[jacquesroman]

I am the new owner of a 2017 Chevy Bolt EV, purchased in March 2018. I asked my dealership if they could sell me a home charger. I was told that they were not available and the sales manager recommended that I purchase a Siemens VersiCharge, Level 2 charger, which I did. I had my electrician install a 240 Volt, 30 amp outlet in my garage and the Siemens charges my vehicle at the rate of 25 miles per hour. I found out weeks later that Chevrolet does sell a home charger, but the dealership didn't know about it.


The car charges well, except for one problem. When the vehicle shuts off the charger, the charger stops and goes into the "Ready" mode. However, 10 seconds later it resumes charging, causing the vehicle's fan to turn on while the "charge complete" light remains solid.


Sometimes, the VersiCharge will shut off after 10 minutes, and other times after 20 minutes or more. This morning, the VersiCharge continued to show it was charging after 30 minutes while, all this time, the fan continued to stay on. I then turned off the VersiCharge.


I called Siemens who had no explanation for this problem, but they sent me a replacement unit, which does exactly the same thing. My dealership's service manager who claims to be knowledgeable with the Chevy Bolt EV's electrical system, tells me he has never heard of this problem and also has no explanation. I tried charging both at 8 amps and 12 amp, to no avail, the same thing occurs.


I am concerned that charging with the fan blowing could result in damage to the vehicle's battery. So, I now set the charger for delayed charging and estimate the time of completion, so that I may be present at the end-of-charge to stop the Siemens from charging.


If anyone has encountered a similar problem, or has any recommendations for a solution, please advise. Seems like the best experts don't have the answer, and Chevrolet won't let me speak to a knowledgeable engineer who might brain-storm the problem with me for a solution.


I do get to speak to a cute female voice who has to read troubleshooting instructions from a screen, or relay the information to a supervisor.


Very grateful for any assistance or advice. Sincerely, /Jacques Roman/

 

[Sean Nelson]

I am the new owner of a 2017 Chevy Bolt EV...

I didn't read this because I found the font to be too annoying. I think you'd have a better chance of getting a solution to your problem if you didn't alienate potential responders with a strange font.

I like Comic Sans, but only in small doses - not in long paragraphs.

 

[beeguz]

I would make sure the settings are set to charge the car the way you want it to charge.


When I plug in my charger ramps up, then shuts down(light on the dash starts blinking to let me know its a delayed charge) until after midnight because I have the car set to charge over night when the house is using the least energy.


I would check to see how your car is set to take a charge, if you have off peak rates you can program the car to start charging after they go into effect.


Look over the owners manual it will give you the information what you need to do to set the car up.

 

[Mark Chapmon]

The car charges well, except for one problem. When the vehicle shuts off the charger, the charger stops and goes into the "Ready" mode. However, 10 seconds later it resumes charging, causing the vehicle's fan to turn on while the "charge complete" light remains solid.

I noticed when I started a charging session after I had run down to about half the battery capacity, when it got to the end of the charge cycle and stopped charging, I could still hear the fan running from inside the house. Just a hunch, but I think it has to do with keeping the battery cool after it reaches a certain temperature and not stopping until it is under a certain temperature, and the "on" temp may not be the same as the "off" temp. Mine would run maybe 10 to 15 minutes before the fan would turn off. I quit worrying about it when I saw it would shut off after what I decided amounted to be a cooldown period.

 

[james1]

The car charges well, except for one problem. When the vehicle shuts off the charger, the charger stops and goes into the "Ready" mode. However, 10 seconds later it resumes charging, causing the vehicle's fan to turn on while the "charge complete" light remains solid.

Sometimes, the VersiCharge will shut off after 10 minutes, and other times after 20 minutes or more. This morning, the VersiCharge continued to show it was charging after 30 minutes while, all this time, the fan continued to stay on. I then turned off the VersiCharge.

Have you tried charging the car on a different Level 2 charger (at the Chevy dealership, e.g.)?

