PSA - DO NOT USE LECTRON ADAPTOR w/ Tesla Wall Charger on Rivian

[Martyr]

I have had my R1T for almost six months and have been charging it using my Tesla Wall Charger with a Lectron Adapter. Life has been great until a few weeks ago when I started to get charging errors and the truck wouldn't charge. My Rivian Service Center (Kansas City) have been working on my truck and even sent a technician to my house (45 minutes away) to inspect my charging set-up. Turns out the friction caused by the Lectron adaptor causes too much heat build up and fried my R1T charging port and cable assembly on my R1T! When they plugged in my truck at the SC, it fried their charging cable as a result of the bad port. Rivian is fixing the truck under warranty, but will not fix it again if I continue to use this adaptor. The Service Team has been FANTASTIC and we have been working together to figure this out, they are easily the best service I have had out of any cars I have ever owned.

Now the dilemma - buy a Rivian wall charger (might be quickest option) or sell the R1T and get another Tesla? I also have a Tesla Model Y, so if anyone has a Rivian charger with adapter charging a Tesla, I'd like to know if that works and what kind of charging speeds you get? Making the switch of chargers might work if I can get the Tesla charged effectively, but getting an electrician seems to be the short pole in the tent and there are some issues with wiring two chargers in my house that could make this venture pretty pricey, but not being able to get an electrician is the real issue at this time.

I love my R1T and the SC is awesome here in KC, but my wife and I both drive about 90 miles a day each, so charging is a must to make the EVs usable. I would appreciate anyones experience with using a Rivian wall charger on their Tesla, so we can figure out how to move forward.

I have the Tesla portable charger and have been using it , connected to the Lectron adapter and a 20-foot Lectron extension cable. I have had no issues so far. Perhaps the lower amperage of the portable charger reduces the risk?

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[Knight Rider]

I have had my R1T for almost six months and have been charging it using my Tesla Wall Charger with a Lectron Adapter. Life has been great until a few weeks ago when I started to get charging errors and the truck wouldn't charge. My Rivian Service Center (Kansas City) have been working on my truck and even sent a technician to my house (45 minutes away) to inspect my charging set-up. Turns out the friction caused by the Lectron adaptor causes too much heat build up and fried my R1T charging port and cable assembly on my R1T! When they plugged in my truck at the SC, it fried their charging cable as a result of the bad port. Rivian is fixing the truck under warranty, but will not fix it again if I continue to use this adaptor. The Service Team has been FANTASTIC and we have been working together to figure this out, they are easily the best service I have had out of any cars I have ever owned.

Now the dilemma - buy a Rivian wall charger (might be quickest option) or sell the R1T and get another Tesla? I also have a Tesla Model Y, so if anyone has a Rivian charger with adapter charging a Tesla, I'd like to know if that works and what kind of charging speeds you get? Making the switch of chargers might work if I can get the Tesla charged effectively, but getting an electrician seems to be the short pole in the tent and there are some issues with wiring two chargers in my house that could make this venture pretty pricey, but not being able to get an electrician is the real issue at this time.

I love my R1T and the SC is awesome here in KC, but my wife and I both drive about 90 miles a day each, so charging is a must to make the EVs usable. I would appreciate anyones experience with using a Rivian wall charger on their Tesla, so we can figure out how to move forward.

I have used a TeslaTap Mini on my R1T for 9 months without any problems. Also use it on my Taycan.

 

[valkyrie]

Something is off here. It sounds like either the wrong Lectron adapter was used (only rated to 40 amps rather than 48 amps) or the Tesla wall adapter temperature sensors in the plug end failed (or both). Even with electrical resistance causing heat buildup, that presumably would be between the Tesla plug and the adapter, not the adapter and the charge port. Aside from everyone here having their brand preferences and all of us assuming Tesla charge infra never breaks, how would this failure actually be possible and how could it only be the adapter responsible for said failure? I’ve been using this same setup for months with a Gen 2 Tesla wall charger and the 48amp compact Lectron adapter swapping back and forth between charging the Rivian and my wife’s Model 3 with the adapter removed. Absolutely no issues.

