Warning regarding Grizzl-E charger issue

[Pmullin7]

OP said they changed the Dip switches. But not from what amperage and to what amperage. Could have downgraded from 48 to 40 for all we know. While they said “minimum” we don’t know if they consider 40amps to the minimum they are satisfied with. I have a small background in technical writing,
My dying wish would be for people to write detailed posts with all the required information carefully so others don’t tap out a response that wastes time and energy for everyone.

Maximum for a Grizzl-E is 40. Next step down is 32. Then 24. Minimum is 16.

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[Pmullin7]

With the extra details, I now understand the concern. Best of luck on the new charger.

If you are interested, rather than throwing the Grizz away, I’d be curious to test it on one of my cars to see if it does the same. Dont know what postage would cost but I could cover it.

Already recycled, sorry.

 

[kltye]

OP said they changed the Dip switches. But not from what amperage and to what amperage. Could have downgraded from 48 to 40 for all we know. While they said “minimum” we don’t know if they consider 40amps to the minimum they are satisfied with. I have a small background in technical writing,
My dying wish would be for people to write detailed posts with all the required information carefully so others don’t tap out a response that wastes time and energy for everyone.

I know I'm being petty, but OP said:

This was rare at first, but became more and more frequent. Last November I set the charger to minimum amperage to see if it might be a heat problem. That didn't help, and the error message became very frequent. As in, almost every day.

I guess I did assume that a) OP isn't an idiot and that minimum meant something meaningful, like < 32 amps; b) the EVSE isn't stupid and minimum means something < 32 amps, and c) setting the charger to minimum amperage meant the charger's minimum, not the OP's minimum that they're satisfied with.

I guess I do acknowledge that there's a world out there where extreme idiots exist and my assumptions would have been wrong.

 

[summerlinLV]

I ran into an issue with my Grizzl-E charger that I thought other owners should know about.

Briefly, the charger worked just fine for the first year. After that I would come back to my car periodically when it was plugged in, to find it had a "charger error" message in the car. Usually, but not always, the charge had completed.

This was rare at first, but became more and more frequent. Last November I set the charger to minimum amperage to see if it might be a heat problem. That didn't help, and the error message became very frequent. As in, almost every day.

I was advised that plugging in a charger that produced error messages in my car was not a good idea, so I contacted the EVSE manufacturer for support.

Over the past 6 weeks, we have had an ongoing dialogue, starting with me telling them that I had turned down the amperage via the dip switches. They asked for videos, pictures of the error message, pictures of serial numbers, made suggestions to disable the Wi-Fi in the unit, and then eventually circled back to tell me that they thought it was the car not able to handle the amperage and that I should turn it down.

Their other idea was that it was the fault of the charger port in the car. Now I had told them that this car has been using other chargers, including the Ford mobile, and has never had an issue on level one, two or three. But apparently they simply didn't want to send me a new unit and wanted to have me run around and deal with an endless stream of support e-mails.

After 6 weeks they finally offered to replace the unit. All I had to do was send it to them and wait for them to send me a replacement, during which time I suppose I would have no charger at all, if I didn't have another option.

Frankly, I had already become so upset with this that I installed a hardwired Tesla universal, so I'll be throwing their unit in the garbage instead.

I'm very disappointed by this experience... But I thought other Mach E owners considering which EVSE to purchase should be aware.

I have a Chargepoint EVSE and had a wifi connection issue. They sent me a new unit with a return label to return the old unit. The whole process was great.

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

I know I'm being petty, but OP said:


I guess I did assume that a) OP isn't an idiot and that minimum meant something meaningful, like < 32 amps; b) the EVSE isn't stupid and minimum means something < 32 amps, and c) setting the charger to minimum amperage meant the charger's minimum, not the OP's minimum that they're satisfied with.

I guess I do acknowledge that there's a world out there where extreme idiots exist and my assumptions would have been wrong.

As were mine. Nobody is perfect.

 

[BalsaDust]

I would suggest the OP rename this thread to something like "I had an issue with a Grizzl-e"
The way it reads he is suggesting that all grizzl-e prodcuts may have the same issue.
As other have written, there has been few reports of issues and all were handled quickly by the company.
I purchased mine just about three years ago now and it has performed well without issues charging my MME and the wifes Leaf, even the occasional Tesla when my neighbors wife forgets to plug in at work and he comes over begging to charge for a couple of hours (he pays with Beer!)

 

[Art]

I ran into an issue with my Grizzl-E charger that I thought other owners should know about.

Briefly, the charger worked just fine for the first year. After that I would come back to my car periodically when it was plugged in, to find it had a "charger error" message in the car. Usually, but not always, the charge had completed.

This was rare at first, but became more and more frequent. Last November I set the charger to minimum amperage to see if it might be a heat problem. That didn't help, and the error message became very frequent. As in, almost every day.

I was advised that plugging in a charger that produced error messages in my car was not a good idea, so I contacted the EVSE manufacturer for support.

Over the past 6 weeks, we have had an ongoing dialogue, starting with me telling them that I had turned down the amperage via the dip switches. They asked for videos, pictures of the error message, pictures of serial numbers, made suggestions to disable the Wi-Fi in the unit, and then eventually circled back to tell me that they thought it was the car not able to handle the amperage and that I should turn it down.

Their other idea was that it was the fault of the charger port in the car. Now I had told them that this car has been using other chargers, including the Ford mobile, and has never had an issue on level one, two or three. But apparently they simply didn't want to send me a new unit and wanted to have me run around and deal with an endless stream of support e-mails.