I noticed when I started a charging session after I had run down to about half the battery capacity, when it got to the end of the charge cycle and stopped charging, I could still hear the fan running from inside the house. Just a hunch, but I think it has to do with keeping the battery cool after it reaches a certain temperature and not stopping until it is under a certain temperature, and the "on" temp may not be the same as the "off" temp. Mine would run maybe 10 to 15 minutes before the fan would turn off. I quit worrying about it when I saw it would shut off after what I decided amounted to be a cooldown period.

This is a good point. I've never heard the fan run when I charge my car in the garage (with a Siemens VersiCharge), but the fan has come on when I've charged outside in the hot sun...

 

[XJ12]

I've never heard the fan run when I charge my car in the garage (with a Siemens VersiCharge), but the fan has come on when I've charged outside in the hot sun...

Got home a couple hours ago after driving in 100 F weather. Plugged it in with the garage temp at 83 F. When I went back out to the garage the car's fan was running. Definitely was cooling something in the car.

 

[Sperling3]

The Bolt has a feature called Battery Conditioning which ensures that the battery stays within a certain temperature range. When the car is plugged into a charger (EVSE), if the temperature is too hot, the conditioner will turn on and coolant (similar in concept to engine/radiator coolant) will circulate around all the battery modules. Additionally, a fan will come on to blow away some of the heat. After charging your battery for a long time and during the summer months, you could very well hear the car making a noise for a while after the actual charging has finished. The car pulls electricity to run the Battery Conditioner from your EVSE so as not to run down the actual battery. Sounds to me like your Seimens EVSE (same thing I have) was working just fine.

 

[Hugh]

Sperling3 has a good answer. jacquesroman, if you want more help understanding, please share the ambient temperature at the time you are noticing this behavior. (Ambient temperature is the air temperature outside the car.)

 

[LocalOne]

Thanks for the favorable report on the Siemans. I just obtained one for $50 from a former Leaf owner, and was getting nervous.

 

[GregBrew]

Thanks for the favorable report on the Siemans. I just obtained one for $50 from a former Leaf owner, and was getting nervous.

That was a bargain! I have nothing but good things to say about the Versacharger. I have three of them. Then again, I don't do any timed charges, which is the only problem I've read about.

 

[Pigwich]

Hey everybody, so a little technical charger talk here... don't get bored, and I appologize that most people already know all this, but here we go anyway.

I know this is an ancient thread, but I wanted to clear up a few things about the J1772 standard. Rest assured, none of the fan behavior of the Bolt, or really any behavior, has anything to do with the charger. The charger on the wall or laying on the ground simply says "I'm here, awake, and you're only allowed to draw a maximum of this much current" As to whether the car actually decides to draw current? Well that's up to the car, and hopefully the car listens to the charger, and it does in my experience. A charger is nothing more than a glorified hairdryer plug, and sends out a small signal that says "My internal components can only handle X number of amps, so pretty please don't draw more than that" And from there, it connects 220 (or 110) in to the car's internal charger, where the work of putting that juice in to your batteries happens. The box on your wall? It basically does nothing. You can get a fancy, humongous 80 amp charger and plug it in to your Bolt, and it will tell your Bolt that it's allowed to draw 80 amps, but the bolt just says "OK thanks" and will start chugging along at 32 amps, because that's what the car is rated for, and you've wasted your money on a charger with a cable that's as big as a burmese python. Other times, when the battery is seemingly full, the car decides it wants a little extra power, so no matter what charger you're using, sometimes it will TAKE a few amps for other jobs, like running the air conditioning compressor or a cooling fan, or preconditioning the vehicle on hot/cold days. Now as for any LEDs lighting up on the charger? It's just a light, and how it behaves is entirely up to whatever software the charger has on it and the preference of the engineer that developed it. Some light up when the car is plugged in, some light up when a certain amount of power is being drawn, some light up when the contacts in the charger are active, but what's actually going on is entirely up to the car. The car's gonna do what the car's gonna do, and how the charger represents that information is of zero consequence.

