PSA: My J1772 handle melted after a hot day charging

Left my car plugged in at a public charger in Phoenix last July when it was 115 out. Came back 3 hours later and the plastic around the handle pins was literally warped and soft. Turns out the charger had a loose connection inside causing resistance heat, plus the sun baked the rubber. I got the station owner to replace the unit, but my car's port was fine luckily. Anyone else seen charging equipment fail in extreme heat like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

paige51413d agoTop Commenter

@laurabennett some junk just can't handle that heat.

laurabennett13d ago

Are you sure it wasn't just a cheap piece of junk to begin with? I've been charging my EV in Texas summers for years and never had a handle melt, even when it's pushing 110. Sounds more like the station owner cheaped out on a no-name Chinese charger rather than a real issue with the heat. The sun doesn't magically soften plastic in three hours if the thing is built right my old Lectron handle sits in direct sunlight at work all day and it's fine. Loose connections can happen in any weather but blaming the temperature seems like a way to dodge the real problem which is bad maintenance. I bet if you had a decent unit like a ChargePoint or a Grizzl-E you wouldn't have had that problem at all.