My Voltec died and my car got upset
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Thread: My Voltec died and my car got upset

  1. #1
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    Jul 2010
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    Default My Voltec died and my car got upset

    My wife and I had a nice wake-up alarm this morning at 4:15am when the Volt started honking continuously from the garage. I went and checked on it to find that the Voltec status lights were off (and the trigger doesn't activate the flash light). The charge had completed at 3:15am, and pretty much no other electrical activity was going on in the house at 4:15, so I can't figure out why the Voltec picked that time to stopped working. The breaker hadn't been tripped (I cycled it just to be sure), and the external wiring appears to be solid. It's been working great for 3 weeks to this point.

    Guess I'll have the electrician back out to check his work, but if he doesn't find any issues I'm going to have to assume the Voltec is bad. Anybody else have a similar experience? Does SPX honor the warranty if they didn't do the installation?

  2. #2
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    Nov 2010
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    Tewksbury, MA
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    Go to the SPX web site there is a procedure for getting none SPX installed units fixed under warrenty...

    https://www.homecharging.spx.com/volt/pdf/559426.pdf


    P

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
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    Suburb of Detroit, MI
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    I visited the SPX booth at the auto show recently and they pointed out "if you install it yourself, the warrantee is only 1 year, but if we install it the warantee is 3 years."

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  5. #4
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    If it comes back to life and you use it, you might want to leave the car unlocked in the garage. That should prevent the alarm from going off.

  6. #5
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    Sep 2010
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    Long Beach, CA
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    Quote Originally Posted by frede View Post
    Does SPX honor the warranty if they didn't do the installation?
    We had the install done by a local electrician, not an SPX-certified electrician, and when my connector broke they sent me a replacement unit. The folks at SPX were very helpful and responsive and it took about a week to get the replacement. We swapped out the units ourselves and sent back the broken unit (that was an ordeal in and of itself, but seeing as I was the first one to send back a damaged unit, we'll cut them some slack on that one).
    Last edited by LeelaLB; 01-28-2011 at 02:01 PM.
    2011 #130: 23,976 EV miles / 28,424 total miles (and counting)

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
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    Princeton Junction, New Jersey
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    I actually installed the voltec in my own home last week and I will soon be a certified installer in NJ. My partner in my renewable energy business is a licensed electrician. I pretend to be one at my home. Anyway, I noticed while I was installing the voltec, that there are inline fuses inside the unit. You could check them too.

  8. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by volt11 View Post
    If it comes back to life and you use it, you might want to leave the car unlocked in the garage. That should prevent the alarm from going off.
    Actually my car was unlocked. So I don't understand why the alarm would go off. That happened another time as well when I pulled the charger and the car was not locked. I'll test again to verify that's the case.

  9. #8
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    That's a horrible wake up alarm sound at 4:15am....UGH !

  10. #9
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    Aug 2010
    Location
    Northern Virginia
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    Quote Originally Posted by frede View Post
    My wife and I had a nice wake-up alarm this morning at 4:15am when the Volt started honking continuously from the garage. I went and checked on it to find that the Voltec status lights were off (and the trigger doesn't activate the flash light). The charge had completed at 3:15am, and pretty much no other electrical activity was going on in the house at 4:15, so I can't figure out why the Voltec picked that time to stopped working. The breaker hadn't been tripped (I cycled it just to be sure), and the external wiring appears to be solid. It's been working great for 3 weeks to this point.

    Guess I'll have the electrician back out to check his work, but if he doesn't find any issues I'm going to have to assume the Voltec is bad. Anybody else have a similar experience? Does SPX honor the warranty if they didn't do the installation?

    I am having a similar problem with my Voltec unit. (see entries under Check Engine Light on this thread). Called 1-877-805-3873. They spent 20 minutes asking questions (in between 5 minute holds) and then said they would call back. That was an hour ago. I will be interested to hear how your problem resolution plays out.



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  12. #10
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
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    SF Bay Area
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    Just wanted to post a final update here to let everyone know the outcome, in case you have a similar issue. SPX was very good to deal with, they sent out a replacement unit and sent a local electrician to do the swap out when the new unit arrived. He verified that the old Voltec was being fed 240V and it wasn't a problem with the first installation but rather the charger had died for some internal reason. He spent an hour swapping it out and now I have a new working Voltec charger, no additional cost to me. He even took the old one and will ship it back to SPX.

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