 

[SupaSea]

I have had my R1T for almost six months and have been charging it using my Tesla Wall Charger with a Lectron Adapter. Life has been great until a few weeks ago when I started to get charging errors and the truck wouldn't charge. My Rivian Service Center (Kansas City) have been working on my truck and even sent a technician to my house (45 minutes away) to inspect my charging set-up. Turns out the friction caused by the Lectron adaptor causes too much heat build up and fried my R1T charging port and cable assembly on my R1T! When they plugged in my truck at the SC, it fried their charging cable as a result of the bad port. Rivian is fixing the truck under warranty, but will not fix it again if I continue to use this adaptor. The Service Team has been FANTASTIC and we have been working together to figure this out, they are easily the best service I have had out of any cars I have ever owned.

Now the dilemma - buy a Rivian wall charger (might be quickest option) or sell the R1T and get another Tesla? I also have a Tesla Model Y, so if anyone has a Rivian charger with adapter charging a Tesla, I'd like to know if that works and what kind of charging speeds you get? Making the switch of chargers might work if I can get the Tesla charged effectively, but getting an electrician seems to be the short pole in the tent and there are some issues with wiring two chargers in my house that could make this venture pretty pricey, but not being able to get an electrician is the real issue at this time.

I love my R1T and the SC is awesome here in KC, but my wife and I both drive about 90 miles a day each, so charging is a must to make the EVs usable. I would appreciate anyones experience with using a Rivian wall charger on their Tesla, so we can figure out how to move forward.

I use the ChargePoint home charger to charge my R1t , with absolutely no issues. I have also used it to charge my brother in law's Model Y. The Rivian added about 20 miles of range per hour while the Tesla added 30. The Rivian home charger will word just fine on the Tesla using the adapter that's provided by Tesla.

 

[Stack]

Something is off here. It sounds like either the wrong Lectron adapter was used (only rated to 40 amps rather than 48 amps) or the Tesla wall adapter temperature sensors in the plug end failed (or both). Even with electrical resistance causing heat buildup, that presumably would be between the Tesla plug and the adapter, not the adapter and the charge port. Aside from everyone here having their brand preferences and all of us assuming Tesla charge infra never breaks, how would this failure actually be possible and how could it only be the adapter responsible for said failure? I’ve been using this same setup for months with a Gen 2 Tesla wall charger and the 48amp compact Lectron adapter swapping back and forth between charging the Rivian and my wife’s Model 3 with the adapter removed. Absolutely no issues.

The adaptor is the 48 AMP adapter. The Rivian tech (use to work for Tesla) actually checked out my charger, circuit, adapter, and the truck. The adapter was the issue. It is believed that the continuous swapping between the MY and the R1T may have worn on the connector causing more resistance, which in turn causes the heat build up. This then damaged the truck. The Truck was fixed and covered under warranty, but I can no longer use the Tesla Wall Charger w/adaptor or they won't cover it under warranty if it fails again. I have been trickle charging it with the mobile charger which is a total PITA. Not sure what I'm going to do yet, still researching it and trying to find an electrician.

 

[Fclmd]

I have a Rivian wall charger new in box for sale- $500 plus shipping

 

[SANZC02]

The adaptor is the 48 AMP adapter. The Rivian tech (use to work for Tesla) actually checked out my charger, circuit, adapter, and the truck. The adapter was the issue. It is believed that the continuous swapping between the MY and the R1T may have worn on the connector causing more resistance, which in turn causes the heat build up. This then damaged the truck. The Truck was fixed and covered under warranty, but I can no longer use the Tesla Wall Charger w/adaptor or they won't cover it under warranty if it fails again. I have been trickle charging it with the mobile charger which is a total PITA. Not sure what I'm going to do yet, still researching it and trying to find an electrician.

Check out the emporia 48 amp charger on Amazon. I have it works great and I use the Tesla adapter for the Model S.

 

[valkyrie]

The adaptor is the 48 AMP adapter. The Rivian tech (use to work for Tesla) actually checked out my charger, circuit, adapter, and the truck. The adapter was the issue. It is believed that the continuous swapping between the MY and the R1T may have worn on the connector causing more resistance, which in turn causes the heat build up. This then damaged the truck. The Truck was fixed and covered under warranty, but I can no longer use the Tesla Wall Charger w/adaptor or they won't cover it under warranty if it fails again. I have been trickle charging it with the mobile charger which is a total PITA. Not sure what I'm going to do yet, still researching it and trying to find an electrician.

