Cant say i tried the level charger on gfi circuit. It works fine on just a regular socket in my garage. I do have a gfi circuit that gets tripped though with everything i plug into it - setup wrong. Do other things work properly from your plugs?

 

I would start by swapping out the GFCI with a new one.

 

Circuits could be miswired. Plugs could be bad. Charger could be bad. This is the first I've heard of a problem.

 

Poking around the EV forums for Bolts and Leafs this does come up from time to time. Sometimes it's the GFCI. Other times it's the charger. I'm less concerned about my house since I'll have the brand new 2020 version of Juice Box 40 up and running Monday. I'm more concerned if people have run into this trying to plug this into 120v outlets while on the road?

The first GFCI I tried was just installed Thursday by an electrician when I updated my panel to 200Amp service. It's likely a cheap builder grade CFCI. I could likely ask them to put a commercial or hospital grade one. But any house or renovation done in the last 10-15 years will have that builder "quality" of GFCI in the garage or outdoors.

In the meantime a closer look at the charger showed it's just a 10 amp device. So I plugged it into a non-GFCI 15A circuit and it seemed to work just fine.

 

It is rathe common with EVSE/cars dumping a spike current into ground on start of charging. For example early EVSEs (even Simons) would fault because of this with the Tesla Roadster. Over time they have changed how they trip to allow the initial ground spike and not count it as a problem. GFCIs are a pain and I am sure they would trip always. Heck my GFCIs trip sometimes when I turn on the lights!

So it doesn’t necessarily mean there is any issue. I have never plugged a 110 into a GFCI circuit, so can’t help. But I’ll do some tests at home and report.

 

Don't plug it into a GFCI circuit.

The 50a circuit won't be a GFCI circuit. The Chargpoint, Juicebox, etc., chargers that I looked at specifically state that they should not be connected to GFCI.

The Juicebox that I got states it has its own GFCI protection built-in.

 

Since this is a service update I won't be able to get around GFCI on a garage outlet... Well, until the inspection has completed. :grin2:

 

It will trip GFI's. I've been told it's because the car has it's own breaker, though I haven't validated this.

Use a non-GFI outlet.

 

Same thing happened to me when I first got the car. My house was less than a year old and passed all required inspections, so it wasn't a wiring issue. It could be the amps on the breaker for the GFCI outlet is below the spec required. I didn't bother to figure it out because I was getting the ChargePoint installed. I haven't thought about it in a couple of months.

 

Very odd that the GFCI would trip, this normally would only happen when it senses some kind of current routing into a ground. Being that the car is sitting on rubber tires, it just doesn't entirely make sense. My hunch is that the large 4,500-pound metal mass of the car, along with moisture in the air, could contribute to somehow tripping the GFCI circuit into thinking some current is draining to ground. Some GFCI's can be fickle.

Also, the 110-volt charger is almost like a battery charge encourage device.....it charges along the lines of 'wishful thinking', it's literally a trickle charger! Once you bump up to Level-2 charging on a 220-volt circuit, now you're juicing strong!

 

To wrap this up the service went in with a GFCI 50AMP breaker. The Juice Box trips it immediately. I talked to Juice Box support and they said it was a pretty common problem and offered a free exchange to the hard wired version. So that's sorted out and now the Juice Box is working great.

Slow charger is in the car for emergencies but I'm pretty dubious it will work in any modern house.

 

Is GFIC required by the code in the garage? My I pace charger triped it the very first time I tried it so I changed it to a regular socket. It has been working fine but am I taking a risk or voilate the code? My neighbor's garage does not have one.

 

I can't speak to what is or isn't code but using a standard socket is fine. The only time things could get ugly is if you use an extension cord due to the heat generated. I've used the Jaguar-provided charging cable and another cable I used to charge my PHEV with no trouble.

 

Yes, GFCI outlets have been required in garages since the 2014 revision of the NEC. My town actually required me to use AFCI (Arc fault) and GFCI in the outlet I had added to my garage earlier this year.