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Troubleshoot home charging on 20A circuit

2.8K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  JasonF  
#1 ·
Hi,

I got my Model Y in August this year but am seeing strange charging behavior. When I tried plugging the included mobile charger into my 20A GFCI outlet, I noticed that the GFCI trips a few seconds after plugging in. If I reset the GFCI, it trips again after a few seconds. I tried plugging in other appliances like my phone, a hair dryer and a hair straightener into the same outlet and they all work just fine.

I looked at the Tesla screen and noticed that it goes up to 11A before stopping. I also noticed that I have the option to reduce the amperage. When I reduced the max amperage to 10A, the battery was charging just fine! As soon as I increased the max to 11A, the GFCI tripped.

I'm not sure what this means. It doesn't look like there's anything wrong with the outlet. Is my mobile connector limiting me to 10A? Do I need the 5-20 adapter instead?

Any help would be really appreciated!

Thanks
 
#2 · (Edited)
I'm not sure what this means.
Your GFCI outlet could just be bad. The residential ones will sometimes be bad and trip for no good reason. I had one in my bathroom that would trip shortly after plugging *anything* into it, but it would be fine if I plugged something into the ganged outlet that was being protected by that GFCI outlet. In your case, it sounds like your GFCI outlet can't handle loads at the maximum sustained rating. I'd try replacing the outlet with a better quality one to see if that solves the problem.

The Mobile Connector has its own ground-fault protection circuitry built-in. The methods used by GFCI outlets to detect such faults will sometimes trip each other. It could be that simple, which would be unfortunate.
 
#4 ·
I understand we have a GFCI in our cars, and having two of them together creates a problem. The electrician we talked to said he couldn’t guarantee we wouldn’t have this issue without using the Tesla wall unit. I was all set to do the installation of a new 50 amp circuit and receptacle myself, but didn’t want “dueling GFCIs”.
 
#5 ·
The GFCI could be bad, or it could be rated only for 15 amps (some of those had overheat protection built in as well). Either way that indicates it could be faulty or outdated.

When you take the GFCI out to replace it, check for signs of overheating/melting in the wires attached to the back. The GFCI isn't really intended to protect against that (the circuit breaker is) but some of them are sensitive enough that it can "feel" the resistance from overheating, and trip.