Coulomb, Failure to Charge on Delayed Charge Setting....NEW UPGRADED UNIT Available

[George Parrott]

I have been experiencing failures to charge about 15-20% of the time with our Volt set for delayed charging, but NEVER with our Nissan Leaf. After confirming to my satisfaction that this problem was specific to the VOLT, I had it fully checked for any such stored information in the car's "black box," but that came up with no problem reports in the car. This tended to isolate the problem to the wall charger, an early COULOMB unit (installed in early January of 2011; we have Volt VIN # 679).

I then emailed, using the Coulomb website, a problem report to Coulomb describing this experience, and this is the response I have just gotten:

Working cooperatively with GM, Coulomb's engineering team has identified the root cause based upon extensive testing in our lab with a Volt charging system and successful testing in the field with Volt customers using Coulomb charging stations. We were able to characterize this problem as resulting from high frequency ground currents induced by the Volt on-board charger and causing GFCI trips on the EVSE when its contact relay closes at the start of a session or upon closing the relay when instructed by the Volt battery management system. This problem does not manifest itself on all Volt EVs and occurs more frequently when the Volt is set in delayed charge mode. In delayed charge mode, the Volt "wakes up" multiple times per hour and instructs the charging station to close the contact relay, thereby increasing the probability of a GFCI fault.

We made an engineering enhancement in our charging station to address this issue when charging with the Volt, and although not covered specifically under warranty, Coulomb is offering for a limited time to replace those Volt customer units affected by this problem.

Any other Volt drivers experiencing this problem should QUICKLY get in contact with Coulomb to get this new hardware installed and not blame themselves for some random glitches in plugging their cars into the charge system.

[jamesdawson]

Hi George,

I'm sorry to hear about this problem. Thanks for the info.

I have a question for you. I saw the writeup on your solar system in consumer report magazine. Can you tell me what PG&E rate plan (E-6, E-9A or E-9B, or E-1) that you chose for your circumstance as I'm contemplating a solar pv system of my own and I too live in PG&E's area.

thanks,
James

[George Parrott]

We are on E9A currently.

[Cord]

There is some GOOD information there from Coulomb.

The Open charger design group have long said we need a slight adjustment in the GF Ground current trip setting. Just a little extra noise will cause the charger cord to trip.

I have never used delayed charging but do remember more then one thread were people using it had a problem.

Hope we see more input - Thanks

[katzha]

I am the owner of Volt #1314, and have a ChargePoint charger. My car ground faults on delayed charging three nights out of four. Thank you for sharing this very valuable information.

[Volt779]

Agreed - thank you so much for posting! My first Volt is #779 and we just had another fault last night. I called Coloumb today and they are going to replace our existing charger with a new one.

Although some folks have had issues, I must say that my experience with both SPX and Coloumb has been excellent.

[Eric99]

I have the Voltec 240v charging station and it does the same thing. About 10% of the time it trips when the Volt is set to delayed charge. When it trips it shows one green LED and one blinking RED LED and the car does not charge. I wonderif the same thing is going on with the Voltec as with the Coloumb

[volt11]

Great info, thank you George. I will call Coulomb tomorrow.

[LeelaLB]

I have the Voltec 240v charging station and it does the same thing. About 10% of the time it trips when the Volt is set to delayed charge. When it trips it shows one green LED and one blinking RED LED and the car does not charge. I wonderif the same thing is going on with the Voltec as with the Coloumb

My Voltec 240V EVSE does this too. I always use delayed charge at home and it's very frustrating to say the least. I usually check the garage before I go to bed and every now and then am able to catch it flashing that one blinking red light, but most times I just wake up to an uncharged vehicle. Luckily, as you report, it's a fairly rare occurrence and definitely not 20+ percent of the time as reported here for the ChargePoint units.

[volt11]

So, this is not going well at all since I can't seem to reach anybody from either SPX or Coulomb. Well, I actually did reach someone from Coulomb's main number, but they told me to call:

877-850-4562

At that number I get a menu, where either option 2 or 4 seem to be correct. Option 2 yielded a single beep and then dead silence. Option 4 rang about 10 times and then returned me to the main menu!

Calling SPX was no more useful, as I first got put in a hold queue, received a message that someone would help me within 2 minutes, then it rang through to voice mail where I had to leave a message. I tried this twice with the same results (but left only one message.)

Will keep after them, but right now none of them are exactly bolstering their already shaky reputations.