Melted charge port

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leafy30

Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2019
Messages
10
Location
Sidney,BC, Canada
Recently I charged at a public level 2 charging station and when I returned to my car after 15 minutes I found the charging cord to be extremely hot, the charge port had melted and was smoking. I am having difficulty in finding out what might have caused this. The town told me the charging station had been tested several days before my encounter and was deemed to be ok. I noticed on PlugShare after some research that the station was not working the day after it had been tested. Also according to PlugShare comments the station had been reported to be buzzing and not working on several occasions before my problem as well as working. Any help,would be greatly appreciated. Has anyone else had a similar problem. ?
 
Your next step is an examination by a Nissan dealer to determine whether there was any kind of failure in your charging control system. If you can get a written statement from the Nissan dealer that your charging system did not fail, it is time to go after the owner of the charging station for compensation for the damage to your Leaf. That means you also need a written estimate from the Nissan dealer for the cost of repairs to your Leaf.
 
Have the Plugshare URL of the location?
Dooglas said:
Your next step is an examination by a Nissan dealer to determine whether there was any kind of failure in your charging control system. If you can get a written statement from the Nissan dealer that your charging system did not fail,
Click to expand...
Seems like this would matter little. Leaf can only pull 6.6 kW at max over J1772. If the OBC didn't obey the pilot signal duty cycle (https://openev.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/6000052074-basics-of-sae-j1772) from the EVSE telling it how much it could draw and drew a higher amperage, then a breaker should've tripped eventually at the supply side.
 
leafy30 said:
The town told me the charging station had been tested several days before my encounter and was deemed to be ok. I noticed on PlugShare after some research that the station was not working the day after it had been tested. Also according to PlugShare comments the station had been reported to be buzzing and not working on several occasions before my problem as well as working.
Click to expand...
leafy30 said:
Do not have the URL of this station. It is in Sidney, BC, Canada
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Confused by this since you said you checked Plugshare.

The melting handles on Blink EVSEs (and Schneider, I believe as well) were due to bad crimps in crappy Rema handles.
 
leafy30 said:
Checked PlugShare after my incident
Click to expand...
And you can check it again. If you view the location on Plugshare's web site, you can copy and paste the URL to here.

Or, give us the address and we can find it. There's more than 1 public L2 EVSE in that town.
 
leafy30 said:
Do I understand correctly that the charger should have a circuit breaker that will shut it off if there are any problems during charging ?
Click to expand...

Certain problems. Not *all* problems.
 
leafy30 said:
Recently I charged at a public level 2 charging station and when I returned to my car after 15 minutes I found the charging cord to be extremely hot, the charge port had melted and was smoking. I am having difficulty in finding out what might have caused this. The town told me the charging station had been tested several days before my encounter and was deemed to be ok. I noticed on PlugShare after some research that the station was not working the day after it had been tested. Also according to PlugShare comments the station had been reported to be buzzing and not working on several occasions before my problem as well as working. Any help,would be greatly appreciated. Has anyone else had a similar problem. ?
Click to expand...

Not sure what kind of help you're asking for. If you're talking about compensation, I think the plugshare log does suggest this unit had problems and is likely to have caused the overheating. You could try asking the town for compensation, give them the info and see what they say. As to whether or not this constitutes proof, or whether they are obligated legally, I have no idea. You'd probably be best off consulting an attorney if you wish to pursue legal action.

Do you need repairs, and how much will they cost?
 
I am trying to understand what caused it and what to do to prevent another occurrence. It has been repaired at a cost of $1500 . Before I can try and recoup money I need to know cause.
 
leafy30 said:
I am trying to understand what caused it and what to do to prevent another occurrence. It has been repaired at a cost of $1500 . Before I can try and recoup money I need to know cause.
Click to expand...

What exactly was replaced? Just the charge port?
 
Original looks like older Clipper Creek (Sun Country). Replacement looks like new Clipper Creek (Sun Country). Based upon the reports on Plug Share, it sounds like plug was making loose contact, causing buzzing, relay chatter, and/or failure to charge before it finally overheated to the point of damage.

I never had a problem with the 2011 (3.3 kW charger), but have had a few instances of the plug on public L2 chargers getting excessively warm with the 2015 because it draws more current. I always feel the plug after a few minutes to make sure it is not heating when I use public chargers.
 

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