Fauty charger?

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cdysthe

Active member
Joined
Sep 17, 2017
Messages
41
Location
Gloucester, MA
Hi,

We have two chargers, one for the iMiev and one for our Outlander PHEV. They look exactly the same so I assume they are. Anyway, one of them trips the GFCI on the outdoor outlet as soon as I plug it in. The other one doesn't and works fine. The GFCI turns the outlet off regardless of whether the charger is connected to the car or not. That should mean that one of the chargers is faulty I take it? Is this something known that happens now and then? This particular charger is the one that came with the PHEV so it's not more than a year old so I it's under warranty. The iMiev charger is from 2015 but looks exactly the same. And then I do of course wonder if I can use the iMIev charger on my PHEV? Again, the look exactly the same with the exacts same markings and text on it.
 
The plug in connector is a SAE standard J1772 with a standard protocol, and as such both EVSE units should work in any car with that port.

Internally the EVSE does a ground circuit self-check before starting the charge which is similar to the function in a GFCI.

Either the Outlander EVSE has a fault, or the GFCI has a fault in being overly sensitive.

You could try plugging the EVSE units into an outlet not on a GFCI to test if the breaker gets thrown when the Outlander unit is tested, that would prove if it were shorted internally.
 
kiev said:
Either the Outlander EVSE has a fault, or the GFCI has a fault in being overly sensitive.
If it turns out that the car has a leakage fault, consider that it could be water in the air conditioning controller. It seems to be a common fault with imiEVs, and may be similar with Outlanders.

An iMiEV HV leakage repair here: https://forums.aeva.asn.au/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=7051
 
I tried the Outlander charger in two other GFCI protected outlets and they immediately tripped. I also tried the iMiev charger and nothing happened. It worked just fine. I did not dare try in an unprotected outlet. So it seems the Outlander charger has an issue. I will take it in to the dealer and have it replaced.
 
cdysthe said:
So it seems the Outlander charger has an issue. I will take it in to the dealer and have it replaced.
My guess is that there are more capacitors to ground in the On Board Charger than the "charger" brick (really an EVSE). So replacing the brick may not fix the problem. If it's in the OBC in the car, it could be an expensive fix, despite the fact that the problem is very likely a capacitor worth much less than a dollar.
 
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