Don’t burn down your house with an EV charger
Not all 50-amp outlets are created equal
For those of you contemplating adding a 50-amp outlet in your garage for charging your EV or plugging in a portable Class-2 EV charger at a campground, here’s a warning. It’s really easy to melt the 50-amp outlet and possibly start a fire.
It appears that not all brands of NEMA 14-50 outlets are rated for continuous duty. So making them provide the 40+ amperes of current to charge your Tesla or Ford Lightning overnight could result in a fire.
This is a serious meltdown
Here’s what someone at the Airstream Rally sent to one of my power vendors yesterday. This was a 50-amp outlet installed in his garage to charge his Tesla.
What do I know?
I did an informal study on several brands of 50-amp outlets last year and found that some were not rated for heavy-duty continuous operation and tended to melt down while charging an EV. I don’t have my notes with me here in Wyoming, but I’ll look it up when I get back.
Please take this survey and comment below…
I’ll write more about this when I get back to my office. In the meantime, let’s play safe out there - Mike
Im publishing my first study on this tomorrow. Please standby….
Great info.
My guess is that many RVers have or are thinking of installing a 50A outlet to plug in their coach when not in use. While not continuous duty like an EV charger, no one wants a fire.
Would you publish results of your research? When you get home.....