I’d say load sharing with a second Tesla charger with the CCS plug makes the most sense then. No additional capacity, no need to keep using the damaged/faulty adapter. Did you ever notice the heat buildup?

 

[HeresRonnie]

I read the first few pages but this sounds a lot like my experience with the Lectron adapter except my charging port didn't melt. I switched to Tesla Tap and its been smooth sailing since. I wish I bought the Tesla Tap to start but got allured by the cheap cost of the Lectron.

 

[VSG]

Let's put this into perspective.

A Tesla J1772 wall connector will cost you $550. I don't think anyone questions that this is a reasonable quality charger - no concerns about using this. This Tesla charger INCLUDES a J1772 plug plus 24' of expensive cable, in addition to the power electronics (even more expensive than plain copper), logic circuits, ground fault protection, waterproof housing, etc. etc. The plug end is a relatively minor piece, and a relatively inexpensive part of this charger.

Yet the Tesla Tap, which is just a small piece of plastic and metal roughly equivalent to JUST THE PLUG END of the Tesla wall connector, will cost you $300.

I'm not saying the Tesla Tap is bad or that it doesn't work. (Although it's certainly not problem free - they had to redesign it to fit the Rivian a while back). I'm just saying it's relatively EXPENSIVE for what it does. I could buy an entire portable charger for that amount.

Likewise, Tesla sells an adapter that converts J1772 to the Tesla plug. That is the opposite of what Tesla Tap does, but otherwise the adapters are essentially the same. However the Tesla part costs only $50, which is 1/6 the cost of the Tesla Tap. So again, Tesla Tap is objectively EXPENSIVE.

You cannot conclude that the Lectron is "cheap" by comparison. At $150 the Lectron is ALSO a small piece of plastic and metal roughly equivalent to just the plug end of the Tesla wall connector, so $150 just for this little piece is also a bit excessive. But being less expensive than the Tesla Tap does not make it "cheap".

I have used a Lectron adapter on several occassions to charge from a Tesla destination charger. Even after 12 hours of charging my Lectron adapter does not get hot to the touch. If the adapter heats up, that means there's excessive electrical resistance in the connection, dissipating power through heat. That resistance can be caused by wear on the plug or socket (either end of the adapter, or in the J1772 socket, or in the Tesla plug), foreign matter in the connector, or even out-of-spec design somewhere (too much clearance in the connectors, causing a loose fit/poor contact). I'm not going to speculate on the OP's problem, except to say that MY Lectron adapter does not heat up, does NOT show any evidence of arcing (discoloration of the contacts and/or partial melting of the plastic) and I have no qualms using it to charge my Rivian.

I would also not rule out that the Tesla charger being used by the OP (which was not designed with a J1772 plug) doesn't implement the J1772 standard fully. It was designed for the proprietary Tesla charging plug/socket, so it is designed/tested in a closed ecosystem of Tesla chargers and vehicles. It was not designed to be specifically compliant with J1772, so it may not be up to spec on the the J1772 signaling and may be misbehaving in the situation where a non-Tesla is using J1772 signaling in a different way than all the Tesla vehicles do.

 

[Voronbrg]

https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/blog_attachments/ms_hpwc_installation_guide.pdf
curious if OP is using the hpwc 100amps 18kw

 

[valkyrie]

I mean, this is pretty much exactly how the Tesla magic docks work and Rivian is obviously encouraging that use by adding them to the charging network map overlay. And if the entire US goes to NACS and the trucks still have CCS connectors, adapters are gonna be used all kinds of places.

 

[HeyEllwood]

Okay. So. I have my Gen 3 Tesla Wall charger for my Model Y.

What adapter should I buy that will safely charge my R1S? It seems that the Lectron may fry it but isn’t 100% confirmed? Tesla Mini adapter? But wouldn’t that be the same thing and cause a potential issue as well?

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