Locked cable and still ongoing

[Passivate1949]

I am not sure if this has happened to others here but on Saturday I charged up at an SSE charger locally. It is one I have used regularly in the past but on this occasion when I finished and presented my card the charger switched off but it would not release my cable from the machine!

I contacted Chargepoint Genie who operate the unit and while they reset the machine a couple of times it would still not release my cable. We tried every combination sequence to no avail. As i write the cable is still attached to the charger see pictures. Support for the unit is provided by the manufacturer and they could not provide any attendance until tomorrow. Let's hope nobody is able to release it in the meantime. Clearly a solenoid or some other device has jammed and prevented removal of the cable but at £165 a time I was almost prepared to camp next to the charger!!

I have read on other forums that this is not a particularly unusual occurrence but normally judicious bangs and tugs free it. Not so here. Let's see what tomorrow brings. :x

I have an image but I'm struggling to load it.

Andrew

 

[brorob]

There have been a few posts about this, unfortunately the search function in this new forum format is worthless so every time I tried to find one of these posts I was prompted by a message stating I used too common of a word. Maybe it's because I'm using an iPad or it's crappy coding.

There is a small piece of foam in the bottom of the rear door opening that you can take out. Once this is removed, there are 2 blue plastic knob "pulls". The top one is for the charger door and it looks like the bottom one is for the lock release for the charging cable. I just tested mine and the top pull worked ok but the bottom one wouldn't pull out very much, maybe because I didn't have the car plugged in. Try this to see if it will release the charging cable.

Also, but I'm sure you checked this already, make sure the car is unlocked.

You can also try searching this forum for more info, maybe the search will work better for you. Also check the on board user manual, that may help.

 

[Passivate1949]

Hello and thanks for the reply. The cable is stuck in the SSE charger rather than the car. I had hoped to post an image but I couldn't make that work - perhaps I don't have the necessary permissions. I hope to hear tomorrow that SSE have managed to unlock my cable from their machine!

Best regards

Andrew

 

[Passivate1949]

After four days the cable has now been released. I met up with the APT engineer who freed the cable and diagnosed a broken pin in the retaining solenoid. The unit is a twin 7kW APT eVolt model, not that common in this neck of the woods. While not commonplace the problem is not apparently that rare. I guess it is only with use that these weaknesses will emerge.

At least I don't have to buy another cable!

Andrew

 

[Passivate1949]

Top marks to ChargePoint Genie who contacted me today and provided a charging credit for the inconvenience. I guess if the cable had been stolen we would be having a different conversation but the gesture was appreciated.

 

[I33t]

Sure sounds like the option we have here is better: The commercial chargers have their own fixed cables.

 

[Passivate1949]

We have both options here too - it depends on whether its a fast charger usually thought to be 7kW or a rapid charger 50kW. The latter tend to be tethered - I have not seen one without its own fixed cable. The slow or 3kW units where you simply plug in either your charger or Type 2 cable are also available but take forever! I was in danger of my cable becoming a tethered version of a plug in.

Best regards

Andrew

 

[jadnashuanh]

It the USA, all cables are tethered to the EVSE or CCS units. This has the effect of adding a bit to their costs, but makes it a bit simpler if you either don't have, or don't want to use your own cable. If the car refuses for some reason to release the cable, at least you can manually do it...it appears a manual override with a tethered cable does not exist at the unit itself. This means that if the cable or plug is damaged, nobody can use that unit to charge, though, which does potentially pose a problem to everyone.