High pitched and loud humming sound from 2015 6.6kw charger

[1krr]

I also installed a L2 station (Clipper Creek HCS-40, 32A) last week for my 22 day old leaf and I can hear the same high humming sound.

I found a youtube video of a 2013 doing the exact same thing. It does sound like a fan (cooling maybe?).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKGXzWLNmqs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Awesome find! Mine is exactly the same. Listening carefully, I can hear the distinct sound of the little diaphram pump for the coolant separately from the charger whine. Hopefully if others stumble across this thread it will give them some peace of mind.

6.6? is this new? I thought the newer leafs charged at 6 kW's

Nissan quotes it at 6.6kw (for the SV and SL models, S is 3.3kw). 240v @6.6kw is 27.5amps which is about what I saw when I tested it at the panel. Since chargers run at ~85% efficency, the remaining 15% or ~990 watts is going to heat. That's the equivalent of one of those cheap ceramic heaters people use to heat a room. 990whr is 3378btu which is a BUNCH of heat. Good news is my garage is insulated and holds heat pretty well so it will be nice and toasty leaving in the morning (summer time might get charged outside).

http://www.nissanusa.com/electric-cars/leaf/versions-specs/version.sv.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here is an interesting study on charging efficiency.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/posting.php?mode=quote&f=30&p=395583" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

well, yes this is a way an evse would make a difference. If you plug in a 30 amp EVSE, obviously the charger in the car is going to make more noise and heat than when it is connected to a 20amp EVSE. It is working harder! Doesn't mean the amount of heat put out at full charging power is not normal.

Yeah the heat didn't surprise me, it was the noise. Since it didn't start making the noise until after it got hot, it turned into one of those paranoia things. I think after the inlaws visit next weekend, my next project is going to be an openevse build so I can dial the power down for most days and have the option to step up the power if I want. I'm still kind of surprised the clipper creek evse came with 10ga wire (when it calls for a 40 amp breaker and sustains almost 30 for hours). But they broke a hammer and a bat over one so I'm assuming they've load tested it. Would love to see them wire up a TIG welder and weld some 1/2in aluminium through it as another torture test!!

 

[hill]

..........snip..........
Nissan quotes it at 6.6kw (for the SV and SL models, S is 3.3kw).

well, yes this is a way an evse would make a difference. If you plug in a 30 amp EVSE, obviously the charger in the car is going to make more noise and heat than when it is connected to a 20amp EVSE. It is working harder! Doesn't mean the amount of heat put out at full charging power is not normal.

Don't wana be the fly in the ointment - but according to the electric vehicle wiki:]

"... The LEAF has a built-in charger that is rated at either 3.3 kW or 6.0 kW delivered to the battery ..."

http://www.electricvehiclewiki.com/Charging_System#cite_note-1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

SanFrancisco Bay leaf web site says the same thing:

"... 6.6 kW onboard charger (6.0 kW output) ..."

http://sfbayleafs.org/news/2013/01/2013-nissan-leaf-model-overview/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

yea ... I know Nissan SAYS one thing ... but then again when we bought our Leaf, the dealer & some of their writings SAID it has a 100 mile range. But of course that's only true IF you drive slow enough ... when the traction pack is NEW enough ... and the weather is warm enough ... and the terrain is flat enough. I think Nissan likes the 6.6 number because it sounds bigger. Tom kinda says the same thing here @ 11:20am : http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=17960" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Only around 21.5 Kwh of the battery is usable... Also, the OBC is 6.6Kw input but only 6.0Kw output to the battery... Nissan cheated a little by changing the spec to input power on the 2013+ unlike the 2011/12 that was output power...

.

 

[EVDRIVER]

I also installed a L2 station (Clipper Creek HCS-40, 32A) last week for my 22 day old leaf and I can hear the same high humming sound.

I found a youtube video of a 2013 doing the exact same thing. It does sound like a fan (cooling maybe?).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKGXzWLNmqs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Awesome find! Mine is exactly the same. Listening carefully, I can hear the distinct sound of the little diaphram pump for the coolant separately from the charger whine. Hopefully if others stumble across this thread it will give them some peace of mind.

6.6? is this new? I thought the newer leafs charged at 6 kW's

Nissan quotes it at 6.6kw (for the SV and SL models, S is 3.3kw). 240v @6.6kw is 27.5amps which is about what I saw when I tested it at the panel. Since chargers run at ~85% efficency, the remaining 15% or ~990 watts is going to heat. That's the equivalent of one of those cheap ceramic heaters people use to heat a room. 990whr is 3378btu which is a BUNCH of heat. Good news is my garage is insulated and holds heat pretty well so it will be nice and toasty leaving in the morning (summer time might get charged outside).

http://www.nissanusa.com/electric-cars/leaf/versions-specs/version.sv.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here is an interesting study on charging efficiency.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/posting.php?mode=quote&f=30&p=395583" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

well, yes this is a way an evse would make a difference. If you plug in a 30 amp EVSE, obviously the charger in the car is going to make more noise and heat than when it is connected to a 20amp EVSE. It is working harder! Doesn't mean the amount of heat put out at full charging power is not normal.

Yeah the heat didn't surprise me, it was the noise. Since it didn't start making the noise until after it got hot, it turned into one of those paranoia things. I think after the inlaws visit next weekend, my next project is going to be an openevse build so I can dial the power down for most days and have the option to step up the power if I want. I'm still kind of surprised the clipper creek evse came with 10ga wire (when it calls for a 40 amp breaker and sustains almost 30 for hours). But they broke a hammer and a bat over one so I'm assuming they've load tested it. Would love to see them wire up a TIG welder and weld some 1/2in aluminium through it as another torture test!!

The LEAF has a 6kw charger not 6.6kw, Nissan is twisting the truth and being dishonest about the specs of the car. The spec for the 2011-12 LEAF is correct however.

 

[Dalhousie88]

We just got a 2015 Nissan Leaf a few weeks ago.

The high sound only seems to appear in the final stage of charging. When the 2 blue bars on the car dash are solid and the third is flashing. We have the Nissan AV charging station, and its charging light starts to flash when the high pitch sound occurs as well.