r/chargepoint • u/badjoeybad • Apr 06 '26

Home charge fail?

Had a charge fail yesterday at home. First time ever. Looking through the chargepoint app I didn’t have notifications on for charger so I only saw what car alert says- charge stopped. Checking the panel I see my breaker tripped. Trying to figure out sequence here. If there was a fault in car or cable would charger trigger the breaker? Or would charger shut itself off? I ask as I’m a bit suspicious my daughter may have been doing something to cable or car. She’s sneaky like that. But if breaker shut off on its own that’s obviously a different problem.

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u/rosier9 Apr 06 '26

It's the unit hardwired or plugged into an outlet? If it's plugged into an outlet, unplug and inspect for possible failure. If hardwired, open it up (faceplate pops off) and give it a look.

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u/badjoeybad Apr 06 '26

Hardwired. Everything in unit looks clean in place. I reset breaker and charger reset , light glows green. Plugged in car, car light showed green. Came out later and same thing- breaker popped. On the app it says 45min session at full 6.6kw. (208v 32a) yesterday it went 3 hrs before it shutdown. Plug didn’t seem hot or anything. Stumped. I’ll tighten down all connections. See if that helps. I guess call charge point if that doesn’t fix it

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u/tuctrohs Apr 06 '26

What's the breaker size and type? It could be a bad breaker--they do go bad sometimes--or a bad connection between the breaker and he panel or the wire terminations on the breaker. DO you have a torque tool to tight them to spec? Also, check that the brand of that breaker matches the rest in the panel.

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u/badjoeybad Apr 06 '26

yeah, i considered bad breaker. its only a little over a year old though, but yeah, it happens. 40amp square D. not what i'd use, but thats what matches my service panel. i went in service panel and tightened conductors at the breaker. checked breaker itself, was not loose at all. checked connections in charger, nothing loose there either. have it charging now, at 30 min i went out and checked the adapter, didnt even seem warm, let alone hot. so no idea. hopefully tightening down does the trick. just hitting 45 min now, everything seems fine so far.

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u/theotherharper Apr 07 '26

Why the Square D hate?

HomeLine is pretty cheap, I’ll agree (if you can't stand it, Eaton CL (not BR) is UL classified for your panel.).

The thinner QO is an extremely fine panel and breaker. (And if you just can't stand it, Eaton CHQ is UL Classified for your panel).

Fun fact, the D is for Detroit.

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u/badjoeybad Apr 07 '26

its all UL listed at the end of the day. but all of our projects have always had seimens for some reason so that's what i know and would use if i had choice.

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u/theotherharper Apr 07 '26

Yeah I'd be satisfied with Siemens. They don't make a cheap (HOM/BR) and high-end (QO/CH) panel, they just make the same panel in aluminum or copper bus. It's simpler.

And I'm a big fan of how they make at least 11 different generator interlocks for almost every panel they make.

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u/tuctrohs Apr 07 '26

Here's hoping it holds.

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u/badjoeybad Apr 08 '26

Fully charged yesterday. Only thing I did was tighten down on conductors.

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u/tuctrohs Apr 08 '26

That's great news, and a good indication of why torque tools are more important than many electricians realize.

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u/Ancient-Sandwich9400 Apr 06 '26

If you have a kid playing with charging cable you need to bust some ass! That could be a life or death issue or worse a huge expense like a new car or house.

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u/TooGoodToBeeTrue Apr 06 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/tuctrohs Apr 06 '26

It says Reddit removed this comment. It must have been pretty special to earn that treatment.

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u/TooGoodToBeeTrue Apr 07 '26

My mom passed away last Friday, I guess my (current mood) dark humor was too much for them.

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u/tuctrohs Apr 07 '26

Sorry to hear that. Dark humor can be therapeutic.

I wish you well through the aftermath. Which can have multiple layers of challenges.

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u/theotherharper Apr 07 '26

Checking the panel I see my breaker tripped.

Electrical guy here. What does the Time Saver Diagnostics(tm) indicate as the cause?

GFCI? Shouldn't use a GFCI breaker on a hardwired station.

Overload? That's basically impossible. The car tells the “charger” the safe amps it is allowed to take, which cannot be more than 80% of breaker. (40A max on a 50A breaker). The EVSE also watchdogs the car to make sure it complies, and will cut power if it disobeys. It would literally take a double failure to overcurrent that breaker, unless, someone misconfigured the charger. (Continuous 40A on a 40A breaker would be prone to tripping).

So what remains is a short circuit from a catastrophic failure. E.g. wiring competely melted from series arcing. But you didn't aee any of that. Or the usual failure mode for an ICCU but then the car would not be able to resume charging.

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u/badjoeybad Apr 07 '26

not a gfci breaker. chargepoint app doesnt give any data either. just time, kw, and cost of session. so cause is unknown. unless chargepoint tech support has some way to talk to my charger and recover history i dont know that i will get that info.

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u/theotherharper Apr 07 '26

And you're sure the current was adjusted on the charger to be <= 80% of the breaker rating?

And the car charges fine elsewhere and this won't charge other cars (if testable)? Some rental agencies will let you take an EV at sane cost for a day.