Charging at a VRBO - Fail!

[KBabione]

So - this weekend we're at a VRBO on Long Beach Island (LBI), NJ. There aren't any L3 chargers on the island, so I emailed the owner and asked if I could plug in and charge my EV at the house - they said "Sure - go ahead." I made sure I had my complete "VRBO Kit" (50' 14-50 extension cord and adapters) and off we went. I found the dryer and it was only about 25' from where I parked (with a convenient window) so I thought I was good to go. I looked behind the dryer and couldn't see where it was plugged in so I grabbed my trusty Rivian flashlight and discovered that it's a gas dryer!!! On to Plan B...

There's only one 120V outlet outside that I could find and it's happily within 10 feet of my charging port. Perfect! I won't (so I thought) even have to use my 50' 12-3 extension cord. I go to plug in the Rivian Portable Charger and realized that the outlets are "upside down" and the cover won't allow me to plug in directly:

Why do electricians do this? So - I had to plug in my 50' extension cord to be able to plug in the Rivian Portable Charger to add about 1 mile an hour to the battery. It will give me enough to get home with a comfortable buffer, but I'll have to leave it plugged in all weekend.

The other charging fail I had was on the way here at a Tesla SC station at a Wawa just off the NJ Turnpike. The girls wanted a bathroom break and I saw a 12-unit Tesla charging station when we pulled in so I figured I'd add what I could in 15-20 minutes and then I wouldn't even have to charge at the VRBO. I pulled up to a station and was about to plug in (I have the new A2Z Typhoon Adapter) when my wife told me that she couldn't locate this Wawa on the Tesla app. I grabbed my phone and pulled up PlugShare and saw the dreaded "Tesla Only" indicator at my location! I hadn't planned on charging en route so it wasn't a big deal. I was just trying to take advantage of an unplanned stop.

First world problems I know - I'm not complaining at all. Just trying to do a bit of a PSA to let people know to confirm that the dryer at their destination is electric and not gas! I hope everyone has a great Labor Day Holiday Weekend!

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[Zoidz]

Thanks for posting the observations. The gas dryer issue is a good one to keep in mind, I never considered that.

Regarding the "upside down" outlet, there is no official standard as to what is top. NEC allows any orientation. Some parts of the US have regional practices handed down so you will see this in clusters. I remember seeing this everywhere I went on a business trip somewhere, don't recall specifically where. In some localities, they put switched outlets ground up, non-switch outlets ground down. Not such a bad idea for convenience. Maybe that's why they did it?

Over the years I have heard what I consider "old wives tales" claiming a particular orientation as the true "fact" and these people get emotional about their belief:

Ground on bottom - If the building gets flooded, the ground get wet first and when the water rises to the hot, the hot will ground out and be safer, as opposed to energizing the water. There's lots of fallacies to this claim. lol.

Ground on top - If a metal object, like a paper clip, falls in the gap between the outlet and the plug, it will not short out the hot and neutal.

IMO these are made up reasons to justify a particular orientation.

 

[DRJ564]

Screwdriver? Flip it.

 

[Chewy734]

Ground on bottom - If the building gets flooded, the ground get wet first and when the water rises to the hot, the hot will ground out and be safer, as opposed to energizing the water. There's lots of fallacies to this claim. lol.

Ground on top - If a metal object, like a paper clip, falls in the gap between the outlet and the plug, it will not short out the hot and neutal.

IMO these are made up reasons to justify a particular orientation.

Interesting… now I’m curious which has the higher probability.

 

[KBabione]

I've always felt that it was a particular electrician's preference to determine which way to orient an outlet, but I've never seen a 90-degree plug (like we have on the Rivian Portable Charger) that was designed with the ground at the top. If for no other reason please (any electricians that are reading this) put your plugs in with the ground at the bottom!

@DRJ564 - I did seriously consider grabbing a screwdriver from my kit and flipping it around, but it's not that much of a hassle.

One last question to anyone who knows ( @Zoidz ?)...I'm plugging into a 15A circuit with the Rivian Portable Charger. I'm setting the amperage in the R1S to 12A: Do I need to or can I leave it at 48A and let it realize that I don't have that kind of draw available? Nothing in the Owner's Manual says that you need to do anything with the amperage in the vehicle, but I'm used to changing it when I plug into a dryer outlet so it's not a big deal.

