# J1772 Water Ingress



## skooler (Mar 26, 2011)

Hi All,

We are starting to see a turn in weather here in the UK, a couple of nights below freezing and a temperature drop in general. Also a lot more rain.

*Home Charging*
I use a J1772 connector with a standard 3 pin plug on the end for charging at home. It has worked perfectly up until Sunday when my 100A RCBO tripped after about 2 hours of charging (time - 2130, no rain, it didn't blow the 13A fuse in the socket or the 40amp RCD on the ring main). I disconnected the car to be safe and started poking my multimeter around.

I found that *ALL* 5 pins in the J1772 connector where showing a short between each other.

On further investigation, I found that water ingress into the connector itself had caused the pins to short. I dried out the connector using a 400w halogen light positioned about 50cm away, put it all back together with some additional sealant and it worked perfectly.

*Charging at Work*
To my horror, when I tried to plug in at work yesterday, the 'podpoint' charge-station showed a charge error. I called the support line and was told it was due to damp in the connector (which was visibly damp) and that I wasn't the only person to report a problem (this was at about 0845).

The charge-station is outside with the 'gun' stored in a holster which looks as though it should stop any water physically getting to it.

*Question*
My question is, has anybody else had a problem with EVSE?

I assume this is a problem with condensation which is in my opinion, a major design flaw in some extremely expensive equipment (it has cost me over £500 to be J1772 compliant).

Cheers,

Mike


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## skooler (Mar 26, 2011)

Just me?

I cant believe that 2 different side connectors from different vendors would fail within 2 days of eachother and I'm the only person to experience it?


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## Ziggythewiz (May 16, 2010)

My special issue NEMA 5-15 can sit out in the rain all weekend, no complaints.

Also, give it some time. Not all of us get up at 1:45 AM.


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## skooler (Mar 26, 2011)

Ziggythewiz said:


> My special issue NEMA 5-15 can sit out in the rain all weekend, no complaints.
> 
> Also, give it some time. Not all of us get up at 1:45 AM.


Thanks ziggy, I'm sure a pretty standard Commando socket would to.









I'm just a bit p***ed off, spending £500 on cables and connectors when they clearly aren't fit for purpose (not to mention how much it cost work to install the charge station) - I could replace with commando sockets for £30 and have enough leads, adapters etc to plug in anywhere but a J1772 charge station. I could even leave it out in the dry, under a shelter and be able to use it without it filling with water .

I'm in the UK, I'd of thought that by 1640 here somebody would have replied from over the pond, sorry if I came across the wrong way!


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## Ziggythewiz (May 16, 2010)

Haha, no need to get all fancy now, here's the one I was referring to:










I doubt there's more than 20 members on the site that have a J1772. Just bump the thread once a day til someone responds.


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## Nathan219 (May 18, 2010)

Among the problem inductive charging has, wet terminals isn't one of them.


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## Johny (Jul 21, 2008)

A friend had exactly the same problem with a Nissan LEAF. He came out in the morning and the charge outlet was off. The RCD in the switchboard was open. There was a slight amount of condensation in the car J1772 connector - but not much. He dried it off with a cloth, closed the RCD and plugged in again and it charged OK. Been alright since. He says he may have left the inner J1772 cover open on the car while driving the previous day. Charge outlet is under cover.


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## onegreenev (May 18, 2012)

Never had an issue with my Leaf charger because it got wet. I have my setup out in the car port and yes when it rains and the wind blows it does get wet a bit. Not soaked but it does get damp, no doubt. Never had water in the socket on the car. I close it all the time so in the wet it won't get water into the socket on the car. The j1772 in the car port can and has gotten wet without any issues. Starting my second wet season with my Leaf. Over 17,000 miles so far. One EVSE I had purchased is garbage. One has been working reliably since I got it. 

Pete 

I will be putting a J1772 on my VW Roadster and a normal kind of port. I kinda like that one shown above. Interesting.


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## Tesseract (Sep 27, 2008)

What is basically happening here is that the "ground fault circuit interrupter" (as we Yanks call it), aka, the RCD, or Residual Current Device, is tripping because it sees a mismatch in the forward and return currents on the AC mains.

My understanding, bearing in mind I am not a UK native, is that you guys have several different "grades" of RCDs which are grouped according to the range of current mismatch they will tolerate before tripping (also with a time component, IIRC). I suspect that the chargeports are using the most sensitive RCD available regardless of whether that is the best choice for the application as you "can't go wrong with the regulators by being _too_ safe". It is possible to determine the exact amount of current it takes to trip the RCD by intentionally connecting a resistor from either mains terminal and chassis/earth ground. Most residential-use RCDs in the UK are supposed to trip at 30mA of mismatch, but likely will trip at a lower current to err on the side of caution.

Whether these are nuisance trips of the RCD or legitimate ones, however, greatly depends on what value of resistance you actually measured when you found that all 5 pins in the J1772 connector were "shorted". Are we talking a resistance value in the 10's of Ohms here, or 10's of kOhms or what? If it's the former then, well, then this isn't an RCD problem, it's a design fault...


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## skooler (Mar 26, 2011)

Tesseract said:


> What is basically happening here is that the "ground fault circuit interrupter" (as we Yanks call it), aka, the RCD, or Residual Current Device, is tripping because it sees a mismatch in the forward and return currents on the AC mains.
> 
> My understanding, bearing in mind I am not a UK native, is that you guys have several different "grades" of RCDs which are grouped according to the range of current mismatch they will tolerate before tripping (also with a time component, IIRC). I suspect that the chargeports are using the most sensitive RCD available regardless of whether that is the best choice for the application as you "can't go wrong with the regulators by being _too_ safe". It is possible to determine the exact amount of current it takes to trip the RCD by intentionally connecting a resistor from either mains terminal and chassis/earth ground. Most residential-use RCDs in the UK are supposed to trip at 30mA of mismatch, but likely will trip at a lower current to err on the side of caution.
> 
> Whether these are nuisance trips of the RCD or legitimate ones, however, greatly depends on what value of resistance you actually measured when you found that all 5 pins in the J1772 connector were "shorted". Are we talking a resistance value in the 10's of Ohms here, or 10's of kOhms or what? If it's the former then, well, then this isn't an RCD problem, it's a design fault...


Hi Jeffrey,

Good explanation, your understanding of the UK system is spot on.

I'm currently at work and still unable to use the charge station. I'll go and prod it with my multimeter to see whats what! Mainly what the resistance is.

I only used my Fluke T50 last time for an audible warning so did not record the resistance.


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## azdeltawye (Dec 30, 2008)

skooler said:


> ...
> My question is, has anybody else had a problem with EVSE?
> ...


I have not had any problems with my J1772 setup while charging in the rain. The J1772 plug is designed to resist water with a shield and o-ring. I don't see how water could get in there...

Condensation would only be an issue if the dewpoint temperature was close to ambient.


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## Ziggythewiz (May 16, 2010)

In some places the dewpoint is always close to ambient. 

As Tess explained this is likely just a GFCI sensitivity issue.


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