Charge fault issue with Chargepoint stations

[jwargowski]

I've had more than one charge fault message while plugged into different Chargepoint stations. Once at work, and once 45 miles from home that almost prevented me from getting back home. I'll park and start charging, then 20 - 30 min later, I'll get the text notice that my car is drawing low current, and I'll return to find my car had stopped charging. Once I was able to simply start charging again, but last weekend, I tried two different charge stations at the same location and had the same charge fault. I drove ten miles to a free charge station at a Home Dept and had no issue. Wondering if this a Chargepoint issue or an issue with my car. Has anyone experienced something similar?

 

[jmueller065]

You are getting the message from the ChargePoint app and not the MFM app?

I ask because I frequently get charge faults at home (regardless of which EVSE I use). I've found, though, that if the car says it has a charge fault all I have to do is use the MFM App and hit "Update" two or three times and the car clears the fault and beings charging.

When you get these faults have you checked the MFM App to see if the car says its faulting? If so did you try hitting update a few times? Maybe switch from Value charge back to Charge now to clear it.. (In this case you don't even have to visit the car--just fiddle with the app.)

 

[pjam3]

I've had issues with various companies, including chargepoint. It's not really the car, it's a lot of these charging stations aren't maintained. There have been quite a few in my area that were pretty much out of order before I bought my car. And some of these stations cut the output. I've been to Level 2 stations that take 7 hours to charge, others that only take about 3.5.

This is one of the challenges when you have various companies who don't really maintain any of them. Tesla has done it the right way, but that's them. In my area, we have Chargepoint, GE, Blink, EvGo, and so on. All different subscriptions and fees, but you get the point in that there are various companies responsible for maintaining these units. And Blink went out of business, bought by somebody else, somebody else who started cutting Level 2s output on some units.

If you have any issues, just give Chargepoint a call. They do seem to be responsive when you call them.

 

[WattsUp]

I've been to Level 2 stations that take 7 hours to charge, others that only take about 3.5.

It's not that they've "cut" power, but sometimes stations are set up to power-split, especially the "two-spigot" ChargePoint stations.

Normally, a single car charging will receive the station's maximum power output. But, if two cars are connected to and charging from the same physical station, each car will receive only a portion of the maximum (according to each car's needs). If both cars can actually draw the maximum, then each car will probably get roughly half of that (doubling their charge time at that station).

When choosing a public charging station, it is wise to choose one that no other car is connected to, if possible.

 

[v_traveller]

I've been to Level 2 stations that take 7 hours to charge, others that only take about 3.5.

It's not that they've "cut" power, but sometimes stations are set up to power-split, especially the "two-spigot" ChargePoint stations.

Normally, a single car charging will receive the station's maximum power output. But, if two cars are connected to and charging from the same physical station, each car will receive only a portion of the maximum (according to each car's needs). If both cars can actually draw the maximum, then each car will probably get roughly half of that (doubling their charge time at that station).

When choosing a public charging station, it is wise to choose one that no other car is connected to, if possible.

I must be lucky with Chargepoint... all the 2-port Chargepoint charging stations I've used (work, Disneyland, CSUN) output the same max current regardless of whether one or both ports are hooked up and charging. And I've never had a charge fault.... yet.

In contrast, my experience with blink sucks. On the blink stations at Providence Holy Cross hospital, they've actually cut the max current to 16A compared to when they were first installed, purportedly as a patch to cover a design flaw in their EVSEs (thought I read that the charge cord heats up). They have these hokey-looking stickers on the side of each single-port EVSE declaring the max current. Damn thing kept tripping on me, kept saying that my RAV4 EV was trying to draw too much current.