Ecotricity medium charger Ikea croydon issue?

I tried using the Ecotricity AC medium charger in Ikea croydon yesterday and could not get the car to charge.

The charger appeared to be working and accepted the Ecotricity card and tried to start charging but my i3 issued the warning:

Mains power too low.
Unable to charge.
Insufficient power from the electricity mains.

I have a 7kw charger at home that works ok and i did try lowering the charge rate to medium and low on my i3 to no avail. The iApp also displayed 'charging error' by the way. As it happens i didnt really need a charge so it was not a problem, however i wondered if anyone else had issues with the medium AC chargers? I have had problems with the Rapid DC's from ecotricity too of course but they do sometimes work and the issue seems widely known, although not resolved as yet.

I believe it is the infamous hold the connector upwards till communication established between EVSE and i3. The Menekkes connector does not fit snugly unlike the CCS connector. You can "jiggle" it after plugging it into the car.

I experienced PRECISELY the same at the Ecotricity medium charger at Warwick North last Saturday. I got the mains charge warning, but then retried CCS, which then worked. Turned out I pressed the wrong "confirm" button. I'll try the wiggling technique next time.

psquare said:

I experienced PRECISELY the same at the Ecotricity medium charger at Warwick North last Saturday. I got the mains charge warning, but then retried CCS, which then worked. Turned out I pressed the wrong "confirm" button. I'll try the wiggling technique next time.

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I think that the Eurozone picked the wrong connector for EVs...the J1772 connector has a mechanical latch at the top that holds the plug in place to overcome just that issue. As I understand it, some countries would not agree unless the plug had internal shutters on the power pins. The protocol does not apply power to those unless it gets the signal from the car, and when you remove the plug, that signal loss is supposed to disconnect the main power from those pins. I'm all for safety, but I think that extra layer is the source of most of these issues, and was not needed in the first place.

Thanks i7fan, i will try wiggling it and see if that improves matters!

I had the same problem today with a Chargemaster medium charger at Waitrose Swindon.

Connected and unconnected several times and no luck. 'Mains power too low'. Swiped card, tried second port on same charge post, no joy.

As for the 'wiggle fix' If I'm correct the Ecotricity medium AC chargers I have seen DO NOT have a tethered cable so the lift and wiggle is not an issue. Lift and wiggle problem is exclusively the high speed AC40kw chargers designed for Renaults that have a REALLY heavy tethered cable which strains the i3's port. I have managed to get several of these to work with my car with little effort (my trick is to feed the cable over the roof of the car!).

Socket strain was not part of my charge problem as it's my own cable used (and would be the same situation for Ecotricity medium AC's), I drove home and plugged in to my home charger with same cable and charged no problem.

I didn't try the other charging posts (2 more available) as the wind was gale force in the car park and was not desperate for the electrons. Annoying and confusing all the same!

Deep in the I3 settings you can reduce the charge rate required at the charger

dorowe said:

Deep in the I3 settings you can reduce the charge rate required at the charger

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Unless the device is on a shared circuit, there should never be a reason to tell the i3 to charge at a reduced rate...the EVSE will report how much it has, and the i3 will then pull as much as it wants, up to that maximum. It is useful when, say, at home where your EVSE has to share a circuit with other things in the house...pulling the max it says it can provide could overload the circuit, not the EVSE, but the circuit...sort of like plugging in multiple electric heaters on the same circuit would pop the breaker or fuse.

All I would say is that choosing between three charge rates is functionality provided by BMW within the I3 settings and presumably they had a reason for this?

I guess the "should never be a reason " in your post is more like "sometimes there might be a reason"?

The reason you can tell the i3 to only draw less than the EVSE says it can provide is to prevent you from overloading the supply line power circuit. If that EVSE is the ONLY thing on that circuit, there should be no reason to not use the full amount it says it has. BUT, say that one branch circuit feeds multiple devices (say some lights, another receptacle, maybe another appliance), each individually may work just fine, but if they all were on at the same time, the fuse or circuit breaker may trip. In the USA, it is not all that common to have a device fuse like it is in the UK, where there's a fuse in the power cord (for the most part as I remember). The wires in the wall are protected because they are sized for the circuit breaker or fuse back at the panel...IOW, the internal house wiring won't be overloaded, regardless of what you end up attaching, but the aggregate of the individual items won't hurt them since the protection circuit at the panel will trip.

You'd normally never run into that situation where the EVSE is hardwired, or if it is the only thing plugged into the circuit. It's only when it might share that circuit with other things...you can adjust how 'big' the i3 looks to the circuit, and protect the wires from overheating and keep the power on to that branch!