[Ash]

Twice now in the past 2 weeks my charger went to an amber light. The first time it went back to a blue light after an hour however this time it errored last night while charging and is still showing the dreaded amber light. I have not tried reseting the breaker yet because that 100 amp breaker is a pain to reset so I was wondering if anyone has had the same issues.

 

[Voltz]

Has the charger software been updated? I don't have one yet, but there is an update I've read about to address reliability issues.

 

[Leaf to Lightning : )]

from what I'm hearing on other forums, owners are experiencing this on too much of a regular basis - they are thinking that it's an overheating situation. Maybe even try to put a fan on it for the time it's charging, to keep temps down. If it's not tripping the breaker, it's not overloading the wiring, which means it's the internals of the charger device.

I would also try another EVSE to see if the problem persists, and if not, the PRO CHARGER is to blame, and likely might even wind up being a recall from either Ford or their supplier/Sunrun.

Having issues charging is not going to fly with any EV owner, especially new LIGHTNING owners who depend on the charge to happen everyday/night so that they are fully supplied for the next day's needs.

 

[harmlss]

Had a similar issue on my installed CSP. Solution that seems to be working is to step down to 64a and just live with it. At 80a, with the install undertaken by a licensed electrician using the supplied documentation, the charger would fault out for @45 secs and reset, charge a bit, and then do it again. The charging cable would be uncomfortably hot to the touch as well. At 64a charging is uninterrupted and all equipment is relatively cool to the touch. I expect that we are seeing a case of marketing trumping engineering.

Now don’t get me started on the software issues related to the CSP…..

 

[Junk in the Frunk]

That sounds frustrating @harmlss, but thanks for the post and the details (and welcome to the forum!)

Sorry for the dumb question, but is all of this leading folks to think the 80 amp Pro charger has a design issue?

 

[208]

Continued terrible luck with Ford branded EVSEs. Since 2018 Ford has contracted with a number of manufacturers for EVSEs, a couple of which are quality entities; yet they have been notoriously problematic.

I had hoped that with Ford's new emphasis on EVs, thier EVSE's would get better. Anecdotally, they have not 🫤

 

[Ash]

Has the charger software been updated? I don't have one yet, but there is an update I've read about to address reliability issues.

Very good point however I have yet to be able to get connected to it so I can connect it to wifi. I will have to play around with it some more. If not I will contact Ford and see what they recommend.

 

[Vandy1981]

Continued terrible luck with Ford branded EVSEs. Since 2018 Ford has contracted with a number of manufacturers for EVSEs, a couple of which are quality entities; yet they have been notoriously problematic.

I had hoped that with Ford's new emphasis on EVs, thier EVSE's would get better. Anecdotally, they have not 🫤

The NEMA 5-15 plug on my 2014 Ford C-Max also melted and had to be recalled so it goes even further back than 2018.

 

[Voltz]

Very good point however I have yet to be able to get connected to it so I can connect it to wifi.

I'm pretty sure that the software update addresses the amber light/temperature sensitivity. It makes sense that it may be waiting for you to get it connected to WiFi, which seems to be another common problem.

 

[Aron ford]

this happen to be common with lightning owners

Kodi nox​

 

[BK1]

Anyone that’s installing one should consider adding a Nema 14-50 right next to (or below) as a backup. I’d do this with any sophisticated charger. I have a Tesla wall charger and it will overheat when I’m charging (at 48 amps) mid-afternoon and it’s 100F. If I dial the amperage down, it won’t overheat - might try that on the Ford charger.
The 14-50 is too simple to mess up and is so cheap to add to the mix.

 

[208]

Anyone that’s installing one should consider adding a Nema 14-50 right next to (or below) as a backup. I’d do this with any sophisticated charger. I have a Tesla wall charger and it will overheat when I’m charging (at 48 amps) mid-afternoon and it’s 100F. If I dial the amperage down, it won’t overheat - might try that on the Ford charger.
The 14-50 is too simple to mess up and is so cheap to add to the mix.

Super smart. Plus, you have an outlet to charge a 2nd EV... Or plug in an RV... 14-50s are becoming the must-have do-it-all outlet... oh, and they are cheap & easy to install.

 

[HellBoy]

Seems like it’s an overheating situation based on what people are saying out there - give it a try by reducing the output from 80A to something like 50A for now.

