[Slam08]

So I have my I pace hooked up to a dumb Grizzl-E duo charger (40A max). I have it set to start charging at 10pm. Normally it starts on time, works fine. Wake up to 80% charge every day.

earlier in the week I noticed that when it started charging it was only charging at 1% when it started in the app. I came out and the vehicle said “initializing” and didn’t seem to be charging at all. I disconnected the charger and reconnected. It was still stuck on initializing. So I unplugged it again and turned the car on, rechecked the settings, and turned it off and plugged it back in and it charged at the usual 7%/hr again.

It worked fine for a few days (I just charge at home at night).

Then last night it seemed to charging fine when I went to sleep but when I woke up it had only charged to 73% overnight and was only charging 1%/hr again. Not sure when it cut out. It was also still charging at 1%/hr at 7am. It should have stopped at 6am per the programming. The car would normally finish charging around 12:30 and stop.

Going to keep an eye on it, but wondering if anyone else has similar problems?

 

[Humpbackbird]

I currently have a similar problem, mine starts charging, the after 10 mins or so goes to ”initializing” only way to get back charging is to unplug and restart, you can imagine this is no fun. sometimes it goes for a few hours. Dealer appointment on Thursday.

 

[Slam08]

Happened again tonight. Got home late at it was supposed to charge when plugged it. It did and 15 min later it was initializin again. When to the car and unplugged it and plugged it back in. Still initializing. So I started the car up and got two black screens for the PIVI pro and climate. No radio but did have nav. Couldn’t change the settings. Had to unplug the cat and start it up without the plug. Changed it to immediate charging and then plugged it in again.

seems like a software bug. I’m thinking a factory reset should fix it…

 

[jsimon7777]

Reboot/power cycle the charger itself, maybe. Some chargers are too smart for their owners' good.

 

[Pollo de muerte]

I had a similar situation that ended up being the GFCI circuit breaker dedicated to the charger going bad. When I touched the breaker on the panel, it was very hot to the touch. Although some codes require GFCI breakers for outside use, I replaced it with a "dumb" breaker and the problem when away.

FWIW, the I Pace performs its own ground fault testing, so I don't think a GFCI breaker is really needed for this use.

 

[Jeffgtx]

What happens when you turn timed charging off and plug it in?

 

[Slam08]

Reboot/power cycle the charger itself, maybe. Some chargers are too smart for their owners' good.

This specifically why I got a dumb charger. Lol. Sometimes it good to have one smart thing and the other dumb!

What happens when you turn timed charging off and plug it in?

If I put it on times charging and plug it in it seems to charge fine. But it usually starts fine with times charging as well and then drops to a trickle.

 

[Slam08]

I ended up driving more that expected yesterday and dropped the battery to 25%. I reset PIVI pro in the middle of day when I remembered. Just so happens that to get to 80% it should take about 8 hrs on my home charger. It charged just fine, even finished early. Nature called so I happened to be up at 4 am when it finished.

Hopefully it was just a software glitch?

 

[sciencegeek]

I've encountered erratic charging behavior under two circumstances:
1. Software not being written to understand a bad battery and doing weird things during charging
2. Onboard charger too hot, car having to throttle charging rate to avoid overheating it (mind you, not the battery but the onboard AC-to-DC converter which kicks into action during L1 and L2 charging at home)

My recommendation is to monitor your actual range closely to make sure the battery is ok

 

[Slam08]

I've encountered erratic charging behavior under two circumstances:
1. Software not being written to understand a bad battery and doing weird things during charging
2. Onboard charger too hot, car having to throttle charging rate to avoid overheating it (mind you, not the battery but the onboard AC-to-DC converter which kicks into action during L1 and L2 charging at home)

My recommendation is to monitor your actual range closely to make sure the battery is ok

The overheating is good point.
Is there a way for me to monitor battery temperature?

 

[Ayepace]

One thing to check when the car fails to start charging on AC is that all doors, boot (rear hatch), and bonnet (hood) are fully closed. It will not start charging if any of these are not fully closed.

 

[sciencegeek]

The overheating is good point.
Is there a way for me to monitor battery temperature?

Remember from my post above, it's not the battery temp that's the issue but that of the onboard charger, whose temperature we don't know how to access.
Battery temperature can be accessed with the PowerCruiseControl app, which requires a paid subsrciption.

