New Level 2 Charger 32A charger pulling 35A

[fronesis]

I’m new to Teslas and EVs, having picked up a 2024 Model 3 RWD last month. I’m staying at a friend’s house and the car has charged fine on his JuiceBox wall charger, using the J1772 adapter.

I’ll need a mobile charger for an upcoming road trip, and may also use it as my level 2 charger when I got home. So I purchased an EVGOER 32A level1 and level2 adapter from Amazon. It claimed UL certification (but I haven’t fully verified that) and had a couple of nice features: 30-foot cable, and the ability to limit the amperage manually. (Yes, it was also cheap, at $140, but it had good reviews and promised UL certification.)

I just charged for the first time, on automatic, and the unit itself reported that while it was SET at 32A, the actual output was 35A. I charged for under an hour and got two messages from the Tesla app that “charging had stopped,” but on both occasions charging did not actually stop, and the service menu inside the car reported no errors.

But it DOES NOT seem right to me that this 32A unit is showing an actual output of 35A (they make a 40A unit, but I didn’t buy that one), and I have to guess that this is related to the charging stopped messages. (I can add that I connected this cable to the same high quality 14-50 NEMA plug that the juicebox was using; this is a fairly new house and this electrical line was run specifically for the juicebox. I think it’s on a 50amp breaker, but it’s definitely 40am or higher)

I assume the consensus here will be: return this cable to the Amazon seller and buy the tesla mobile connector.
But I wanted to check first to see if there is something else I should do or that I am missing?

 

[shingles]

You should return it and buy the tesla unit.
The cost difference seems to be only $50. I don't think that sort of delta is worth any potential headaches down the road.

 

[brkaus]

Buy a different evse

But to answer your question, an EVSE doesn’t really limit the current. That is the job of the car.

The EVSE is supposed to advertise the max amount of current that the car can take. It does this, if I remember correctly, by adjusting the duty cycle of a control signal that gets sent to the car. Sounds like the EVSE isn’t sending the correct info.

Or just lower the evse setting a bit until it’s correct in the car. The reading in the car is the trustable one.

 

[fronesis]

The EVSE is supposed to advertise the max amount of current that the car can take. It does this, if I remember correctly, by adjusting the duty cycle of a control signal that gets sent to the car. Sounds like the EVSE isn’t sending the correct info.

Yep, that was my understanding as well: the EVSE is *supposed* to communicate to the car the max amperage. But even though this unit is a 32A, it seems to be telling the car 35A.

Or just lower the evse setting a bit until it’s correct in the car. The reading in the car is the trustable one.

I bet this would work, but I’d have to drop down to 20A. And I still don’t know that I’d trust this cable.

You should return it and buy the tesla unit.

You are probably right! And I probably will…

The cost difference seems to be only $50.

For the record: I paid $140 for this unit, and the Tesla is now $250

I don't think that sort of delta is worth any potential headaches down the road.

But I still agree…even saving $100 isn’t worth it if I can’t trust this unit.

Thanks both for the quick replies!

 

[brkaus]

I bet this would work, but I’d have to drop down to 20A. And I still don’t know that I’d trust this cable.

I didn’t read the additional info on the device. Was thinking it might just have an up/down button with more granularity.

20a would be a no go for me. It would be fine 95% of the time though.

 

[Cosmacelf]

The bigger problem is the multiple charging stopped messages in the Tesla … that indicates the Tesla had interrupted charging, and who wants that?

 

[fronesis]

Updates:

• I just discovered that the second “charged stopped” message raised an alert in the car’s service menu, which specified that the car was not getting proper communication from the EVSE. This is consistent with the basic theory that this EVSE is not communicating properly with the car.
• I plugged back into the juicebox plus that was already installed here, and so far no errors. Watching the charge info in the tesla app I also realize that on the juicebox the car is charging at 7kW, as it did before, but on the other EVSE it was showing 8kW. This suggests to me that the car really was seeing/drawing more than 32A – which it shouldn’t be doing.

Looks like I’ve got a return ahead of me, and need to hope my local tesla store has a mobile connector in stock (I’ve got a trip coming up, so it’s too late to order online).

 

[davewill]

You should look at what amps or kW the car is reporting. Since a Model 3 RWD can't charge at over 32a, I find it likely that the current measurement is off in the EVSE, reporting a higher current draw than actual. which is a pretty harmless error.

If the car is reporting the correct 32a, then you don't have anything to worry about except the transient charging errors you reported.

 

[fronesis]

You should look at what amps or kW the car is reporting. Since a Model 3 RWD can't charge at over 32a, I find it likely that the current measurement is off in the EVSE, reporting a higher current draw than actual. which is a pretty harmless error.

If the car is reporting the correct 32a, then you don't have anything to worry about except the transient charging errors you reported.

I’ve set the limit in the Tesla app to 32A (the highest it goes for level 2 on my car) and I believe that’s what it was reporting. But I did notice that both the Wallbox and the Tesla Mobile Connector report a charging rate of 7kW in the app, but when hooked up to the Amazon EVSE the app was reporting 8kW.

It seems reasonable to me that the current measurement might have been off, but when I checked other reviews of this unit, I saw lots of people taking photos of the EVSE readout and none of theirs reported higher output than the limit. In any case, the charging stopped app messages plus the service menus error messages in the car were enough to make me lose trust in this device.

I returned it today and picked up the tesla mobile connector. I didn’t realize *how much* smaller the mobile connector is – it’s literally 1/3 the weight and size. And it’s nice not to need the adapter.