[eddiey]

I wanted to get an idea of how many people with the 2011 charge cable had an issue. If you vote, can you post once about what the light indicators were doing, temps of your evse and cable, and anything else that may be pertinent?

Please keep the discussion to the other charge cable fault thread, but do post in here so we can get a consolidated idea of what is going on.

 

[eddiey]

I am on my third charger now. Vehicle is charging in the garage.

First charger faulted after four weeks of use.
Ran very hot
Left light was green, right light blinked red
If cooled, charger could activate (green lights both sides) and was able to charge the vehicle to full
Would fault if left alone for an hour or two, car not plugged in
Was probably about 100F in the garage

Second charger faulted after 2 days use
Ran cooler than first charger
Left light was green, red light blinked
Would not activate even if cooled
Seemed like an internal circuit breaker would not reset

Third charger running fine now. Been about 6 days.

Also should note, tried several plugs, and also whole house surge protector is installed. Outlets test fine.

 

[fishhawk]

For completeness, this poll should include a choice that says "I don't use the stock 120v EVSE". I almost exclusively use the 240v Voltec charge station, so I don't know if my stock 120v EVSE has any problems. I would hate to be caught with a bad EVSE after the warranty runs out, but I don't want to use 120v charging either.

 

[stuart]

until one month ago, when i had the voltec 240v charger installed, i had exclusively used the charger that came with the car --pretty much every day. It never ran hot, never faulted, only had green lights. Haven't used it since early July.

Stuart #2209

 

[TexRiguez]

Mine went down after 3 days of use. First all the lights went on as normal, then the top two turned red and the unit shut off. then the whole thing started all over again, all green, two red, then off. Over and over until I unplugged it. Reported to GM and they sent a replacement. Cord still gets hot, buy not burning and no discoloration. Blades of plug got burned and slightly melted, But I cleaned and sanded and has been fine since. I think it was affected by hi humidity.

 

[eplantz]

all lights green but drops connection to the car after 20-30 minutes. Sometimes the dash light is yellow, sometimes nothing.

I have a second unit which is working fine. Plugged into same wall outlet. 240V charging at work is fine as well.

 

[bronco7TX]

Only have the ability to charge at a 120V outlet at my work. I exclusively charge at work using the 120V EVSE and have not had any issues in the last 6 months. My parking spot I use is outside in the mild NE summers and is shaded for about 50% of the day from either the building in the morning or trees in the afternoon.

 

[AZ EV Driver]

I've had no real issues with the 120v EVSE since Feb purchase. However, I have observed some interesting issues when plugging it into an outlet in my garage. I have a pre-existing convenient double duplex outlet that I use, I also use these for charging battery powered yard equipment. So the first time I plugged the EVSE into an open outlet I got the dreaded double red lights - rats, now what? After thinking about it, I unplugged the 2 yard equipment chargers (wall warts) and tried again to plug in the EVSE - ta da green lights are good! Since I still need to charge the yard stuff, I plugged them back in after the EVSE was happy and all is good. I have to repeat this every time I need to plug in the EVSE and have had no issues.

My guess is the yard equipment chargers are creating some electrical noise that the EVSE doesn't like as it is going through it's diagnostics of the connection. Once it is happy with the connection, then the noise doesn't effect the operation of the EVSE (assuming that it is actually doing something after the connection diagnostics). I wonder if noisy electric service isn't what some others are running into with their EVSE.

VIN # 0985

 

[eelr32]

I had to replace the 120V EVSE that came with the car in late December. For details, please see my post #18 in http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?8155

 

[flfreitas]

Hi, I have had my car since Dec 31. I used the portable charger cord at home until i received and had installed my 240 volt charger. The portable one worked fine at home. At work however it will only charge at 6 amps on the 120 circuit. On some circuits it won't charge at all, or it cuts off after only a minute or two. Is this a problem with the charge/cable or the circuit?

I have noticed that the cord is pulled out of the "charger" a little. I don't pull on the cord at all and I didn't notice if it was that way when I purchased the car or something that happened afterwards.

I current have around 7,00 miles on it and about 6,000 are electric. I drive about 46 miles round trip to work. I charge it at work, but because of the 6 amp v 12 amp charging I can not fully charge at work.

 

[flfreitas]

Do you get the replacement unit from the dealer or do you get it sent from ??

I'm going to contact the dealer to see about my "charger".

Thanks everyone for the Thread it has been very helpful.

