Level 1 car charger causing outlets and lines to break

Question

I have a Toyota RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid that uses a Level-1 charger (120V) which seems to be doing damage to or breaking outlets/lines in my home. The situation is the following:

I had been using an outdoor GFCI outlet to charge my vehicle for around 4 months. The GFCI breaker is wired at the panel with one black line and two white lines. After 4 months, the GFCI outlet stopped working, no light is showing, and it will not reset. The breaker at the panel has not tripped. I changed out the outlet for a new one, but the new one does not seem to be receiving power and does not let me reset it.

In effort to continue charging my vehicle, I plugged the Level-1 charger into a different receptacle, this time indoors on a non-GFCI 120V outlet. This allowed my car to charge for around 2 months before the same thing occurred. The line is no longer receiving power and the breaker was not tripped.

To complicate the second matter, earlier in this line, the line splits to also power a switch controlled light. When the second outlet stopped working, so too did the switch controlled light. I reiterate, the breaker did not trip.

Of note, the manufacturer-provided Level-1 charger continues to work when I plug it in to other outlets.

I have tried the following to troubleshoot:

• Changing out the GFCI outlet for a new one
• Changing out the non-GFCI outlet for a new one
• Changing out the switch for a new switch
• Changing out the non-GFCI breaker for a new one.

None of these result in any power going through the lines that were previously used to charge my vehicle.

The two problems that I am having trouble with are:

1. How do I fix the dead lines if changing the breaker or outlet do not remedy the issue?
2. What is the root of the problem? Is the manufacturer provided charger causing this issue?
3. If the manufacturer provided charger is causing the issue, what exactly is it doing to the lines?

Answer 1

Vehicle charging puts a fair amount of stress on circuits. Properly installed that should not be a problem, but if there are screws that were not torqued down properly or wirenuts that are not twisted tightly, the heat of running at 80% capacity for hours (more than 80% if there's anything else on the circuit) followed by cooling, and repeated frequently for a long time will eventually work poorly made connections loose.

Verify power at the breaker. Then verify power at the wires connected to the breaker (having first checked their torque with a torque driver or torque wrench. Then find the first device on the circuit, verify power coming from the breaker, and check all the connections there. Repeat until you have restored power to the whole circuit. Most likely there is a bad connection, or possibly more than one bad connection.

If you happen to have other issues like the wrong breakers for your breaker panel installed because someone got the wrong ones to go in, you may not even have power at the breaker due to accumulated damages where the breaker fits poorly on the bus, not being made for it (as for "not tripped" always try turning the breaker off all the way, then on - the handle position alone is not a reliable indicator of "tripped.")