FORD MOBILE CHARGER IS NOT MEANT FOR DAILY USE!!!

[acollierpf533]

Mine didn't make it past the 1st power outage.

I agree that the mobile charger seems to be robust enough for daily use. That's not my point.

Ideally I'd like to have a hardwired L2 charger at home and keep the mobile charger for when I'm on the road, is all. If my home charger fails I've got the mobile for a backup.

I read the manual for the first time last night too...what I did see is that the operating temperature of the mobile charger is 122F. So after weeks of faults, and not much help from my dealer...I took my laser thermometer and took surface temperatures of charger...124F with the amber light on...so that is obviously the issue. Its been 101 Heat index in KC. Its no surprise now that the hottest days recently, the charging with the mobile charger has become difficult...and frustrating...


The cable was 105F. So I need a charger that can operate at greater than 122F. The only thing I have found is the Juicebox on Amazon, apparently that goes to 140F...but I cannot differentiate if that is operating temp, or general temperature condition limit...The reviews for the Juice Box are spotty...

So I will have to see what I end up getting...

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[portlandg]

I know, I konw, I know... then why do they give you a mount with it? I don't know, but I think the verdict is in. Look at this:

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/ford-mobile-charger-intermittent-amber-warning-light.7066/

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...se-it-cannot-sustain-the-rated-32-amps.18001/

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/ford-supplied-charger-acting-up-what-to-do.18351/

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/yellow-light-on-mobile-charger.17938/

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/mobile-charger-not-working.17841/

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...er-and-dealer-software-updates-failing.17742/

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/mobile-charger.17591/

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/ford-mobile-charger-amber-light.17394/

And that's just a few.

My Grizzl-e showed up in the mail today. It's not even close. As soon as I unwrapped it and pulled it out of the box, I could tell the difference. The Ford Mobile Charger is not made for everyday use. Now, I know a Grizzl-e can handle "extreme conditions" so maybe they designed it a bit overkill, but seriously look at the size difference of the cables.

I think the verdict is in, the mobile charger is for the trunk, not the garage wall. Spread the word.

I have mine mounted on my garage wall and use it as my primary home charging solution. I have not had any issues.

 

[Mach1E]

Just my personal experience

This happened when not in use but plugged in. Probably just a fluke, but it definitely impacted my opinion as I had the luxury of standing a couple feet in front of it when this happened.

Yeah, you need a lot more disclaimers than this with your story though. You had a power outage then a failed main breaker on your home that overloaded the charger.

This isn’t a result of leaving it plugged in. It’s the other stuff that caused it.

This would be like suggesting you unplug your tv and all your appliances when not in use because one time a surge or lightning strike took them out.

But I’ll say again: 240v plugs don’t like being constantly plugged and unplugged. Your chances of doing damage that way may be higher than what happened to you.

 

[RockwallRick]

I used the FMC for 9 months and never was it unplugged from my 240 circuit. I did reset it from the breaker a few times to clear the amber fault.

 

[JCHLi]

Yeah, you need a lot more disclaimers than this with your story though. You had a power outage then a failed main breaker on your home that overloaded the charger.

This isn’t a result of leaving it plugged in. It’s the other stuff that caused it.

This would be like suggesting you unplug your tv and all your appliances when not in use because one time a surge or lightning strike took them out.

But I’ll say again: 240v plugs don’t like being constantly plugged and unplugged. Your chances of doing damage that way may be higher than what happened to you.

I suppose that is a narrative, however, the facts that

1. no other equipment was impacted by the power outage and subsequent restoration of power

2. The entire panel is protected by a SPD which did not register a surge

It seems much more likely that, even if the power outage served as the trigger for the failure of the Ford Mobile Charger, something as common as a power outage SHOULDN'T have triggered such an event

The fact that the main breaker tripped but no other breakers did, nor did any other equipment experience a failure (of any kind, let alone catastrophic) seems to point pretty clearly to me that the Ford Mobile Charger, despite not being in active use, had an internal failure which resulted in such a massive draw (over 200 amps) that it caused one pole of it's individual breaker to weld in the open position and ultimately trip the main breaker).

But, if you choose to believe that this was caused by a power surge or other external force, it would mean the Ford Mobile Charger was still the weakest link of any equipment in my home (and even neighborhood since I heard of no other equipment failures related to the outage). Devices fail, but generally they should be designed not to fail catastrophically.

So, my personal opinion is, I would not feel comfortable leaving the Ford Mobile Charger plugged in when not in use. I personally only need to get burnt once.

The only disclaimer I think is necessary is the same for any post on a public forum, it's one person's option based on their own experience.

 

[Maquis]

It is safe to leave it plugged in all the time, except maybe from lightning strikes.

Unplugging the vehicle from the charger will help the charger cool down. Unplugging from the wall won't make any reasonable difference. But, it is very important for safety reasons (arcing, shock risks) to unplug from a vehicle prior to unplugging from the wall.



Breakers aren't intended to be used as regular on/off switches. You will prematurely wear out the breaker.

It's fine to leave the mobile EVSE plugged in to the wall outlet.

I don’t think it’s a problem to turn off the breaker as long as it’s not done under load. With no load, it’s not really switching anything.

 

[HowdyDoody]

Dealer replaced my EVSE that was experiencing amber light issue today, free under warranty. Took one week, and they kept the faulty one. Does anyone know if the replacement might have improved parts, or should I expect the same issue over time if used daily?

 

[GuliblGuy]

Hi
I don’t know about the Grizzl-E. You might want to contact the manufacturer. I almost bought a JuiceBox but found out through watching a YouTube video comparing chargers that the cable becomes stiff in cold weather. The ChargePoint does not. This I bought the ChargePoint. It works great!