Now.. SOME chargers are rated for an amperage that's lower than the Bolt's rated 32 amps. These cheap, 16 amp units (which are literally the same as your portable that came with the car ) tell the car that it can only draw 16 amps, to which the car says "FINE. Fine, I promise I'll only take 16 amps." and it's off to the races. They're limited in power because the wires are thin and the switching contacts in the charger itself are weak and peevish, so the designer sets the "pilot" signal to 16 amps, or even less sometimes, to keep it from melting down. Since the charger is basically just a dumb hairdryer plug box, the only current limit is the physical thickness and heartiness of the connectors within. Let's not bother to talk much about 110V vs 220V charging, except to say that as everybody knows, you set 8 or 12 amps charging rate (for 110V only, no effect on 220) IN THE CAR, not on the charger, which again, is because it's just a dumb box.

Now I'm going to start to digress a little bit... That pilot signal, which tells the car how much it can draw at maximum, can be throttled on the fly, which is great when demand goes up, or you're managing a lot of chargers and you need to keep your electrical load manageable, or to slow down charging, or even stop it completely (remember, the charger says I'm here, I'm awake, and this is how much current is safely available) and sometimes that amount is zero. Which is to say that some chargers, even though they can be rated to something bonkers high, can be set to tell the car that they're only good for some piddly amount of power, so that's all the car will draw, and that can be a simple as a slider on an app or a dial in the charger.

And more off topic and probably covered thoroughly elsewhere, that portable charger that came with your bolt is rated to take 220 as well, it just doesn't say so on the sticker. But it does, and when it gets 220V, it not only charges at 220V, but it also automatically sets the pilot signal to 16 amps. You'll know this because the option to draw 8 or 12 will be grayed out in the car while you're in 220V land. Look in other posts for how to do this. It's not even a hack.

 

[XJ12]

And more off topic and probably covered thoroughly elsewhere, that portable charger that came with your bolt is rated to take 220 as well, it just doesn't say so on the sticker. But it does, and when it gets 220V, it not only charges at 220V, but it also automatically sets the pilot signal to 16 amps. You'll know this because the option to draw 8 or 12 will be grayed out in the car while you're in 220V land. Look in other posts for how to do this. It's not even a hack.

Welcome to the forum. Just for the record, the EVSE (not a charger by the way) that came with the Bolt will only provide 12 amps when used at 240V.

 

[psyflyjohn]

Life is difficult enough without the car being smarter than us....

 

[surgeonFWW]

The Siemen's VersiCharge runs at 30 amps continuous, but peaks above that on startup. How does a 30 amp circuit handle the load without popping the breaker?

 

[ga2500ev]

The Siemen's VersiCharge runs at 30 amps continuous, but peaks above that on startup. How does a 30 amp circuit handle the load without popping the breaker?

Simple. For continuous loads the maximum rating is 80% of the breaker rating. So if it's pulling 30A then the circuit has to be a minimum of 37.5A which means that it's connected on a 40A breaker. So a peak above 30A is no problem.

BTW the maximum amp rating on a 30A breaker would be 24 amps. This is the reason there are 24 amp EVSEs.

ga2500ev

 

[surgeonFWW]

Simple. For continuous loads the maximum rating is 80% of the breaker rating. So if it's pulling 30A then the circuit has to be a minimum of 37.5A which means that it's connected on a 40A breaker. So a peak above 30A is no problem.

ga2500ev

But the OP said they installed a 30 amp outlet. Can you use a 30 amp outlet on a "40 amp breaker-40 amp wire size" circuit, with an EVSE that will, for short bursts, draw > 30 amps? I have a 40 amp circuit (breaker/wire) with a 50 amp outlet. I did not think that any component could be below the breaker rating. What am I getting wrong?

 

[KeithMoon]

thoroughly elsewhere, that portable charger that came with your bolt is rated to take 220 as well, it just doesn't say so on the sticker. But it does, and when it gets 220V, it not only charges at 220V, but it also automatically sets the pilot signal to 16 amps. You'll know this because the option to draw 8 or 12 will be grayed out in the car while you're in 220V land.

Ok, so this is incorrect. I have wired a 240vac 6-20R that I plug my stock Bolt EVSE into. It absolutely does not select 16 amps. It selects 12 amps. This is fortunate (safety wise) since the stock EVSE has a 5-15P on the end of the cable and selecting 16 amps would be unsafe (perhaps not for a few minutes, but over the course of hours of charging it absolutely would be unsafe).

