Second Charger at vacation house

[ohseedee]

What do you get when you're paired with a charger?

Other than giving you the volts and amps, absolutely nothing.

@M1R1v3N I’m confused, why are you trying so hard to pair your charger with your phone? Are you saying the charger wont charge the car also? If the charger wont charge the car, why do you even care if it pairs with your phone?

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[HighVoltOverland]

Damn users.

 

[VSG]

All of the issues raised seem to be unrelated to each other. I don't really understand what problem the OP is trying to solve here, but I know bringing up a half dozen unrelated things doesn't help. It initially sounded like this was a question about Bluetooth pairing with the charger, but now it seems like it's about the charger not working at all? It's hard to help when the target is constantly moving.

Another example of there lack of UI clarity is that my entire problem was made worse by the fact that the 110v charger, which I brought with me just in-case, did not seem to work up here. Imagine how concerning that was! First guess in the light of two failures was that it was the car charging circuit. Discovered quite by accident that it doesn't operate with a GFI outlet but the only indication is that it shows a white light saying it isn't working. Very helpful when you're 50 miles from help.

I don't know where you get this information, but it's wrong. And I don't know what this has to do with the UI.

The Rivian Portable Charger works just fine on a circuit with a GFCI. I use it this way all the time, for more than a year now, in several different houses, and in at least two dozen campgrounds. In fact, I believe a GFCI breaker is required by the National Electric Code for outlets in a garage. It is well known that an EVSE containing an internal GFCI (like the Rivian WALL Charger) can have issues if it is on a circuit that has a GFCI breaker, but that's not the case with the Portable charger. And the hardwired WALL charger should not be on a GFCI protected circuit, again by code. Either you or the customer service representative is confused and/or conflating facts about the WALL Charger with facts about the Portable charger.

Likewise, the white light on the Portable Charger just means it is plugged in and has power. It will always have the white light on when it is plugged in and has power and is not plugged into the vehicle. When you plug into the vehicle, charging should start and the light will turn green. If there's a charger fault, the light will be red.

The lights are described in the manual. When you first had a problem, a few minutes looking at the manual should have been your first step. You haven't said anything that would indicate the Portable Charger is malfunctioning. What happened when you plugged it into the vehicle? Even a Level 1 charge (120V) will give you about 2 miles of range per hour of charging. And if you have a NEMA 14-50 outlet handy you can about 6 times that with the portable charger.

Have you ever charged your vehicle using the Portable Charger, before making this trip? Have you ever Level 2 charged your vehicle, before making this trip? How did you verify your Rivian Wall Charger was working properly after it was installed? I assume you hired an electrician and didn't do the work yourself?

If the issue you're trying to solve is you can't charge your Rivian, then stick to that issue and don't take these detours into Bluetooth etc. That only makes it harder to fix. If your wall charger doesn't work at all, and never has worked, the first thing I would do is get the electrician back out to check the work. I personally verified that my Wall Charger worked with my Rivian while my electrician was still in my garage.

If you can't get the WALL Charger to work, what are the symptoms? Are there any lights? Did you read the installation guide to see what the troubleshooting steps are and what lights you should be seeing? Did you open up the front panel and check the wire that others mentioned? That's a frequently missed step when installing the WALL Charger and that would prevent it from working. That's also a trivial fix.

As others have said, you can have more than one Rivian WALL Charger connected to your Rivian account. There are lots of posts in this forum that confirm that, and lots of images showing a phone with two connected Rivian chargers. But you CAN'T have one Rivian WALL Charger connected to TWO Rivian accounts. (That's also in the manual.) Regardless, paring your phone with Bluetooth is not stopping you from charging, so what is?

 

[ohseedee]

Meanwhile I stand by my comment regarding some) of their s/w designers. For example the "Settings" app disappeared and took me 15 minutes of dicking around to get it to reappear. Still no idea what I did to accomplish this.

 

[Cycliste]

Sounds like this software problem might lie between the ears.

Another possibility is a low level error between the seat and keyboard.

 

[M1R1v3N]

Thanks just ordered a 50 ft extension+converter

 

[R.Miller]

I need a charger at my cabin; but it will not have internet access. Does anyone know if this be an issue?

 

[carsly]

I need a charger at my cabin; but it will not have internet access. Does anyone know if this be an issue?

Just put in a NEMA 14-50 line, many mobile chargers, and basic wall chargers, don't need/use Internet. At least not for some of the other cars I've owned (Polestar 2, Tesla X/S).

 

[R.Miller]

Just put in a NEMA 14-50 line, many mobile chargers, and basic wall chargers, don't need/use Internet. At least not for some of the other cars I've owned (Polestar 2, Tesla X/S).

I'll do that--thanks.

 

[R.I.P.]

I need a charger at my cabin; but it will not have internet access. Does anyone know if this be an issue?

Zero issues.

 

[M1R1v3N]

Thanks to Guy for his lengthy fault-finding email, and to the rest of you for suggestions, it was all very useful and exceeded anything from Rivian support. By the way, my mobil charger definitely did NOT work with the GFI but worked great when connected to an indoor outlet. Others report different experience but for me with a brand new GFI, that was definitely the case..
Just to wrap up my issue with the wall charger- this was my final communication with their support:
" I disconnected the unit and brought it back here. On the 160 mile drive it occurred to me that perhaps the wire connector to the front panel was not seated correctly. On the forum subsequent to my drama, I have seen many responses indicating that a loose connector to the front panel is the most common issue with an installation. I confirmed that diagnosis by replacing the unit here in DC with the one from WV. I talked to 3 or 4 of you support guys and not one asked me to check that! Being kind to you all, maybe it got lost in the confusing sequence of dropped calls, and you each assumed the other had asked that? So three lessons for you:
1- Always tell the customer to turn off bluetooth before going near the vehicle.
2- Always confirm that the panel connector is properly seated
And as a bonus perhaps
3- Advise everyone purchasing a charger that the second unit will not connect to WiFi but that is not necessary for charging.

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