After 6 weeks they finally offered to replace the unit. All I had to do was send it to them and wait for them to send me a replacement, during which time I suppose I would have no charger at all, if I didn't have another option.

Frankly, I had already become so upset with this that I installed a hardwired Tesla universal, so I'll be throwing their unit in the garbage instead.

I'm very disappointed by this experience... But I thought other Mach E owners considering which EVSE to purchase should be aware.

Thank you. I also have a Grizzl-E but (no wifi) and it's about a year old.
No problems yet and I'm getting over 35 miles per hour of charge.

 

[music_cities]

Thanks for telling us. Hopefully mine will not develop any problems.

 

[Valcasis]

Grizzl-E has been awesome for me too.

It is very possible that your car is charging slower than the charger is trying to push. Last year, my wife’s car had a charge port go bad. Since the replacement, Ford has introduced software that will slow charging down if it detects resistance/heat at the charge port.

While this never caused problems with my Grizzl-E’s, we also don’t have the kind that need WiFi. So the “smart” charger may interact completely differently.

The fact that your car will charge on the ford Mobil charger is fairly Irrelevant here as it charges at a much slower rate and would not build up the heat that may trip the failure. Level 1 will never make that kind of heat. And level 3 uses a completely different set of parameters. You are upset you could have been left without a charger “if you didn’t have another one.” But you did. By your own admission, one that worked. So that part seems like a bit of a hyperbolic tantrum.

If you want a different charger, that’s great. I encourage everyone to try to find what works best for them. But trashing a company that supports many of us, because you didn’t like their well considered answer, is a bad look.

Grizzl-E has been awesome for me too.

It is very possible that your car is charging slower than the charger is trying to push. Last year, my wife’s car had a charge port go bad. Since the replacement, Ford has introduced software that will slow charging down if it detects resistance/heat at the charge port.

While this never caused problems with my Grizzl-E’s, we also don’t have the kind that need WiFi. So the “smart” charger may interact completely differently.

The fact that your car will charge on the ford Mobil charger is fairly Irrelevant here as it charges at a much slower rate and would not build up the heat that may trip the failure. Level 1 will never make that kind of heat. And level 3 uses a completely different set of parameters. You are upset you could have been left without a charger “if you didn’t have another one.” But you did. By your own admission, one that worked. So that part seems like a bit of a hyperbolic tantrum.

If you want a different charger, that’s great. I encourage everyone to try to find what works best for them. But trashing a company that supports many of us, because you didn’t like their well considered answer, is a bad look.

This person is sharing his/her actual experience with that company. In this case it wasn’t like yours. They also mentioned that they used other Level 2 chargers, not just L1 or L3.
You have a right to be angry express your opinions base on your opinion experience.

And so this person also has rights to share their opinion. I don’t think he/she is just trashing your favorite wall unit just because.

 

[Mauser]

I've got a Grizzl-E as well. So far, zero issues. I've had it since August '22. I'll keep my eye out. I bought it because at the time it was the most affordable and made in Canada, which I wanted to support. I think it's currently set to 32A - the current breaker doesn't support any more draw. I can't really do more since my house is 100A service. Any more, and I've have to have one of those damn interlocks installed.

 

[devmach-e]

Grizzl-E has been awesome for me too.

It is very possible that your car is charging slower than the charger is trying to push. Last year, my wife’s car had a charge port go bad. Since the replacement, Ford has introduced software that will slow charging down if it detects resistance/heat at the charge port.

Hate to be pedantic, but EVSEs don't push anything to the car. All they do is tell the car "hey, this is how much power you can safely pull from the wall" and then it is up to the car to respect that limit. You can have an 80A (19.2 kW) EVSE and plug a Mach-E into it and it will only pull a max of 48A, because that is all that the internal charger can handle. If I plugged in an old Nissan Leaf with only a 3.3 kW onboard charger, it would only pull 3.3 kW.

 

[K2H]

I've had this exact issue with the Grizzl-E. It almost always finishes charging without any issues, but get the Charge Fault error when I get in the car later. I was also getting this fault when I plugged in the car prior to its scheduled time. When 9pm came around to charge, it faulted and wouldn't charge at all. It seems like it is some bug in the communication (on one side or the other) going from a plugged-in charging state and a plugged-in paused state. This didn't happen with my 2022 GTPE but has been with my 2023 GTPE. Not sure if it that is the car or just that the charger is older.

As also reported, this doesn't happen with other L2 chargers and my car.

 

[Pmullin7]

I've had this exact issue with the Grizzl-E. It almost always finishes charging without any issues, but get the Charge Fault error when I get in the car later. I was also getting this fault when I plugged in the car prior to its scheduled time. When 9pm came around to charge, it faulted and wouldn't charge at all. It seems like it is some bug in the communication (on one side or the other) going from a plugged-in charging state and a plugged-in paused state. This didn't happen with my 2022 GTPE but has been with my 2023 GTPE. Not sure if it that is the car or just that the charger is older.

As also reported, this doesn't happen with other L2 chargers and my car.

Sounds like my experience.

I hope Grizzl-E will deal with it for you. My Ford dealer told me that using any charger that produced fault errors was a bad idea, although I admit, they weren't all that helpful in trying to figure out exactly what error was being thrown by the car.

We basically became frustrated with constant deflections by their technical support, and decided to take action ourselves.

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