I have verified this is the case using OBDII and validated that the ECU reports the AC charge rate at precisely 2.9kW and 240x12 == 2880.

 

[Edchris]

I have verified this is the case using OBDII and validated that the ECU reports the AC charge rate at precisely 2.9kW and 240x12 == 2880.

That is interesting. I also built a connector for the stock EVSE, to use at my summer home, where I have a NEMA 14-50 outlet for a welder.
Perhaps I’m having a senior moment, but IIRC I see 3.X on the DIC when plugged into this outlet. I was thinking 240x16= 3.8ish. Is that wrong thinking...the DIC shows Kw charging, no?
I will use this receptacle on Sunday & double check.

 

[Vertiformed]

But the OP said they installed a 30 amp outlet. Can you use a 30 amp outlet on a "40 amp breaker-40 amp wire size" circuit, with an EVSE that will, for short bursts, draw > 30 amps? I have a 40 amp circuit (breaker/wire) with a 50 amp outlet. I did not think that any component could be below the breaker rating. What am I getting wrong?

When a circuit has a certain amp rating, the actual maximum amps you can draw is depends on various factors, most notably how much current for how long. When many kinds of devices power on, there will be significant inrush current. For some transformers, it can be 60× the normal current for a very brief moment (about half an AC cycle, or about 8 milliseconds).

For wiring, higher current generates more heat. Here are a few back-of-the-envelope calculations:

• If you draw 10× the rated current for the cable, in one minute the temperature of the cable may be about 10 ℃ higher, but it won't have melted yet (it'll take about 15 minutes before it sets fire to something).
• If you draw 100× the rated current, the temperature will rise by 10 ℃ in about 0.675 seconds (and within ten seconds, you'll likely be setting fire to something).

So wires are fairly resilient to brief over-current.

All this is why breakers have trip curves (that are much more conservative than the numbers/timings above); a typical “B Curve” breaker might only allow a current of more than 3–5× the rated current for about 0.01 seconds to handle inrush. They trip more slowly for modest overcurrent, 2× will trip in 10–40 seconds and 1.5× will trip in 50–400 seconds.

It's also why we have the 80% rule (at a continuous draw at the rated current will cause a slow but progressive rise in temperature over several hours; the worry is that a load that would be fine for a few hours won't be many hours later when the temperature converges to its final value).

FWIW, I figured this out when I plugged the my JuiceBox into a 30A dryer outlet and accidentally failed to properly set the charge limit (user error operating the app), so the Bolt drew 32A from a 30A outlet for a few minutes. I worried about the consequences of my error, but on further investigation I concluded that the 6.67% overcurrent probably wouldn't have tripped the breaker at all, even after several minutes, and the overcurrent was unlikely to have had much time to generate any significant heat. Still, I don't recommend people take chances with these things.

 

[KeithMoon]

I have verified this is the case using OBDII and validated that the ECU reports the AC charge rate at precisely 2.9kW and 240x12 == 2880.

That is interesting. I also built a connector for the stock EVSE, to use at my summer home, where I have a NEMA 14-50 outlet for a welder.
Perhaps I’m having a senior moment, but IIRC I see 3.X on the DIC when plugged into this outlet. I was thinking 240x16= 3.8ish. Is that wrong thinking...the DIC shows Kw charging, no?
I will use this receptacle on Sunday & double check.

If you are seeing 3.8kW then you are lucky your garage (or house if it is attached) is still standing. Putting 16 amps through the 5-15P would very dangerous.

The good news is that the GM engineers aren't idiots, they don't have a current limiter that limits the current to a value higher than the plug they attached to the EVSE can accommodate so you are clearly misremembering or misunderstanding something.

Btw this is why it would be massive overkill to install an (ugly) 14-50R if you intend to use the stock EVSE, as a 6-20R is much prettier and less cumbersome and can accommodate 8 amps more than the stock EVSE will draw. I realize you already have a 14-50R for your welder so in that case it is obvious that you'd use that, but if installing for the car a 6-20R is a much better option for most people.