Tesla EV charger/eaton breakers

yo_ryco said:
The homeowner has reported to me that he turned the charger back to 10a and let the vehicle charge overnight. He's telling me that none of the breakers tripped and during charging, all the test buttons operated as they should....now I'm really at a loss. Can anyone tell me - does lower current mean lower harmonics?
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Thanks for posting this update, and interesting that the lower current does NOT trip the breakers. Certainly something to let Eaton know about if you are involved in any kind of dialogue with them.

As for your question - I would think certainly that lower levels of charging current are going to result in lower levels of harmonic current. The onboard charger in the car will appear as a non-linear load and can distort (flatten) the top of the voltage waveform when the rectifier diodes conduct. So they tend to create very commonplace odd harmonic distortion (3rd, 5th, 7th etc). Just like the front end of any VFD.
 
jaggedben said:
This just confirms what I'm saying, try another car. It may well be that the homeowner wants to change the breakers and not the car (though maybe they should also have the car looked at) but you might as well try to eliminate the EVSE from the equation.
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Sure, try another car. But ultimately, if he wants to keep his car it's going to boil down to the breakers. The breakers need to be replaced and not just with more from Eaton. If trying another brand breaker is successful, it means two new panels of another brand with their breakers.

-Hal
 
To the OP...

Not sure if you have seen this, but I just found a Tesla Forum thread with a very similar problem. It's old, from 2019, and it's not an electrical forum, so you need to sort of separate the wheat from the chaff, but...

teslamotorsclub.com

Wall Charger Tripping AFCI's on Other Circuits

I purchased a wall charger when I got on the reservation list and installed it last week when I ordered my Model 3. I have it on a 100 amp 240V dedicated breaker. I metered open circuit between L1 and L2, and from L1 and L2 to ground. The ground meters short to the ground bar. A short while...
teslamotorsclub.com teslamotorsclub.com

The OP states in Post#1... "A short while after plugging the charger into the Model 3, all of the AFCI's on other circuits trip".

In Post #8 he indicates he is using Eaton combination AFCI/GFCI.

In Post #15... "I have been able to charge at 10 amps without tripping my breakers, but they trip when I charge at 16 amps."

In Post #16... "I tried replacing two combination breakers; one with an arc fault only breaker, and the other with a ground fault only breaker. These did not trip.

And finally in Post#26, another user with the exact same problem posts... "Swapped out the breaker this afternoon for a brand new one. Old one is maybe 10 years old. So far so good. Full load charging for maybe 2-3 hours and no issue."

Certainly sounds like your problem. And possible shame on Eaton if they are telling you they've never heard of this before.
 
yo_ryco said:
Just a follow up for anyone who might me curious/willing to weigh in on this. I made a site visit today and ran a few random tests.

1. I picked up a new dfci breaker to install as a test. I landed the breaker in the panel, but did not install any wiring on the breaker. When the Tesla charger was in use the breaker tripped...with no wires attached to it.
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Old new stock maybe?

-Hal
 
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