Charger plug gets very hot

If I charge my electric B from a 3 pin domestic socket, all the wiring remains steadfastly cool, except the fuse in theplug which gets uncomfortably hot, and by conduction heats up all 3 pins on plugand a few inches down the cable to the "brick". this is at four flashing lights which I have set at 13 amps. Cable barely warm if I switch back to two flashing lights.

Anyone else notice anything similar? Handbook warns of keeping a watch on hot cables but I am disconcerted by a hot fuse.

Apologies to those who can't refuel at home

 

Using 13 amps will make a 3 pin plug hot.
The fuse is designed to take loads up to 13 amps continuous but the fuse is just a piece of thin wire that is designed to get hot and that heat will dissipate.
In fact, a 13 amp fuse will take around 20 amps or more before it gets hot enough to melt the wire and blow but 13 amps is enough for it to get way too hot to touch.

Check good contacts at the pins fuse connections and screws (if it's not a moulded plug).
If everything is good, get a fan pointed at the plug to help the heat dissipate.

 

Hi Andy and congrats on running an EV!!

If this heat issue is bothering you, have you considered installing a dedicated charger for the car? A 13 amp std socket delivers a max of 3KW whereas a dedicated home charging point usually delivers about 7kw so much faster charging, with the possibility the possibility of programmable charging to take advantage of cheap rate tariffs.

Available from many sources and needs proper installation.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_s...w&rh=n:248877031,k:ev+charging+station+7.2+kw

 

Change the plug for a branded one such as MK. Cheap plugs use lower grade conductive materials which can cause them to get hot.

 

Well, L John, you made my day, thank you, by confirming that I'm not missing something. In fact I checked very carefully that the half-insulated pins were getting max. possible contact within the socket (they weren't), so I changed the socket to one that was a perfect match for full contact.

I have found a wet paper towel on the short cable (moulded in and waterproof at both ends!) very effective at keeping things cool!.

 

Thank you too, Biglad, for your helpful suggestion. Unfortunately SWMBO was dead against an EV and, weakling that I am, I had to concede defeat in some minor areas in order to be victorious in the battle to have an EV at all!

Our garage is a free-standing building at the end of the back garden, and a wallbox requires a new cable from consumer unit to garage, and there is no way it can be hidden all the way without digging up expensive patio laid four years ago! Not an option, says SWMBO, at least not right now! Fortunately, even at 10 amps the battery will be fully charged by a 12 hr overnight.

 

range anxiety would be a constant worry for me with an electric only car

 

Not something I'd considered as plug is good quality MB supplied kit, apparently. As an experiment, earlier this evening I added a 15 amp fuse wire alongside the plug fuse - as expected fuse remained cool but the short flex got pretty warm so its spec. is marginal for 13 amps. Have removed extra fuse wire now and charging at lower rate.

 

How many kw/h does it take to charge the vehicle? And from that, how much range do you expect to get before it sits on the side of the M1 empty?

Im just curious with the maths, you see

 

From what I know the EV car will start to shout at you long before it dies. My friend has a leaf and I think he gets around 120 miles depending on what is he running and type of driving, it's enough for her 30 mile commute where she fasts charges. Good thing is you plot your journey to accommodate charging points.

 

The i3 I've been driving does the same although the remaining range is all over the place - starts at 80 then rapidly drops to 60 regardless of how you drive it. You can switch to eco pro where the AC is switched off and you cant go over 56 mph to increase the range a bit but it's not exactly fun...

 

When the husband drives the car he never gets over 60 miles, but he likes the torque of the motor. I've sat in it and it's oddly nippy for something with batteries.

 

Agreed from the lights it has some go, just don't expect to go very far....

 

Back in the day when we used to do 'cruises' in the Z cars (Z3, Z3M & Bread Van) we deliberately planned long drives so the 'M' cars ran out of fuel. They may have accelerated quicker using far more fuel than they had tanks for and were always last to the finish hotel bar, to pay up!!! The guys that did track days used to get frightened on the open roads, sometimes single track with grass down the centre, at well into 3 figures Happy days

 

Charging at 13 amps and 240 volts = 3120watts - for convenience, call it 3kW
If battery, which is 28kWh, was totally exhausted it would take 9h 20m to reach full charge.
That's the theory!
In practice, you would never choose to go below 10% charge, say 3kWh, and normal charge is to 85%, say 24kWh, in the interests of battery longevity, would be 21kWh at 3kWh per hour equals 7 hrs. But charging is unlikely to be 100% efficient so perhaps 8-9 hrs is a real world time.

Driving normally I average 3-4 miles per Kwh. FWIW that equates to 60 or 80 miles range which is plenty for most days. If I need to go further I take the other car.

 

If you turned everything on and put your foot down, late braking etc, how far would you expect to go on a full charge?

 

Less than a mile, probably

 

450 miles per tank in my old Panzerwagon... the more I look at EV's the more I just don't understand.

 

Please do a test

 

Short range vehicles like this I agree (to a certain extent but now my week day driving is under 10 miles per day I can see it for the short run stuff).
For longer runs (say 200 miles) the longer range vehicles do make sense to me as the cost per mile is quite a bit lower.
For continental travel they make less sense unless there's a fast charge infrastructure readily available. I don't mind stopping every 250 miles for a 20 minute coffee break (and often do anyway).

Hybrids I'm less sure about... Especially where battery range is only 30 miles or so!

That said the early Honda Insight was amazingly frugal with over 100mpg easily achieved. It was admittedly pretty stripped out. Maybe if we weren't so hung up on all the toys that add weight the manufacturers could do something serious about economy...