L1 EVSE interference in home

Have had my 2012 Leaf charging successfully in garage for 18 mo w/o any problems. Recently we have noticed that when the LEAF is plugged in, a clicking noise coming from the stove in the kitchen. It sounds like a relay in the stove engaging, randomly.

Had an electrician come to house and put the EVSE on it's own 20A circuit in the garage. Plugged in the car to charge and immediately the clicking sound in the stove starts. If I unplug the LEAF, the clicking stops immediately.

I went to the dealer today to ask if they had anything in their database about the OEM EVSE causing interference in household wiring. Dealer found nothing. I've searched this forum and haven't found anything. I'm starting to believe there are aliens communicating through my LEAF to the stove in morse code! :lol:

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there some kind of filter I could plug the EVSE into to isolate the electrical interference?

My LEAF is under warranty until Oct 2015. If the EVSE is going bad, does the dealer replace it under warranty?
Many thanks, in advance.

I'm pretty new here so hopefully the more experienced ones can help more, but in general an EVSE is a pretty dumb device. It generate and monitors a 12 volt signal sent to the car which the car moderates to tell the device to start delivering power (turn a relay on or off).

Things to troubleshoot:
1. Set a timer on the car so it won't start charging until later (see if the stove clicks when plugged in not charging).
2. I assume you leave the EVSE plugged into wall outlet at all times and you plug/unplug the J1772 from car and this only occurs when the car is plugged in and charging.
3. Ask dealer (or another LEAF owner in your area) to let you borrow their EVSE for a quick test.

See, I think its more of a car issue than an EVSE issue. Have you noted any differences in how it charges? range?

And what "relay" in the stove - Does it actually start and stop a heating element?

evphreak said:

Have had my 2012 Leaf charging successfully in garage for 18 mo w/o any problems. Recently we have noticed that when the LEAF is plugged in, a clicking noise coming from the stove in the kitchen. It sounds like a relay in the stove engaging, randomly.

Had an electrician come to house and put the EVSE on it's own 20A circuit in the garage. Plugged in the car to charge and immediately the clicking sound in the stove starts. If I unplug the LEAF, the clicking stops immediately.

I went to the dealer today to ask if they had anything in their database about the OEM EVSE causing interference in household wiring. Dealer found nothing. I've searched this forum and haven't found anything. I'm starting to believe there are aliens communicating through my LEAF to the stove in morse code! :lol:

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there some kind of filter I could plug the EVSE into to isolate the electrical interference?

My LEAF is under warranty until Oct 2015. If the EVSE is going bad, does the dealer replace it under warranty?
Many thanks, in advance.

Click to expand...

I'm thinking it may be a poor connection in the house's main wiring. I would have an electrician check connections starting at the meter, then where the wiring comes into the main breaker panel. Also sub-panel main connections as well if one is used to feed the car charging circuit.
One poor connection somewhere could cause enough of a voltage drop at the stove when the car is drawing high amps while
charging. That may be causing the stove to act that way.
If a main connection is loose or poor, that could be unsafe as well.

I've been reading the forum for years and don't remember anything like this. I still use L1 and this would have jumped out at me. There have been some reports of strange interference with solar inverters and L2 (Blink I think, but do a search).

The original 2011 LEAFs (first couple thousand or so) did not include a noise filter that was later added to the charger. This caused some humming in electrical panels, transformers, etc.

Thanks, gents for the excellent suggestions. I did what jpadc suggested, and picked up a known good EVSE from the Nissan dealership. Brought it home, and the stove made the same clicking sound once car started charging. So we can rule out the L1 charger causing the problem.

In answer to previous questions:
Yes the stove clicks only when charging is ongoing. When clicking, nothing happens with the stove. Nothing turns on, nor does the red "stovetop is hot" warning light turn on. Once the charging is complete, and charger still plugged in to car, the noise quits.

If that burner is turned ON, and the car is charging it clicks on/off as a normal stovetop will do, so I think it's the relay attached to the temperature control for that burner. It only does it on the control that has two sides to it. If one turns it to the right, the full burner comes on, and if turned to the left, the smaller burner comes on. You hear the relay click when going from left to right.

The car is charging now, and dinner is cooking on the burner. There is no random clicking, but rather the normal duty cycle of the burner on/off.

I think it's time to get the electrician back out to check the household circuitry for loose connections, as recommended by silentbutnotdeadly.

Does it click the whole time your charging or more at the end of the charge cycle? Towards the end it sort of pulls power, then less, then more then less as it gets closer to full.

The only other thing I can think of is if when charging there is enough load to unbalance the 240 to the stove. Maybe you have a bad ground or bad neutral, although you would think the EVSE would stop charging at that point.

I would recommend taking voltage readings at the stove outlet on both sides of the 240. See if one is 115 vac or 110 vac and one is 120 vac while the car is charging.

BrockWI said:

I would recommend taking voltage readings at the stove outlet on both sides of the 240. See if one is 115 vac or 110 vac and one is 120 vac while the car is charging.

Click to expand...

+1. Voltage sag is the first thing I'd suspect. Compare values with and without charging. This can be checked with inexpensive meters available from a hardware store.