Could my outlet or 120V charge cord EVSE cause a fire?

[bonaire]

Dean, what is the VIN # of your Volt (the last 8 characters such as CU101999). It may not have had the replacement EVSE done (there was a customer-satisfaction "recall" done on the original charger). The 16ga wire was a dumb move on that one, obviously and the replacement one is better.

Did you call the fire dept after you put the fire out to make sure all was good in the wall?

My neighbor mentioned that she had to call the fire department after she had a fire start and run up a wall in her house because a socket shorted out while using a lamp in it. So, all sorts of things can happen. She didn't put the fire out but they did after arriving within 4 minutes of the call and saved her house.

[Sphyrna]

Glad you caught it and you and your family are safe!

[Neromanceres]

Southern California is notorious for using 14 gauge wire for duplex outlets with 15 amp circuits. It's code, but I wish it wasn't. While this may not be the cause, the loss of electric power when using 14 instead of 12 or 10 gauge causes extra heat and a larger electric bill. Your outlet may have been installed with the quick connect method rather than wired to the screw terminals. It's a possible weak link when a heavy load is attached to the outlet.

Another frustration is how GM used 16 gauge supply wire when designing the original charge cord. This causes extra heat that transfers to the outlet. I used a 20 amp dedicated circuit and Pro Spec outlet and it would still be warm. I'd use a heavy duty industrial series outlet today that is made with larger contact area to the blades to improve connectivity.

Have the charge cord checked by GM. I had a charge cord that ran so hot that the unit would flash red lights and I had to have a fan aimed at it to keep it cool and keep it operational. Finally, GM replaced it with a charge cord that did run cool.

14 AWG is used everywhere in North America for 15A circuits. This is what is in the NEC and CEC. And I see no problem with this. In our product development lab we often run up to 20A of current through 14 AWG wires with very little heat being generated. Trust me any of these issues have nothing to do with the wire gauge and everything to do with the connections. The original Volt EVSE did use 16 AWG wire which is running near its limit. 16AWG wire can be run safely up to 13A of current and the Volt EVSE runs at 12A. I did agree with the decision to upgrade the plug gauge to 14AWG. But the issue as I saw it was at the plug. And most of the heat people experienced was conduction from the poor contact resistance at the plug. I see poor contact resistance issues every day from bad recepticals, to wire nuts not properly installed and checked, even screw terminals were the screws were not properly torqued or the wires not striped and inserted properly.

[CarZin]

You should consider this the canary in the coal mine. Have a properly liscensed electrician come in and examine your garage circuit. And given the nature of the fire issue, withold blame until all the professionals look at the situation. My garage wiring was a disaster. It took an electrician 6 hours to find the circuit was double fed along with other issues. It happens more often than you think.

[saghost]

It took an electrician 6 hours to find the circuit was double fed along with other issues.

What does that mean in this context? It shares a circuit breaker with another room? It and another room on the same leg are crosslinked, so they both share two circuit breakers? Obviously it couldn't feed from or be linked to the other leg...

[DonC]

Glad you caught it! Otherwise it could have been a very big problem. Chalk one up for the chirping Volt! Some have complained about this "feature" but you've proved why it was a good idea to include it.

My guess is that it was the outlet. That's both from the fact that it was the outlet that was on fire and from the fact that there are plenty of low end outlets out there. We saw similar things to this posted here early on. Just to be safe, I replaced my original garage outlets with some higher end ones. I can't say for sure that the old ones were of poor quality but if they were like most other things in my CA tract home they were the absoute cheapest things the builder could find that met code. Or not! LOL It's just the economics of building. If you can save a buck for 50 outlets in a house and you're building 200 houses it starts adding up to real money.

[jbfalaska]

Sounds as though the Volt equipment work as planned. I thought the volt charger only pulled the current of a hair dryer. You're home outlet should be able to carry that(?). I'm no electrician though. I do put surge suppressors on EVERYTHING in my house electrical for a home insurance credit. And of course to protect my home and equipment.

[Steverino]

The car was not on fire, the charge cord was not on fire, but the duplex outlet was on fire? Sounds like the AC outlet could not handle the load at the given charge level. Whether from poor wiring, poor wire connections, etc. only a qualified electrician could say. Firemen are not electricians.

There are two screws that hold the outlet to the electrical box. That the outlet simply pulled out from the wall would seem to indicate those where missing, possibly a sign of poor workmanship.

Regardless, the Volt 110 charge cord draws what, about the same as a hairdryer?

The label on the charge cord says, "Using the charge cord with a worn or damaged AC outlet may cause burns or start a fire. If the AC wall plug feels hot while charging, unplug the charge cord and replace the AC outlet." It goes on to say, "Using a charge level that exceeds the electrical circuit or AC outlet capacity may start a fire or damage the electrical circuit. Have a qualified electrician inspect your electrical circuit and AC outlet capacity before using the normal charge rate. Use the lowest charge level if the electrical circuit or AC outlet capacity is not known." Italics mine.

It sure sounds like the issue was the outlet whose capacity was exceeded and the label tried to give all the warnings, precautions and recommendations it could to help the user avoid this issue.

[ghostgs1]

I would agree with the others in the connection at the outlet being the problem. I am retired after 37 years in power plant operation and maintenance and the majority of electrical fires in breakers or switches/outlets I have seen, were caused caused by loose connections. I have seen some that were not, those being in situations where a mechanical device driven by a motor failed and would not allow the motor to turn. Once in a while a breaker will catch fire when the load is too great, but this has always been a case where load was added to a breaker system that exceed the original system design. In my home a loose connection at the dryer breaker caused the breaker to trip and partially melt the breaker. This was shortly after we moved into our home when it was less then six months old. Ray

[BAZINGA]

I would agree with the others in the connection at the outlet being the problem. I am retired after 37 years in power plant operation and maintenance and the majority of electrical fires in breakers or switches/outlets I have seen, were caused caused by loose connections. I have seen some that were not, those being in situations where a mechanical device driven by a motor failed and would not allow the motor to turn. Once in a while a breaker will catch fire when the load is too great, but this has always been a case where load was added to a breaker system that exceed the original system design. In my home a loose connection at the dryer breaker caused the breaker to trip and partially melt the breaker. This was shortly after we moved into our home when it was less then six months old. Ray

Sage advice and I'd ask you contact the MOD's to change the title of this post. Someone GOOGLING will stumble on this and it could spin out of control again that the Volt is burning down homes.