One thing I did note when I was using my 120 volt unit was that when I plugged it into a circuit and it work for a while then quit, I noticed the light in the car went from green to yellow before the lights on the "charger" flashed red. I'm thinking the car it controlling the "charger" vs the "charger" controlling the circuit.

This may not make since, but....

 

[stephen323]

My charger started the red light of death on Friday night, 8/12/11. The car was delivered last Saturday, 8/6/11, and have been using the 120v unit exclusively for charging once overnight and then once during the day as well. I have noticed the j1772 cord being warm but not scorching, no evidence is visible that would lead me to think it ever got past the warm/hot range.

The first night I unplugged and plugged back in the unit to reset it as documented in the owners manual. After around 10-20 tries it stayed green and began charging. The next morning the light was once again red but the car had received a full charge. On subsequent tries the light would not reset. Dealer has ordered a new charger and it will be here tomorrow morning.

On a side side I have to say kudos to the Volt advisers as I received a followup call just a few minutes ago to let me know that the charger will be sent today. Have owned a few European cars and never once received this level of support, in fact my Rover was in the shop on warranty repairs for over a month and never received one call from Rover NA.

 

[kbavoca]

I have had Volt #3850 for 8 weeks. I have only used the 120-volt charger six times; I was fortunate to have my SPX 240-volt installed the day after we took delivery of our Volt. I charged our Volt overnight with the 120-volt charger at home that first night; and it was fine. I recently used the 120-volt charger to recharge our Volt on 3 separate nights at a Hampton Inn without problems (knock on wood)! I have used it to add a 0ne or two hour charge at my mother-in-law's home without problems. Hopefully, this will continue well! Could it be a problem with every night use?

 

[Slapshot28]

Could it be a problem with every night use?

Not for me. I've used the 120 Volt EVSE that came with my car every night since I bought my Volt in early January, eight months ago. Normally, I drive about 30 miles every day, sometimes more. The cord from the EVSE to the wall runs warm but not hot, about what I would expect considering the duty.

Chris
Volt #541

 

[tjc79]

Worked fine for 7 months (Jan. 6 - late July), then died with one red light blinking. Replacement has been in service for one week and is working fine - runs warm, but not very hot. I used one of those "laser light" surface thermometers and it read out at 107 F. Not sure what that means (sorry, social sciences major here) , but it does not seem very hot to me. I'm taking greater care to see it is well ventilated. Car has been excellent, otherwise.

 

[ctdeng0]

I only voted once but I do have three 120 volt chargers with no issues. I am only using two of the 120 volt chargers on a regular basis. I also have a 220 volt charger which I use on a daily basis with no issues.

 

[Mybatcar]

I replaced my charger about a month ago. The old charger was charging normal, but the chord began pulling out from the base exposing some wire insulation and GM replaced it before there was any failure or safety issues. The new chord is working just as well as the old one, and because I have not been taking it along on trips very often, the chord is not yet pulling away from the base. However, I expect the chord to pull from the base because it is of the exact same design as the first charger. They need a redesign to hold the chord to the base with something better than that slotted grommet that breaks apart.

Steve in Boca Raton #313

 

[RScott]

One note -- some people may assume by the numbers that 1/2 of the chargers don't work, but this isn't necessarily the case. For example, people reading this thread are much more likely to have had an issue with the charger. Also, it's quite possible that there was a problem with the chargers that were initially made, that was since fixed, in which case even if 1/2 of the chargers do not work now, future chargers may work fine.

This certainly is a very important thread, but I want to make sure that people don't rush out and misstate the problem.

 

[tfford]

Took delivery of my car in mid April and used the stock charger for 6 weeks until I had my 240v installed. Worked flawlessly the whole time. Also just used it again this past weekend as we traveled to some friends where I charged the car. Still works as expected.

 

[bookdabook]

Haven't replaced the EVSE but did replace the plug head

Back in April, I wrote up my experience with pictures on my scorched EVSE plughead on my thread "Observations of an Early Adopter" on "Things I've noticed #13" here:

http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread...-Adopter/page11&highlight=things+I've+noticed

Basically, I was using a 3-way adapter for about 3 months and plugging the EVSE into that and that into an old 110v outlet in my garage. One day I plugged the J1772 into the car and the 3-way setup started hissing from some crazy arcing going on at the plughead. I unplugged the J1772 immediately. I threw away the 3-way and replaced the plughead and 110v outlet hardware in the garage. Now I run a 25 ft 12 gauge extension cord to the EVSE from this new outlet. I haven't had a problem with it since.