[chrisnsteffie]

Just before I fire off an email to Ohme support, I was hoping that someone might have run in to this problem before and perhaps I can sort this out quicker than waiting for Ohme to get back to me.

I have a MG ZS EV (it had the update for scheduled charging done months ago, and was charging perfectly until the beginning of August), and it won't charge with my Ohme wall charger. When I instruct the charger to charge my car, it has a red light, which means it is waiting for the car to start charging. After a couple of minutes, it will change to a green flashing light, which means that it is connected to the car and not charging. It was previously working on the schedule overnight charge, but will fail every time.

I have tried the following:

• Wiping data and reinstalling the app - to rule out any problems that the app may be having.
• Installing the app on another phone - as above.
• Turning the charger off in my consumer unit, waiting an entire day, turning it back on - sometimes electronics need a restart (couldn't find another way to reset the unit).
• Charging the car with the 3-pin - to confirm that it is not something wrong with the car.
• Waiting for the scheduled charging to take place - it always reports a failure.
• Starting a manual "max charge" - it displays the lights as detailed above.

I'm hoping that there is some trick that I have missed! Any suggestions would be great, it took 6 months to get Octopus to put me onto their cheap overnight tariff, so i'd love to be able to use it!

 

[RichardH]

I have a similar issue with ours. Our EV still hasn't arrived, so I got my sister's Zoe round to try it out, exactly the same issue where it flashes green with no power delivered, the car said to check the charger. I emailed Ohme and they said exactly what you tried: to cycle the power at your consumer unit for 10-15. Everything on the charger looked fine (plenty of mobile signal, up/down arrows showing 3/4G data, and the plus symbol. We'll have to try again when we get our temporary Ioniq on Wednesday, but they were suggesting it could be insufficient earthing.

 

[chrisnsteffie]

Thanks for the reply.
The earthing isn't something that I had considered - we recently had a smart meter installed at about the same time that I noticed the charger not working... I doubt Octopus (smart meter installer) will front the cost of making it work if that is the problem.

That being said, our other charger (Rolec dumb charger) works fine.

 

[dk6780]

Thanks for the reply.
The earthing isn't something that I had considered - we recently had a smart meter installed at about the same time that I noticed the charger not working... I doubt Octopus (smart meter installer) will front the cost of making it work if that is the problem.

That being said, our other charger (Rolec dumb charger) works fine.

Was this installed with an OLEV grant? If so the installer has to provide a three year guarantee and is liable to fix any issues either with the unit of the wiring (e.g. the Earthing).

 

[chrisnsteffie]

Yes, it was installed with the OLEV grant.
I suppose I should contact them the installer as well - usually, I go direct to the manufacturer when things go wrong, as it has always given me better results, but in this case perhaps not!

 

[dk6780]

If your installer is local then they can quickly turn out (probably not late on a Bank Holiday!) and test the Earth impedance, and hence check whether it is that rather than the unit itself.

I meant to comment earlier that your dumb Rolec is likely to be less sensitive to Earthing issues, and may be wired differently as I suspect that it would have been done under different regulations.

 

[chrisnsteffie]

Thanks for the reply.
Unfortunately, they are not local to me. I used SmartHomeCharge, and they are some 100 miles away from me! It will most likely mean me having a day unpaid.
It makes sense that the Rolec wouldn't be as sensitive. It's old now, been installed since my LEAF back in 2015. Time sure flies!
I've just reinstated my WiFi plug and 3 pin cable combo so that I can still manage to charge off peak, so I'm at least still able to charge.

 

[andyswarbs]

Yes, it was installed with the OLEV grant.
I suppose I should contact them the installer as well - usually, I go direct to the manufacturer when things go wrong, as it has always given me better results, but in this case perhaps not!

That's the way to go, imo.

 

[EVJK]

I'm sure when they installed mine they had a reading of the earth on the paperwork so checking that is part of the installation

 

[dk6780]

True, but it's not unusual for it to change.

Ultimately it's your choice, a local Sparky could check the Earthing but if it's a fault with the unit then the original installer is liable. Perhaps they'll pay for a local Sparky to turn out on their behalf?

 

[chrisnsteffie]

I've just checked the paperwork, and it does indeed have readings on it.

I'm probably just going to phone the installer tomorrow when they are back open and say that it stopped working and leave it at that!

 

[starquake]

If you have an Earth rod install you could also try watering the earth rods. .... helps with dodgy earths if they have dried up. Literally drench them. Wait 60 mins cycle power to the Ohme. See if it helps.

 

[chrisnsteffie]

I don't have an earth rod in my installation. That's really interesting information though! I guess it helps to increase the conductivity of the rod in the ground?

 

[starquake]

Yeah, thats exactly the reason it works Earth rods known for drying up and losing connectivity.

 

[chrisnsteffie]

So, an update. The installer and I had a video call, and he said that everything looks fine. He put me in contact with Ohme, they had me redo all of the settings in the app (they can see all of your settings, charging history, if the car is plugged in or not, etc...) but it still didn't work. He tried a reset at his end, but still no luck. They are going to have the software team look at it and then do more testing once my car is back from having the latest software update (not the timed charging one, it already had that).
My brother has a Zoe, and the Ohme couldn't charge that. My loan car is a Corsa E and the Ohme couldn't charge that either. The Corsa E is quite nice actually, didn't think I would like it, but it's fine - I feel it's expensive for what it is though.

The customer service has been great so far. My only wish is that they just replaced the unit for a working one, and then did the trouble shooting at their end in their own time so that I could be back up and running sooner.

 

[nicky jones]

I had a problem like this and the fault was power line adapter that I had installed to a plug socket for the Tesla powerwall 2.
So if you have any power line/ethernet adapters plugged in. That could cause a problem.