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Newly installed 240V outlet barely too small to accept plug

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I just moved from IL to CA where I had a 240V outlet installed in the garage. It looks like a NEMA 14-30 outlet as pictured on Tesla's website (and is paired with a 60 AMP fuse in the fuse box).

Screen Shot 2014-10-02 at 7.47.21 PM.jpg



The 240V adapter on the charging cable looks like it should fit, but the bottom prong appears to be too large for the bottom hole in the outlet.

Obviously I'll call back my electrician to take a look, but thought I'd just throw this out there to see if there's a quick fix...

Thanks!
 
Thanks! That was helpful. I think I understand what happened now. Electrician called.

- - - Updated - - -

Okay. One more question. This is probably obvious, but if I just buy an adapter for a NEMA 14-30 outlet, I'm good to go (and probably much cheaper than hiring an electrician to change the outlet)?

http://goo.gl/TDv8Po
 
Okay. One more question. This is probably obvious, but if I just buy an adapter for a NEMA 14-30 outlet, I'm good to go (and probably much cheaper than hiring an electrician to change the outlet)?

Shop Tesla Gear NEMA 14-30


Yes, you'll be good to go - it will just charge slower. Probably ~14 hours for a full charge instead of ~8.

But change out that circuit breaker like Lloyd said.

I assume since you don't want to change out an outlet you also don't want to change out a circuit breaker. So if you get an electrician in anyway, and it's approximately the same cost, upgrade the outlet rather than downgrade the circuit breaker.
 
Umm..... the 14-30 should not have a 60 amp breaker! This is dangerous!

THIS!

Also, if the electrician put a 30A outlet on a 60A breaker/fuse, I would think twice about using them again. You also need to find out what gauge wire was used from the outlet to the fuse box. If it's rated for that 30A outlet, it's going to need to be replaced if you plan on using the proper 14-50 outlet.

Please don't end up on the news with your garage/house/Tesla burned to the ground. You'll just make the stock price drop! ;)
 
I just moved from IL to CA where I had a 240V outlet installed in the garage. It looks like a NEMA 14-30 outlet as pictured on Tesla's website (and is paired with a 60 AMP fuse in the fuse box).
A 14-30 outlet on a 60A breaker is dangerous, a code violation, illegal, a serious fire risk, an insurance refuse-to-pay risk, and God-knows-what-else. Was this work ever inspected? It shouldn't have passed. If you haven't paid the bill yet, I wouldn't until they fix it. If you have paid, I would demand they fix it or you will report them to the state licensing board. You need a 50A breaker, 6 gauge or heavier copper wire, and a 14-50 outlet.

Actually, I might not let them back in my house, period. Get a real electrician who didn't find his license in a box of Cracker-Jacks.

The 240V adapter on the charging cable looks like it should fit, but the bottom prong appears to be too large for the bottom hole in the outlet.
If you're trying to plug a 14-50 plug into a 14-30 outlet, it won't fit. That's by design, else your 50A appliance with the 14-50 plug could try to pull 50A from a 30A circuit. Attempting to do this is a fire risk, etc (see long list of bad outcomes, above).
 
If it hasn't already been inspected find out who does electrical inspections in your area and get them out there (in my state you can even just ask for a general safety inspection for electrical and they'll come out and look at anything you want). They can identify if anything is done wrong and what needs to be fixed. They also have the authority to force the original electrician to fix it. I'd also suggest that you turn the breaker off and not use the outlet until you have this inspected. If the inspector doesn't think anything is wrong I'd raise the concerns about the 30A outlet and 60A breaker that have been mentioned here.

If for some reason you live in one of the very rare areas that doesn't have electrical inspections. Then I would hire a different electrician to give their opinion on if anything was done wrong and possible to fix it.

My overall advice is don't just trust electricians to do things correctly. Everyone makes mistakes and that's why we have inspectors. I just had some wiring in my house fixed this week that the electrical inspector noticed was wrong when he was here inspecting my work adding a 14-50 and HPWC. The work was done in 2002 and wasn't inspected (I didn't know better back then). I happened to still have the invoice and the inspector found the original electrician and made him come out and fix it at no charge to me.
 
See the FAQ in this section of the board (also linked in my signature, below).

If the breaker is marked "60", and that outlet was installed on that breaker, then as other people have said that's a giant no-no and will not protect you. Under no circumstances should you ever use an adapter with that circuit as-is because if the car - for whatever reason - decides to start charging at 40A, you will overload the outlet at a minimum. Depending upon the wire/cable used, it may be overloaded as well.

The proper installation is linked in the document from Tesla above - a 50 amp breaker with minimum #6 Romex or #8 wire-in-conduit (smaller number is larger wire) and NEMA 14-50R receptacle. The alternate installation is a 30 amp breaker with minimum #10 wire/cable and NEMA 10-30R receptacle, paired with the correct adapter FROM TESLA - not a homemade or 14-50 to 14-30 adapter (which has some overloading risk).

If your breaker in your "fuse panel" is labeled "30" and is a dual-handle breaker, then that's ok - you really have a 30A breaker. It's not 30+30 because the flow of current is restricted to 30 amps on either side of the electrical connection.

We're happy to help further if you provide a picture of your breaker.