Melted charging pins on nozzle @home on 30A Schneider chargr

Moderator Edit: Melted charge port with Blink link

ok, so we've had the ev for about 3 months, charge it average every 2 days.

one morning, it was hard to remove nozzle after usual overnight charge...kind of stuck.

did my best to get it out as gentle as possible.
turned out one of the plastic cone that normally is over the metal charging pins on the nozzle is now melted/bonded to the receptacle side of the ev.
so obviously the heat during the charge did this.
i noticed it has always been pretty warm....i thnk over the many charges, the heat slowly got to it so it finally did melt now.
so first it was one pin, now the other.

this sort of started happening before my screen of death.
since i got it back, it's worse, so i'm not sure if the plastic is slowly degrading over time or the fix to new firmware/gateway ecu somehow changed anything.

it all works still but only with my current nozzle.
if i ever had to charge my car else where, the nozzle will not fit since the plastic that was once on the nozzle is now in the ev's receptacle side.

so on my nozzle, it there is 2 metal pins showing where before it is wrapped in plastic (which is now bonded to my ev's female receptacle side.) by the way, the 2 pins affected are side by side, the primary ones passing the current i'm sure.

with the 2 pins exposed, i suppose there is a higher change of it shorting out.
aside from this, is there any other downside anyone can see?

my charger is a schneider...the timer on the charger does not even work...luckily on my ev, the preset timer does work most of the time

looking at my pge bill, the amout of power drawn has been consistent since we got the car though.
at full charge on my pge usage, says i draws 8kWh consistently..

my question is:
1. do most people notice the nozzle to be pretty warm ?
2. if wanted to fix this on the ev, i assume i just have to get the receptacle replaced? is it expensive?
3. is this an issue of the type of plastic schneider uses on the nozzle?
4. or is this an issue with my rav4 ev drawing too many amps?
5. have many other owners experienced this?
6. does 8kWh sound about right for a 30A charger? - do most of you see more or less than this?

mine is a 30A and i had it installed by an electrician so i'm sure it's wired correctly.
so far it's not a huge deal since still functional...i'm debated whether or not to contact schneider...i guess i should
but it is a hardwired unit so does that mean they have to replace the whole unit? or just send me a new nozzle? new cord with nozzle?

gary2020 said:

ok, so we've had the ev for about 3 months, charge it average every 2 days.

one morning, it was hard to remove nozzle after usual overnight charge...kind of stuck.

did my best to get it out as gentle as possible.
turned out one of the plastic cone that normally is over the metal charging pins on the nozzle is now melted/bonded to the receptacle side of the ev.
so obviously the heat during the charge did this.
i noticed it has always been pretty warm....i thnk over the many charges, the heat slowly got to it so it finally did melt now.
so first it was one pin, now the other.

this sort of started happening before my screen of death.
since i got it back, it's worse, so i'm not sure if the plastic is slowly degrading over time or the fix to new firmware/gateway ecu somehow changed anything.

it all works still but only with my current nozzle.
if i ever had to charge my car else where, the nozzle will not fit since the plastic that was once on the nozzle is now in the ev's receptacle side.

so on my nozzle, it there is 2 metal pins showing where before it is wrapped in plastic (which is now bonded to my ev's female receptacle side.) by the way, the 2 pins affected are side by side, the primary ones passing the current i'm sure.

with the 2 pins exposed, i suppose there is a higher change of it shorting out.
aside from this, is there any other downside anyone can see?

my charger is a schneider...the timer on the charger does not even work...luckily on my ev, the preset time does work.

my question is:
1. do most people notice the nozzle to be pretty warm ?
2. if wanted to fix this on the ev, i assume i just have to get the receptacle replaced? is it expensive?
3. is this an issue of the type of plastic schneider uses on the nozzle?
4. or is this an issue with my rav4 ev drawing too many amps?
5. have many other owners experienced this?

looking at my pge bill, the amout of power drawn has been consistent since we got the car though.

mine is a 30A and i had it installed by an electrician so i'm sure it's wired correctly.
so far it's not a huge deal since still functional...i'm debated whether or not to contact schneider...i guess i should
but it is a hardwired unit so does that mean they have to replace the whole unit? or just send me a new nozzle? new cord with nozzle?

