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Relay tripping in wet weather
2 CommentsSorted by Popular
Craig Kirkpatrick
said
about 5 years ago
I live in rainy Oregon and I have used OpenEVSE and the same J1772 plug (they still sell today) for 5 years. The plug and my EV are in the weather all of the time. I have never had any sort of problem with the plug being wet nor a problem with the EV’s socket being wet.
If I were you I’d order a replacement contactor (relay) and put that in the EVSE. Replacing it will give you a chance to check for any loose connections that seem to me to better explain the symptoms you report. If the wires to the contactor coil are somehow loose that could explain things. Good luck to you.
Thanks, Craig. I may just try that.
Ryan
I have a standard 40A OpenEVSE that normally works perfectly. Occasionally, however, I will plug in the J1772 to my Bolt and the EVSE relay will click repeatedly for several seconds, then fail completely, giving me a Stuck Relay error message. I need to then fully disconnect power for it to reset, and then it may be days before I can successfully charge again. My Level 1 charger still works fine in these instances.
The problem seems to correspond to rain. The EVSE is mounted outdoors on the side of my house, and the car is charged outdoors. Sometimes, in heavy rain, water will get inside the rubber cover on the J1772 plug, wetting the contacts inside. I try to shake out the excess water, but this may be the cause of the tripping relay. This is still a new theory, but I think the problem has resolved itself in the past only after a day or two of dry weather.
Does this seem like a reasonable conclusion? I may need to build some kind of housing to keep the J1772 out of the rain in the future.