dml105
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Tell us a story....
SnBGC
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Looks like impact damage from a fall or being run over (possibly). Ford learned a pretty good lesson with mobile EVSEs catching fire that all the newer versions have a thermal safety feature built in so it probably want due to overheating.
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JCHLi
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Technical explanation, insides became outsides..
Or, the long story...
Power went out a few weeks ago, outage covered several neighborhoods, due to weather.
I unplugged the car out of an abundance of caution, but did not unplug the "charger". Also checked breakers at the same time, didn't notice any issue.
Power stayed off into the night, woke up in the middle of the night and power was still off, but power company said it was back on and neighbors had power.
Went to breaker and noticed the main had tripped. Since it was the middle of the night I decided to reset the main (in hindsight I should have turned off each breaker first). There was an immediate BANG, bright explosion and I felt something hit my thigh pretty hard. The main immediately tripped again. After a moment to gather what happened and assess the situation I turned off the various breakers (in hindsight I remember the 50 amp breaker for the charger being stiffer than normal, also I should have unplugged it at that point, but in my mind, the breaker being off should have been enough). Again, I reset the main, power stays on this time but the charger sparks and catches fire (despite the breaker being off). So I turn off the main again, grab a fire extinguisher and make sure it's out.
Had the fire department come, make sure no hot spots. Removed the charger, checked the outlet, the breaker failed with one pole still hot, had an electrician come replace the breaker, said he never saw a breaker fail that way. Everything else checked out fine, no evidence of a surge as the SPD still showed green.
Ford replaced the mobile charger (took about a week). I decided on a Charge Point Flex because this whole ordeal freaked me out.
What happened? Not sure, but it seems unlikely it was a surge as no other issues and I have a SPD installed in the box. I assume there was an issue with the mobile charger which when it blew up, caused the individual breaker to heat up and fuse one pole.
Other idea could still have been a surge, happened in the initial restoration of power and the SPD dumped the current, causing the main to trip, but since the charger was so close to the box, it may not have been fully protected. This could have damaged it enough such that on me restoring power, it failed and exploded.
Mach-Lee
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Wow, Ford is probably going to want to take a look at that charger, otherwise send it to Big Clive!
Charger would almost have to fail shorted L1 to L2 to cause that kind of damage to the 50A breaker and blow the main. Somewhat concerning if the charger failed in that fashion. Hitting it with a power surge short of a direct lighting strike shouldn't cause that kind of failure.
Probably a good idea to add a whole-home surge protector to absorb any power surges rather than the mobile charger. You should make sure everything else in your house works, you might have other damaged devices.
Charger would almost have to fail shorted L1 to L2 to cause that kind of damage to the 50A breaker and blow the main. Somewhat concerning if the charger failed in that fashion. Hitting it with a power surge short of a direct lighting strike shouldn't cause that kind of failure.
Probably a good idea to add a whole-home surge protector to absorb any power surges rather than the mobile charger. You should make sure everything else in your house works, you might have other damaged devices.
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JCHLi
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They have it, not sure what they are doing with it, but they have it now.
The SPD I have is a full panel SPD, my only thought is, the 14-50 outlet is pretty close to the panel, if there was any delay in the SPD it could have tried the next closer path. There is also a regular plug sightly closer to the panel but it was fine. No other issues noted throughout the panel, other outlets or other equipment in the house (which makes me lean away from the thought it was a surge)
