L1 Charger not charging in Cold weather?

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

cegolf

***
Joined
Oct 16, 2019
Messages
4
I haven't decided on a L2 charger yet, so I'm still on the original L1 charger. First winter with the vehicle, and I've noticed the past two days when its cold in Toronto, my charger stopped charging on its own. Pressing reset on the charger doesn't seem to do anything. I have no idea to force it to charge. Anyone has experienced this or have some sort of fix?
 
Never had that issue, but I don't get weather as cold as you... , i would try to charge on another charging station.. just to see if its a car issue or cable issue.
 
Definitely an outlet problem. I brought my charger to work today and it was charging fine throughout the day. So when I returned home today I tested the outlet with a multimeter and I was getting a constant 119.x. I wonder if the last few days I was getting something higher than 120. I read somewhere that EV chargers don't like that.

Still assuming at this point but it seems to be charging fine at home today
 
cegolf said:
Definitely an outlet problem. I brought my charger to work today and it was charging fine throughout the day. So when I returned home today I tested the outlet with a multimeter and I was getting a constant 119.x. I wonder if the last few days I was getting something higher than 120. I read somewhere that EV chargers don't like that.

Still assuming at this point but it seems to be charging fine at home today

You need a Dedicated 15 amp circuit to charge your e-Golf off of at home. That means a new circuit breaker that's 15 amps and new wiring pulled to one sole electrical outlet, to be used exclusively by your e-Golf for recharging, No other ancillary circuits in use on that one breaker.
 
JoulesThief said:
You need a Dedicated 15 amp circuit to charge your e-Golf off of at home. That means a new circuit breaker that's 15 amps and new wiring pulled to one sole electrical outlet, to be used exclusively by your e-Golf for recharging, No other ancillary circuits in use on that one breaker.

Absolutely NOT the case for me. I am (very rarely) plugging my L1 cable into an outdoor outlet that I am 100% is not on a separate circuit and the car is charging (very slowly but) just fine without any issues.
 
Szyszka said:
JoulesThief said:
You need a Dedicated 15 amp circuit to charge your e-Golf off of at home. That means a new circuit breaker that's 15 amps and new wiring pulled to one sole electrical outlet, to be used exclusively by your e-Golf for recharging, No other ancillary circuits in use on that one breaker.

Absolutely NOT the case for me. I am (very rarely) plugging my L1 cable into an outdoor outlet that I am 100% is not on a separate circuit and the car is charging (very slowly but) just fine without any issues.

This-

before I had my L2 installed and used the L1 I never had it plugged into a dedicated circuit.
 
I hope you don't mind my piggy backing as I have a similar question.

I test drove a '16 SEL e-Golf for a week and at full charge the dash would display a range of 93 miles (~150km). I ended up purchasing a '16 SE e-Golf and at full charge (in cold weather (approx. 45F/7C) the dash would display a range of 72 miles (~116km).

The battery is supposed to be the same between SE and SEL models. Does the cold weather limit the max range at full charge?
 
Yes. Ambient temperatures, heat and A/C use, driving style (fast vs slow, gentle vs abrupt acceleration) all affect range. The range shown on the dash is a calculation based on how the car was driven most recently - the GOM (guess-o-meter) - and varies a lot based on the factors I listed.
 
I've noticed how much the projected range drops when running heat/AC. But when I turn all of these things off, I see the noticeable increase of 5-10miles in the display. I don't drive the car hard. It's strictly a daily commuter to and from work in traffic.

I feel like 15-20 miles loss from a full charge is significant and I've only had the car for a week. However this was my first time giving it a full charge and it was pretty cold.

Is it normal for the range on a fully charged battery to drop that much in cold weather?
 
15-25% range drop in sub-freezing weather isn’t unusual and is actually to be expected. I have a 2018 SEL with the heat pump and the range drop off is around 10-15%, depending on how cold it is outside. For models without the heat pump, I would expect to see 20-25% drop off.
 
Back
Top