@astronut325

The cold weather test on the Grizzl E was very favorable

 

[Maquis]

Dealer replaced my EVSE that was experiencing amber light issue today, free under warranty. Took one week, and they kept the faulty one. Does anyone know if the replacement might have improved parts, or should I expect the same issue over time if used daily?

I don’t think we’ve had enough members get replacements and have them in service long enough to judge. Please keeps us informed!

 

[Mach1E]

I suppose that is a narrative, however, the facts that

1. no other equipment was impacted by the power outage and subsequent restoration of power

2. The entire panel is protected by a SPD which did not register a surge

It seems much more likely that, even if the power outage served as the trigger for the failure of the Ford Mobile Charger, something as common as a power outage SHOULDN'T have triggered such an event

The fact that the main breaker tripped but no other breakers did, nor did any other equipment experience a failure (of any kind, let alone catastrophic) seems to point pretty clearly to me that the Ford Mobile Charger, despite not being in active use, had an internal failure which resulted in such a massive draw (over 200 amps) that it caused one pole of it's individual breaker to weld in the open position and ultimately trip the main breaker).

But, if you choose to believe that this was caused by a power surge or other external force, it would mean the Ford Mobile Charger was still the weakest link of any equipment in my home (and even neighborhood since I heard of no other equipment failures related to the outage). Devices fail, but generally they should be designed not to fail catastrophically.

So, my personal opinion is, I would not feel comfortable leaving the Ford Mobile Charger plugged in when not in use. I personally only need to get burnt once.

The only disclaimer I think is necessary is the same for any post on a public forum, it's one person's option based on their own experience.

Your experience was your experience. I don’t want to discount that.

But we still don’t know that the issue was, therefore it’s not possible to draw conclusions like “you should unplug your charger when not in use.”

So rather than going by this one off situation where we think there may be a problem, let’s go with something we KNOW can cause a problem: unplugging and plugging in a 240v plug.

The 240v outlets are NOT designed to be constantly plugged in and out. I did some research and it seems they’re only designed for around 300 cycles.

That means if you plug it in and out daily, you could wear out the outlet in less than a year.

So your solution could be worse than the problem.

 

[Maquis]

Your experience was your experience. I don’t want to discount that.

But we still don’t know that the issue was, therefore it’s not possible to draw conclusions like “you should unplug your charger when not in use.”

So rather than going by this one off situation where we think there may be a problem, let’s go with something we KNOW can cause a problem: unplugging and plugging in a 240v plug.

The 240v outlets are NOT designed to be constantly plugged in and out. I did some research and it seems they’re only designed for around 300 cycles.

That means if you plug it in and out daily, you could wear out the outlet in less than a year.

So your solution could be worse than the problem.

But if you only need to charge once a week, you get almost 6 years! ?

 

[Green Machine]

I know, I konw, I know... then why do they give you a mount with it? I don't know, but I think the verdict is in. Look at this:

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/ford-mobile-charger-intermittent-amber-warning-light.7066/

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...se-it-cannot-sustain-the-rated-32-amps.18001/

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/ford-supplied-charger-acting-up-what-to-do.18351/

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/yellow-light-on-mobile-charger.17938/

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/mobile-charger-not-working.17841/

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...er-and-dealer-software-updates-failing.17742/

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/mobile-charger.17591/

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/ford-mobile-charger-amber-light.17394/

And that's just a few.

My Grizzl-e showed up in the mail today. It's not even close. As soon as I unwrapped it and pulled it out of the box, I could tell the difference. The Ford Mobile Charger is not made for everyday use. Now, I know a Grizzl-e can handle "extreme conditions" so maybe they designed it a bit overkill, but seriously look at the size difference of the cables.

I think the verdict is in, the mobile charger is for the trunk, not the garage wall. Spread the word.

I have had the Grizzl e for 5 months, in fact I have 2 of them, they are awesome and very simple. I am super happy with the charger and my GTPE. no problems

 

[JCHLi]

Your experience was your experience. I don’t want to discount that.

But we still don’t know that the issue was, therefore it’s not possible to draw conclusions like “you should unplug your charger when not in use.”

So rather than going by this one off situation where we think there may be a problem, let’s go with something we KNOW can cause a problem: unplugging and plugging in a 240v plug.

The 240v outlets are NOT designed to be constantly plugged in and out. I did some research and it seems they’re only designed for around 300 cycles.

That means if you plug it in and out daily, you could wear out the outlet in less than a year.

So your solution could be worse than the problem.

I do try to be as clear as possible in my comments that it is my personal opinion based on my own limited experience. But as this thread brings together many issues noted (generally they seem to be related to overheating), I think it's fair to share an additional experience of another failure that occurred.

I suppose it is entirely possible that repeated use of some outlets will cause then to wear out prematurely. There are many discussions about the proper type of outlet (although no true standard to determine what industrial vs. commercial actually means).

That being said, I spent most of my days in manufacturing shops that routinely use 240v outlets for their welding equipment and have not seen any cases where the outlets have failed due to use.

As far as my own personal solution, I opted for a third party charger for full-time use and keep the Ford Mobile Charger available in case I need to charge on the road and need an additional option.

Just my personal opinion, but all visible components of the Charge Point Home Flex, seem much more robust to the Ford Mobile Charger when compared side by side.

 

[TD1273]

I have never used the Ford charger I just leave it in the car. I installed a ChargePoint charger hardwired with 60 amp breaker to use at home. I guess should see if the Ford charger even works

 

[Thunderbuck]

I have never used the Ford charger I just leave it in the car. I installed a ChargePoint charger hardwired with 60 amp breaker to use at home. I guess should see if the Ford charger even works

Probably worthwhile. I've had to use mine, since I live in a rental where I don't get to order an L2 charger and I haven't had any problems so far. Love having a typical commute topped up by a sub-$1 charge lol

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