 

[Zap Cat]

You can also look at battery temp via the ABRP app (also a subscription). Either this or PowerCruiseControl require an OBD (On board data) unit plugged in under the dash. The OBD's they require are not compatible or interchangeable between the two different apps. I've tried both apps and I find ABRP more valuable overall, but I can only see the battery temp before and after a driving segment, not continually during the drive like with PCC. ABRP said they don't want drivers doing risky driving maneuvers (yo-yoing, e.g.) to warm up the battery.:-(

 

[Slam08]

So it happened again last night. Went to check and restarted it and still only trickle. I figured a vet visit was in my future then I remembered to try unplugging the charger. It was then I realized that the charger plug was coming out of the 240V outlet. I took it out and and when I plugged it back in the charger gave me an error message. After a couple of tries of plugging it back in I got it to connect normally!

So I suspect the issue was with the charger connection to the 240V outlet. Not sure why the rate of charge would change. I would’ve expected it to just stop charging if it was the charger connection.

Hopefully it’s fixed!

 

[Pollo de muerte]

So it happened again last night. Went to check and restarted it and still only trickle. I figured a vet visit was in my future then I remembered to try unplugging the charger. It was then I realized that the charger plug was coming out of the 240V outlet. I took it out and and when I plugged it back in the charger gave me an error message. After a couple of tries of plugging it back in I got it to connect normally!

So I suspect the issue was with the charger connection to the 240V outlet. Not sure why the rate of charge would change. I would’ve expected it to just stop charging if it was the charger connection.

Hopefully it’s fixed!

I would check the breaker for that 240V outlet. If it is very warm to the touch, get an electrician out to look at it. I was having similar issues due to a failing GFCI breaker on my 240V outlet.

 

[Slam08]

I would check the breaker for that 240V outlet. If it is very warm to the touch, get an electrician out to look at it. I was having similar issues due to a failing GFCI breaker on my 240V outlet.

The outlet wasn’t warm. I didn’t check the breaker but I’ll check that tonight as well. it’s a new install, just put in last month!

What happened with this 240v outlet is that the electrician installed it upside down and I needed to flip it. I did it myself but the wires did have a little more torque than before inside the outlet. and then I installed the charger just and inch too high and the cord has a little bit of torque when it gets to the outlet. I should be able to troubleshoot this further. May need to adjust the position of the charger but I think if I just wait the cord will eventually adjust.

 

[Scufflegrit]

A 240V outlet has 2 120V hot wires. Maybe you've got a bad connection on one of the hot terminals in the outlet. If the car is only getting 120V you'd only see L1 charging speeds.

Your electrician probably installed the outlet correct per convention, but some chargers work best with the outlet upside down due to the short length and stiffness of the cord. I originally installed mine "right" and then had to flip it.

 

[Slam08]

A 240V outlet has 2 120V hot wires. Maybe you've got a bad connection on one of the hot terminals in the outlet. If the car is only getting 120V you'd only see L1 charging speeds.

Your electrician probably installed the outlet correct per convention, but some chargers work best with the outlet upside down due to the short length and stiffness of the cord. I originally installed mine "right" and then had to flip it.

That makes sense. One wire dropping out would drop it to 120v. But shouldn’t it still be 40A? So shouldn’t I get half if one wire is loose?

 

[kkemp]

But shouldn’t it still be 40A? So shouldn’t I get half if one wire is loose?

Not necessarily. The car's charger dictates what rates it will accept and there may be discrete allowed combinations. If the EVSE starts seeing 120v it may signal to the car that it's offering [email protected] but the car does not recognize that as a combination it will accept and negotiates the charge down to something more "normal" like [email protected] It's a long shot I know, but I have read about other EVs that behave like this (e.g. apparently the Bolt will only charge at 12 amps on 120v even when the EVSE offers 16 amps)

 

[Scufflegrit]

I think the onboard charger is only good for about 10A at 120V or 30A at 240V. So it would drop from 7.2 kW to 1.2 kW. I think one of the larger pins in the J1772 EV connector is a neutral when on 120V and is the second 120V line when running 240V. So a bad connection on the L2/N circuit would I believe cause the car to drop to slow Level 1 charging. The disconnect could be anywhere between the breaker and the car's onboard charger, but if you're suspicious of the outlet I would start there.