with the Tesla mobile connector plugged in every few days. Woke up to the app showing volts and then failing, and the outlet was visibly damaged. Breaker never tripped, which stumped my electrician. He thought the cable was fine, but I sent pics to Tesla service anyway.
Similar thing with my M3, except it was an extension cord at my parents' place. Went to leave and the charging cable had melted right into the cord. Spent an hour trying to pull them apart before I gave up. Same cord had been fine for months, which is what threw me.
Same boat here, my detached garage is one circuit for everything. I keep L1 at the lowest draw it'll allow and it's plenty since I'm home all day. Some days I just don't plug in. Wouldn't want to push that circuit any harder.
Funny, my apartment board asked me for basically that. I'm on a 110V outlet in the shared garage with a new Model 3, and they emailed to cap it at 7.5A and only charge after midnight. They say the breaker is 20A. 12A is only about 1500W so it felt strict to me, but I have no idea what else is on that circuit, so I just did it.
Kind of in the same boat, I'm in a condo and use the 15A block-heater outlet in the parking lot at 12A. I only charge once every week or two so it's never running long, but after reading this I'm going to feel the plug now and then. Is 12A on a 15A outlet reasonable, or would you still drop it lower?
I run mine at 8A. My charger can do 10A but a couple of other things share that circuit, so I just turned it down to be safe. Doesn't cost me much. 12A on a 15A outlet is probably okay if nothing else is on it, but if anything else shares it I'd go lower.
I don't have a home spot either, I charge at work and pay a little extra for it. I bought a cheap $100 electric scooter so I can park farther from the plug and scoot to wherever I'm going, which means I'm not fighting for the closest outlet. I'm on an e-Golf, so I'm usually on whatever's available. After reading this I'll be feeling the plug at work now and then too.
Mine's the 30A dryer outlet. Smart splitter limited to 20A, and it stops charging whenever the dryer runs, which is fine by me. Still way better than the 120V/13A I was on for 3 months, about 1.5kW up to almost 5kW.
Not a home setup for me, but I'm dealing with something like this at a parking garage right now. The Clipper Creek there can do 32A but keeps tripping the breaker, and the two Tesla units only give me about 12A. Reading this, I'm guessing the garage breaker is shared or undersized for 32A continuous. Would dropping the current be an option on a unit like that, or is that something only facilities can change?
Probably a facilities thing, I'd guess they'd have to be the ones to change anything on the unit. For what it's worth, the 12A on the Teslas doesn't tell you much about the Clipper Creek's breaker. My partner's Bolt trips our 50A breaker a couple minutes into a charge, and the Volt is fine on the same circuit. Our electrician says the breaker itself is bad. If yours trips fast like that, I'd point at the breaker before the load.
Ha, I spent way too long blaming the car on this one. My wife's i4 kept tripping the 50A breaker on our new 14-50 even with two different EVSEs and the current turned down to 20A. Ended up being a GFCI breaker, which I hadn't really clocked at first. Might be worth looking at what kind of breaker the garage one is.
Interesting, mine's a 6-50R outside at my sister's place for my Model 3 and the GFCI breaker trips every few hours, not right away. Haven't tried a different EVSE yet. Did yours trip fast or only after it had been charging a while? Wondering if the outdoor part matters too, like moisture in the box.
The breaker type thing is worth checking. When I first got my home charger for my Model Y, anything above 20A would trip breakers on other circuits in my panel, not even the charger's own circuit. Turned out to be the old-style Eaton dual function arc fault/ground fault breakers, which are really sensitive. My electrician figured it out. Eaton has since put out newer versions that nuisance trip less, and they warranty replaced mine through customer service. So if it's an Eaton panel, look at the model number on the breaker.
Late add, but if you've swapped breakers and outlets and nothing changes, it might be worth looking at the car. I never got a check 12v battery warning or anything. I just brought mine in because my L2 and L1 chargers wouldn't work, and it ended up being an ICCU thing. I'd only been using DC fast before that, so I barely noticed.
Reading all the melted outlets, I'm glad mine's been boring. We run the car at 12A in the garage on a shared 20A circuit with a camera, tool battery chargers and the door opener. It's never popped anything. The door only pulls for a few seconds, and most of the time it's just the car. Still, I'm going to put a hand on the plug after a long charge now.
Ha, boring is good. Mine's the opposite kind of trip, since it's the Rivian's own 15A plug feeding the trailer AC through an Ecoflow Delta 2 Max. I turned the Ecoflow charge rate down to 400W thinking that would cap it, but I think it just stacks on top of the AC. Compressor kicks on and the Rivian breaker flips anyway, so something like 2kW total. Still not sure what the cleanest fix is, a 20A plug would probably do it.
This is kind of related. I tried charging another EV from the 240V outlet in my truck bed with the Ford Mobile Charger. About a minute in it hit the 3,600W max on both legs and the breaker tripped. So I'm wondering if your Rivian is just running into a fixed ceiling like that, where the compressor kicking on pushes it over. I'm a total noob with electricity though, so I could be off.
Mine's kind of the reverse. I ran the Sierra's 240V 30A twist lock into the house panel through an interlock and it tripped the instant I turned it on, with basically nothing loaded. So I don't think it was a power ceiling for me, it was something about how the truck handles neutral and ground. Never did get 240V working, only 120V through adapters.
Can't say how the Sierra handles bonding. I tow an Airstream with a Lightning and run the trailer off the bed outlet, and I charge at campground pedestals. One caveat: when I tried charging a friend's EV off that bed outlet with my portable charger, the breaker tripped within about a minute, so the amps have to be set well under the 30A limit.
Fine for months and then melted is the part that gets me. The rear outlet at my place shares a circuit with about three other random outlets, so I don't trust it for a charger even on low amps. I looked at a 6-20, but untangling the wiring in this old flip is what makes the cost so high. Was that cord a thin hardware store one, or just whatever was around?
Does the Sierra bond neutral to ground inside the truck's outlet? If it does and the interlock sends the house panel its own bond too, I'd guess that's what kicked it instantly. Might be the same sort of thing with campground pedestals tripping on me. Even a plain 120V outlet keeps popping, and I'd be happy just having that stay on.