Click to expand...

I wouldn't charge it any more on this setup. Use the Safety Connect button and call Toyota immediately, have them give you a loaner while they figure out what happened.

well i'm sure they'll say it's not the recommended leviton charger and i'm up the creek.

seriously though, i have to drive the car so short term it's fine...just seeing if others have noticed it warm or HOT when charging.
i know i have to fix it eventually.

I agree that you should get this fixed ASAP.

Your melting problem could accelerate if the resistance has increased between the J1772 plug of your EVSE and the pins in the car. This would mean that more power will be dissipated in those pins, so they would get hotter. If they get hotter, then your connectors will melt more. Not good!

so what would make the resistance increase?

gary2020 said:

so what would make the resistance increase?

Click to expand...

Corroded/dirty terminals, poor quality connections from the wires to the terminals (i.e. bad crimps/solders/welds)

IMMEDIATELY STOP USING THIS!!!

THIS IS CRAZY THAT YOU WOULD CONSIDER RISKING BURNING YOUR CAR OR HOUSE DOWN. STOP THE MADNESS.

Melted charge port with Blink link

Also, please, please take pictures. Get a rental car / dealer loaner / anything else to drive. Have Toyota tow it if you don't have power to get to the dealer.

gary2020 said:

so what would make the resistance increase?

Click to expand...

Just heating the contacts up (enough to melt the plastic) will likely cause the crimped wire strands and the contacts to oxidize which will in turn increase their resistance.

How much? You say that the EVSE draws 8.0 kW when charging. At a full 240V, the charger in the car draws only 7.2 kW (240 V x 30 A). That means there is an extra 800W being dissipated. How much power is that? Think about the heat from eight 100W incandescent light bulbs being concentrated in your charging connector.

Tony knows his stuff, plus he's had personal experience. He put his reply in all caps for a reason, a very good reason, as it's really not worth risking your life, especially as it won't cost you anything to get this fixed.

Toyota will tow it and get you a loaner, and I can almost guarantee you'll get a new charger. Schneider will want to test it, I would imagine.

Like Tony said, get as many photos as you can of everything.

The original poster's lack of concern on this issue is shocking. The way the plastic around the pins overlaps in the nozzle and receptacle on the car is important to prevent electrical arcing between the pins. The way I understand the description, there is a free air path directly between the pins in his nozzle now. That is simply unsafe.

This happened to Tony already and Toyota fixed it under warranty, even though it was caused by the EVSE. The EVSE manufacturer should also provide a new nozzle or full cable assembly at no charge.

Yes, I'm in complete agreement with the majority here - STOP this silliness now and fix the problem. Even if you don't start a fire (not too likely, but possible), there will come a time in the near future when you won't be able to make an effective connection.
It is evident that the plug on the charger was the problem, but it has now screwed up your car and the charger maker (not Toyota) should foot the bill, and quickly arrange all needed repairs.
It would be interesting to dissect the plug and see what went wrong, but you won't have that opportunity as the maker will likely "make it disappear" when they install a new one.
Hearing some prior discussion on this topic, I've been attentive (as should ALL EV users) to the issues of heat and/or contact aging, and have happily observed neither. I do daily Level 1 charging at work, with a weekly Level 2 "top up" at home (Siemens) or local Nissan store (have to note what they use...need to pay more attention).
Cables do get uniformly warm, but the connector should not if it's well designed and correctly assembled.
Pete / Naples, FL

Gary - Can you post pictures?

Also, do you know if it is a Rema connector? It should say on the connector.

So i contacted Schneider and apparently there was a recall on this unit made from december to march 2013.
A 3rd party making the nozzle screwedup. So they are reimbursing for cost of any repairs, car rental & gas, and sending someone out to replace the cable and nozzle. Very good customer service, for obvious reason. It was the newer EV230WS 30A model.