 

[Zoidz]

I've always felt that it was a particular electrician's preference to determine which way to orient an outlet, but I've never seen a 90-degree plug (like we have on the Rivian Portable Charger) that was designed with the ground at the top. If for no other reason please (any electricians that are reading this) put your plugs in with the ground at the bottom!

@DRJ564 - I did seriously consider grabbing a screwdriver from my kit and flipping it around, but it's not that much of a hassle.

One last question to anyone who knows ( @Zoidz ?)...I'm plugging into a 15A circuit with the Rivian Portable Charger. I'm setting the amperage in the R1S to 12A: Do I need to or can I leave it at 48A and let it realize that I don't have that kind of draw available? Nothing in the Owner's Manual says that you need to do anything with the amperage in the vehicle, but I'm used to changing it when I plug into a dryer outlet so it's not a big deal.

You don't need to set it in the vehicle. The mobile charger "self limits" to 12 Amps, see below.

One solution is to use a short extension adapter...

 

[KBabione]

You don't need to set it in the vehicle. The mobile charger "self limits" to 12 Amps, see below.

Thanks for the confirmation. I'm really glad that's the case - my wife took the R1S out last night and just plugged it back in when she returned without thinking it would be any different than at home. Perhaps it's best that it's a gas dryer here or we could have had problems last night pulling 32A on a 30A circuit all night! It's a good reminder to me to explain the "rules" to her when we're charging using the portable charger.

 

[Cycliste]

You orient sockets that way so the electricity doesn’t leak out. You know, like horseshoes.

 

[Tlohrenz]

I found an electric dryer at my VRBO, but the dryer was bolted in, so couldn't reach the outlet. Resorted to using the 20amp garage outlet using my Tesla mobile charger with the 20amp adapter and Tesla to j1772 adapter. I find my Tesla mobile connector to be far more useful since it has about 6 or 7 different adapters compared to Rivian 2. My house garage came with a 30amp RV outlet which Rivian doesn't support, but Tesla mobile Connector does. I don't know why Rivian only supports 15 or 50 amps.

Jackson Hole, WY needs to install some DCFC. The Tesla charger is the 150kwh so can only support Tesla. Some we have to take our MY vs our R1T.

 

[iansriv]

Similar story where I called the hotel ahead of time and they said, "yes, we have a charging station." Got there and it was out of order. Technically speaking they were correct.

 

[KBabione]

I spent a weekend in a PA Park Lodge (Copper Kettle Lodge in Laurel Hill State Park) and I knew it had a washer & dryer. It was an electric dryer, but instead of a plug they ran conduit from the dryer through the wall to the locked closet that housed the panel! Again - it's best not to absolutely rely on being able to access anything more than a 120 outlet!

 

[SwampNut]

Screwdriver? Flip it.

Don’t need to flip it. Once you remove the cover, problem solved.

 

[Riviaenz]

Thanks for posting the observations. The gas dryer issue is a good one to keep in mind, I never considered that.

Regarding the "upside down" outlet, there is no official standard as to what is top. NEC allows any orientation. Some parts of the US have regional practices handed down so you will see this in clusters. I remember seeing this everywhere I went on a business trip somewhere, don't recall specifically where. In some localities, they put switched outlets ground up, non-switch outlets ground down. Not such a bad idea for convenience. Maybe that's why they did it?

Over the years I have heard what I consider "old wives tales" claiming a particular orientation as the true "fact" and these people get emotional about their belief:

Ground on bottom - If the building gets flooded, the ground get wet first and when the water rises to the hot, the hot will ground out and be safer, as opposed to energizing the water. There's lots of fallacies to this claim. lol.

Ground on top - If a metal object, like a paper clip, falls in the gap between the outlet and the plug, it will not short out the hot and neutal.

IMO these are made up reasons to justify a particular orientation.

And at hospitals you’ll find ground up is the standard. It has to do with safety of staff who are regularly plugging in and unplugging medical devices in patient areas.

 

[KBabione]

And at hospitals you’ll find ground up is the standard. It has to do with safety of staff who are regularly plugging in and unplugging medical devices in patient areas.

That makes total sense, but not in a house! With it "upside down" you run the risk of someone using it permanently and eventually the cord pulling on it may pull it out of the socket...
Why risk it? If the situation above were flipped, the cord would be acting as a bit of a lever with gravity providing the force away from the wall - the exact opposite of what the manufacturer intended with this plug design, rightt?

 

[Proxy]

I’ve seen houses where only the switched outlets were installed upside down.

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