Kia Phev Niro granny charger burnout

daheff

I saw something recently about Kia no longer providing granny chargers as there was something about them overheating.

Well lasr night I had my car charging (about 2.5hours) with the granny charger(don't have an ev charger yet). When i went to plug it out i noticed the plug was very hot(& plastic was a bit soft)....but all looked ok.


this morning i went to plug in the socket was fizzing. I hit the fuseboard & plugged out the charger. when i opened the plug i noticed the 13amp fuse was fried. I thought these things should trip if the fuse blows?


Anyways, has anybody been able to get a granny charger replaced by kia yet?

10-10-20

Was the fuse blown or just very very hot?
If it was very hot then it sounds like a loose connection, possibly in the plug socket where the plug pin mates with the fingers in the socket. Is there a sign of overheating around the live (right hand) pin on either the plug or the socket?

KCross

10-10-20 wrote: »

If it was very hot then it sounds like a loose connection, possibly in the plug socket where the plug pin mates with the fingers in the socket...

+1

Is that socket old and/or been used a lot? If it’s worn it might cause overheating in this scenario. This is common in alot of granny charger scenarios which is why it’s not recommended long term. You need a good quality socket to take 10A+ for hours on end.

daheff

no, fuse was burnt. Not old plug socket, not loose either.

not a great picture, but you can see the ends of the fuse are black from heat.


while I understand that the proper way to charge a car is to have a proper charger, these granny chargers either work or don't. if this is a possibility it could happen the 1st or 1000th time that somebody uses it.

I'm more concerned that the fuse didnt blow..rather that it kept going ! surely the whole point of the fuse is to blow if it overheats/current is too much?

slave1

You're dead right, either the cable works or not.
Did you buy the car new from Kia in Ireland? If so I'd be right back at them

KCross

daheff wrote: »

no, fuse was burnt. Not old plug socket, not loose either.

not a great picture, but you can see the ends of the fuse are black from heat.

Did you open the socket? If it’s scorched inside it’s probably the socket is burning the plug rather than the other way around.

Note... as a short term measure you can reduce the charge rate via the menu in the car but you should get the socket looked at. If the socket is good then back to Kia with it for a new one as that’s dangerous.

JohnC.

Perhaps it is the charger. Remember they stopped providing them citing something like this?

unkel

JohnC. wrote: »

Perhaps it is the charger. Remember they stopped providing them citing something like this?

That was the reason they claimed. But we all know they did it to make €200 more margin on the car.

I'm with KCross here. Open up the socket. More likely than not it was the socket. From my own experience you can't even put 6A through a weak socket for hours on end without the risk of this happening. Never mind 10A.

zilog_jones

My bet's also on the socket. Get a good quality MK socket fitted (or does anyone else have other good brands to suggest?).

10-10-20

After seeing the (blurry) photo, I'm in two minds. It looks like something melted onto the ceramic of the fuse, or that fuse ceramic melted, or it's not ceramic at all.
Ceramic has a higher melting point than the fuse-wire, so it's not clear how it ended up looking like this. I'd prefer to see clear photos of the inside of plug clearly showing the pings, etc and also of the inside of the plug-top.
But the physical fuse itself should never overheat before it goes open-circuit and physical heat on it should not commonly come from two sources (such as the pin AND the wire-screw).
Did you notice the cable becoming brittle or harder to flex?

stimpson

apparently counterfeit fuses are a thing...

https://www.intersafe.co.uk/news/beware-extremely-dangerous-fake-fuses/

zilog_jones

I'd be very surprised if hooky fuses are being fitted to a Kia OEM product.

stimpson

zilog_jones wrote: »

I'd be very surprised if hooky fuses are being fitted to a Kia OEM product.

Considering the fun that capacitor plague caused, nothing would surprise me.

daheff

so just to update everybody

Talked with the dealer, he replaced the unit no problems whatsoever. Was exactly the right response that a dealer should do. So kudos to him for his response as it was (at least in my view) the right way to handle the situation.

now what he did tell me is that they no longer provide the trickle chargers as they aren't really meant to be used...only in an emergency. And a PHEV shouldn't run out of petrol & electricity!

He also advised that the car manual says they are for emergencies only. Only issue there is the manual i got was only the infotainment booklet....and a smaller one with some basics on where everything is in the car.


I was advised to get a home charge point and/or use the street chargers. So, while I was going to get one eventually, I now need to get it sooner rather than later.

daheff

10-10-20 wrote: »

After seeing the (blurry) photo, I'm in two minds. It looks like something melted onto the ceramic of the fuse, or that fuse ceramic melted, or it's not ceramic at all.
Ceramic has a higher melting point than the fuse-wire, so it's not clear how it ended up looking like this. I'd prefer to see clear photos of the inside of plug clearly showing the pings, etc and also of the inside of the plug-top.
But the physical fuse itself should never overheat before it goes open-circuit and physical heat on it should not commonly come from two sources (such as the pin AND the wire-screw).
Did you notice the cable becoming brittle or harder to flex?

apologies for the somewhat blurry picture, but the phone couldnt properly focus on it as its so small.

Basically there was some of the plastic housing of the inside of the plu melted onto the body of the fuse. The ends (metallic) of the fuse were blackened by the heat (and the ends had melted so there were holes in the metal caps).

Cables did not seem to get brittle or harder to flex.

Somebody else asked about the external socket maybe overheating and passing the heat into the plug- I don't see this as being the case as the charger plug was melted inside the fuse part rather than from the outside -which to me implies the heat source was around the fuse. However, anybody with a better grasp of electricity & heat conducting feel free to correct me.

unkel

daheff wrote: »

they no longer provide the trickle chargers as they aren't really meant to be used...only in an emergency.

That really is nonsense. You can charge your EV / PHEV with a granny cable no problem. People have done it for months on end. You do need to connect it to a good quality connection in your house though.

It is just far more convenient to use a dedicated EVSE. It's quicker. It's cheaper to use as you can take more benefit of the night rate. And with a generous €600 subsidy, the only reason not to install one is if you don't have a driveway or if you are renting your house. And even in those situations there are often solutions.

stimpson

Do you still have the fuse? Can you test it for continuity?

Kramer

daheff wrote: »

Somebody else asked about the external socket maybe overheating and passing the heat into the plug- I don't see this as being the case as the charger plug was melted inside the fuse part rather than from the outside

High resistance/arcing between the "live" plug pin & socket could create enough heat to be conducted through the copper plug pin/fuse terminal. I've seen it before with high amp appliances.

I'd definitely check the socket you were using to be on the safe side as that could well be the root cause or, if not, could be damaged now from heat transfer.

daheff

stimpson wrote: »

Do you still have the fuse? Can you test it for continuity?

no i gave it back. Wouldn't even know how to start to test it in the first place

zg3409

As others have suggested replace the socket on the wall to be safe and take the old one apart and look for heat damage. I replaced my wall socket BEFORE I granny charged for the first 3 weeks of EV ownership as old dusty worn sockets can easily overheat and I have had a plug weld itself to a socket in the past.