" In March of this year, Schneider Electric announced a Product Safety Alert for all of our EV charging stations built from December 2012 to March 17th, 2013. This alert came out due to a heating issue identified in our continuous testing of products. This issue is especially evident when charging at the higher current rates as used by vehicles such as the Rav4 EV. "

above quote from the service rep who was very professional and apologetic.

I remember asking about this model for compatability but i guess nobody knew about the recall.
THere's some page on this forum about compatible chargers so maybe someone can update that.

So i went to my local dealer who of course has no clue on how long it will take for parts.
SO let;s see...3 weeks down with the ecu gateway, probably atleast another week with this.

ANd no there is no air space in between that could cause sparking to one of the previous readers. it's all a tight fit,just the plastic switched from one to the other...try re-reading and you may see what i mean...there is no loss of plastic anywhere. I charge the car outside on the driveway.

What else can go wrong with this car?
I guess if there are any other known issues, i'll probably discover them.
I'll try to get some pics up later. I'll take a look to see if it is Rema later.

So sorry for your troubles, but very glad you got in touch with Schneider and that they are taking care of you. Hope everything works out.

gary2020 said:

What else can go wrong with this car?
I guess if there are any other known issues, i'll probably discover them.
I'll try to get some pics up later. I'll take a look to see if it is Rema later.

Click to expand...

I understand your frustration with the plethora of bugs the Rav4 has, but isn't it pretty clear that this one is squarely the fault of the EVSE? Yes, Toyota could've and probably should've put a temp sensor on the inlet to shutdown before something like this happens (as some other EVs have and Tony has added to his after his similar experience with a Blink), but still it was the EVSE nozzle that was defective. Glad to see that Schneider is taking full responsibility, as they should.

I had a similar issue with my Schneider L2 EVSE (30 amp). When I had my electricians relocate my EVSE to the rear RAV4 location, they discovered overheating on one of the connectors leading out to the J1772 plug. There were no signs of overheating or issues on the female side on my Rav4EV. I contacted Schneider, and they overnighted a replacement EVSE unit (newer model) and reimbursed me for the re-installation electrical work for the replacement unit. in the meanwhile, I used my upgraded RAV4EV EVSE to charge at 240 V/12 amp using a separate circuit. The Schneider EVSE (Model EV2430WS) I had was an earlier model from 2011 and not part of the recent recall (affected units from 2012-13) but Schneider still took care of it. Everything seems to be working ok after 2 weeks of using the replacement unit thus far.

I really don't understand the design pictured above. I would never dream that the kind of crimp connector that melted could carry 30 Amps. I bet if you were to open the new one it would not use that type of spade connector.

I have the same unit but mine was manufactured before the recall date. It is the same connection but mine looks healthy. I would post a pic but I am having trouble with my photo links to Picasa.

If you think that is a lame connections you should see the tiny wires that go through a current coil from the contactor, pictured in that photo, to the fuse holder which is futher to the right of the photo. It looks like it is only 14 GA, but it is only about two inches long so maybe it won't heat up.

I just purchased a 30 Amp relay to use as a timer for TOU EV Charging and it also had spade conductors. I crimped # 8 wire to them and it runs a 20Amp EVSE.

My problem is not the gauge of the wire or the spade connector. The problem is that those particular spade connectors are crimped with the plastic in place. I just don't see how you can ensure a good crimp. I'm pretty sure the crimp quality is what caused the excess heating on the pictured unit.

well, after 2 weeks in the shop. i got my car back.
they sure fixed the crap out of it.
the total bill was $4760, more than half labor. thank god schneider picked up the tab and for the 2 weeks of rental and fuel.
bunch of wire harnesses fixed, and to get to some things,they had to take some other things apart to get to it.

not sure if my dealer padded the repair b/c they knew schneider would be paying for it.
i almost feel bad for schneider...
amazing what some bad parts can do.
the new cable for the nozzle feels more pliable, the nozzle goes in a little easier.
they also sent someone to my home to replace the cord and nozzle from my charger that caused this in the first place.

so now that i got the ecu gateway fixed and this fixed, what's next.
so total, car has been in shop for 5 weeks after having the car for less than 4 months.
still like the car as long as it's still good

schneider was good the whole way...very professional and can't say enough about their excellent customer service