 

[dmorrow]

This guy traced part of the issue to the type of wire used between the breaker and charger:

 

[LaMigraUSA]

I’ll try and shed some light on this topic for those that are having issues and what my seemingly endless time on the phone with clueless Ford reps at the CRC yielded. Pretty much nothing. But…after reading and experimenting (plus a call to Siemens) for a week I finally managed to get the FCSP connected and the “68” update installed. If you’ve tried to connect and got multiple failures save yourself some frustration and perform the factory reset and start over or your phone will not see the network again. Push the red button inside the charger for 10 secs until the light turns white then wait 5 mins for the full reboot and the charger to rebroadcast its MAC ID. If you have several networks/routers or a guest network make sure after you connect to the chargers internal network and you return to your phones Wi-Fi setting to finish the setup you are connected to the home network you used to set it up or it will just fail to connect again. Then once you’re finally connected to Wi-Fi shut off the breaker let the unit reboot again then it will update with the new software version at some point (mine was about an hour later). The old one is 2.122.64…and the new one should read 2.122.68:2.127. If you had used the internal dial to drop the amperage down to setting 5 or 6 to avoid the overheating and and amber light of death…return it to setting 7 before you reboot too. This will put you back at 80 amps. Interestingly enough once I got that solved its charging without any further faults but…of course there is a but…the charging derate setting is now stuck at 46 amps in the app and trying to move it from there fails each time I try. Moving it up or down no longer works. However when I hang my amp meter over L1 it’s shows it’s drawing 73 amps. 2 hours charge from 66 to 85% yielded 55 miles of range. So 27 miles per hour or so and 9kW power was delivered. Not sure if it’s charging using the 46 amps shown on the app or pushing the 73 amps shown on the meter. The ability to derate the charging level worked before the update but is frozen at the 46 amp setting after the update. I’m tired. Sure hope this info helps and hopefully makes someone’s battle with this thing a bit easier. Also make sure the L1 and L2 lugs are tightened to at least 40 oz lbs this can add to the overheating issue too.

 

[RDale]

I’ll try and shed some light on this topic for those that are having issues and what my seemingly endless time on the phone with clueless Ford reps at the CRC yielded. Pretty much nothing. But…after reading and experimenting (plus a call to Siemens) for a week I finally managed to get the FCSP connected and the “68” update installed. If you’ve tried to connect and got multiple failures save yourself some frustration and perform the factory reset and start over or your phone will not see the network again. Push the red button inside the charger for 10 secs until the light turns white then wait 5 mins for the full reboot and the charger to rebroadcast its MAC ID. If you have several networks/routers or a guest network make sure after you connect to the chargers internal network and you return to your phones Wi-Fi setting to finish the setup you are connected to the home network you used to set it up or it will just fail to connect again. Then once you’re finally connected to Wi-Fi shut off the breaker let the unit reboot again then it will update with the new software version at some point (mine was about an hour later). The old one is 2.122.64…and the new one should read 2.122.68:2.127. If you had used the internal dial to drop the amperage down to setting 5 or 6 to avoid the overheating and and amber light of death…return it to setting 7 before you reboot too. This will put you back at 80 amps. Interestingly enough once I got that solved its charging without any further faults but…of course there is a but…the charging derate setting is now stuck at 46 amps in the app and trying to move it from there fails each time I try. Moving it up or down no longer works. However when I hang my amp meter over L1 it’s shows it’s drawing 73 amps. 2 hours charge from 66 to 85% yielded 55 miles of range. So 27 miles per hour or so and 9kW power was delivered. Not sure if it’s charging using the 46 amps shown on the app or pushing the 73 amps shown on the meter. The ability to derate the charging level worked before the update but is frozen at the 46 amp setting after the update. I’m tired. Sure hope this info helps and hopefully makes someone’s battle with this thing a bit easier. Also make sure the L1 and L2 lugs are tightened to at least 40 oz lbs this can add to the overheating issue too.

Thanks for sharing this @LaMigraUSA! Have you tried the charger on a Lightning or other EV?

 

[LaMigraUSA]

Yes, it’s solely for use on my 22 Lightning.

 

[Ed. Lynch]

Twice now in the past 2 weeks my charger went to an amber light. The first time it went back to a blue light after an hour however this time it errored last night while charging and is still showing the dreaded amber light. I have not tried reseting the breaker yet because that 100 amp breaker is a pain to reset so I was wondering if anyone has had the same issues.

Yes see my posted thread