Don’t burn down your house with an EV charger!
Not all 50-amp receptacles 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 Level-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 receptacles are rated for continuous duty. So making them provide the 40+ amperes of current to charge your Electric Vehicle 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. This was a new 50-amp outlet installed in his garage to charge his Tesla. It only lasted a few months.
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.
Read my previous article on light-duty 14-50 EV outlets HERE.
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Let’s play safe out there - Mike
Interested in knowing what really happened here. The receptacle in the photo is a Leviton, which I consider to be reputable. Is this a case of the receptacle not able to handle a continuous load near its rating or a case of dirty/corroded contacts generating heat I^2R. Sure see the latter often with 30 amp plugs and receptacles.