Wall Outlet Issue

[lucky13]

I've recently been charging my Mach E on a 110 GFCI wall outlet. I had about 100 hours of charging over 4 or 5 days without any issue.

Yesterday morning while the Mach E was charging it tripped the circuit breaker. I reset the breaker, but the outlet does will not reset and does not work. Any idea what may have happened?

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[generaltso]

Could be a bad breaker or bad GFCI outlet.

 

[kodiakng]

check the breaker in your panel first - it may have popped due to loads elsewhere on the circuit at the same time.

if it isn't the breaker it could be loose connections or a bad GFCI outlet that you might want an electrician to look at.

 

[21st Century Pony]

I reset the breaker, but the outlet does will not reset and does not work. Any idea what may have happened?

How old are your installed house systems (this plug, the main fuse panel, the wiring path, the amount of other circuit branches on this wiring path, etc.)? Stuff does age, sometimes out of its original design specs... especially if you live in an older house.

Also, cheaper "builder-grade" plugs often work fine under occasional loads like a clock or an intermittent load but can fail under constant loads... and charging an EV is a constant load.

 

[lucky13]

How old are your installed house systems (this plug, the main fuse panel, the wiring path, the amount of other circuit branches on this wiring path, etc.)? Stuff does age, sometimes out of its original design specs... especially if you live in an older house.

Also, cheaper "builder-grade" plugs often work fine under occasional loads like a clock or an intermittent load but can fail under constant loads... and charging an EV is a constant load.

House was built in 2006. I assume nothing has been updated since then, but it's a rental, so I'm not sure.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Don’t trust old working and old outlets for long-term charging. 110 or 220.

 

[21st Century Pony]

House was built in 2006. I assume nothing has been updated since then, but it's a rental, so I'm not sure.

That's relatively new...

Maybe the fact it's a GFCI plug is the cause? AFAIK the "brick" on the EVSE cable has a circuit protection feature by design. Can you try charging on a non-GFCI plug?

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Be sure to unplug the EVSE before resetting the GFCI. If the GFCI will not reset, you know you have an outlet problem. If it will reset but then trip when you plug in the EVSE, it still could be the outlet, but it might be the EVSE...

 

[DR.J56]

Which circuit breaker are you talking about? The GFI on the plug itself or the breaker in the panel? Or maybe the GFI breaker is in the panel? Did you unplug the EVSE and then reset? Try the EVSE in another known working outlet? A house circuit issue will “likely/may” show in the panel, assuming the gfi is on the plug itself.

GFI’s get old and the gfi incorporated plugs are the worst. The older ones seem to last longer than the newer ones also. The newer ones are VERY sensitive and trip frequently. I've bought 2 new ones in the last 6 years to replace the one in my garage that was about 10 years old.

Disclaimer: This is all internet speculation. If you are uncomfortable with electricity, get an electrician to look at it.

 

[lucky13]

Which circuit breaker are you talking about? The GFI on the plug itself or the breaker in the panel? Or maybe the GFI breaker is in the panel? Did you unplug the EVSE and then reset? Try the EVSE in another known working outlet? A house circuit issue will “likely/may” show in the panel, assuming the gfi is on the plug itself.

GFI’s get old and the gfi incorporated plugs are the worst. The older ones seem to last longer than the newer ones also. The newer ones are VERY sensitive and trip frequently. I've bought 2 new ones in the last 6 years to replace the one in my garage that was about 10 years old.

Disclaimer: This is all internet speculation. If you are uncomfortable with electricity, get an electrician to look at it.

When I first plugged the EVSE in last week it initially tripped the breaker on the outlet itself. I unplugged the EVSE and reset that. It then worked without any further issue for about 100 hours.

Then the circuit breaker in the wall panel tripped. I unplugged the EVSE and was unable to reset the breaker in the outlet.

I tested the EVSE in another outlet for about 8 hours (non GFCI) and it worked.

 

[generaltso]

Then the circuit breaker in the wall panel tripped. I unplugged the EVSE and was unable to reset the breaker in the outlet.

Did you reset the panel breaker before trying to reset the outlet? A GFCI won't reset if there's no power going to the outlet.

 

[lucky13]

Did you reset the panel breaker before trying to reset the outlet? A GFCI won't reset if there's no power going to the outlet.

Yes.

 

[generaltso]

Yes.

Then I'd try to replace the outlet first. If that doesn't work, replace the breaker.

 

[AtomicInternet]

I charge from a 120v GFCI outlet, no problems for 4 months now. Typically never more than 70% -> 80% though, so if you're charging for 12 hours at a time my guess is something in the outlet overheated and melted. I'm always shocked how hot a 1 kWh charge rate gets my cord.

 

[Vgkfan]

I used to charge from the 110 outlets in the parking garage at work. One by one they failed over time, and would not reset. Garage is about 20 years old. I had a wall outlet in my garage that began tripping when I used my treadmill. House is about 25 years old. My son told me the outlets will weaken over time so I finally replaced it. Worked fine ever since. I mentioned this to the boss at work, and the response was the outlets weren’t designed for evs. From my experience, I would say replace your wall outlet and go from there. Good luck..

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