Blink just replaced my cable

While I haven't had any trouble, I got an email this morning from a tech with Blink. He said they wanted to service my unit, so I gave them a call and he asked if he could come out today, that they wanted to switch out my cable/handle because of the RAV4.

He just left and I have a new cable set which looks like the old one and also has a REMA handle, but he said it was a different model that's been tested with the RAV and they are in the process of contacting all the RAV owners who have Blinks and replacing theirs, too. I just plugged it into my Volt, and the new handle is definitely looser than the old one, so it disconnects if bumped. Not crazy about that aspect, but I'll measure temps tonight and see if there's a difference. I think the warmest I measured prior was around 30 degrees above ambient.

FYI, the tech said not to use Blinks in the wild for the moment, which probably doesn't apply to most of you, but is a problem in PHX because all of them, except two, are Blinks.

Why would they service Blinks for Rav4 that are not part of EV Project?

Did he confide in you that Blink is painfully aware of all the compliants in general that have been directed at Toyota in recent months due to L2 EVSE scheduled charging failures?

TonyWilliams said:

Why would they service Blinks for Rav4 that are not part of EV Project?

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I'm still part of the EV project because of my Volt, but I think what you are asking is why would they do something since the RAV4 is not covered under the project. I'm guessing it's to avoid more bad publicity, and perhaps because having another EV regularly using one of their chargers gives them more data, but mostly the former. He said they've been doing extensive testing the past few weeks with a RAV.

Dsinned said:

Did he confide in you that Blink is painfully aware of all the compliants in general that have been directed at Toyota in recent months due to L2 EVSE scheduled charging failures?

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He was not familiar with the charge timing issue, so I got him up to speed.

Well, this is frustrating. The new nozzle isn't working with the RAV. Works fine with the Volt, but no reaction when plugged into the RAV. Nothing, nada. I have a call in to get them back.

I think they need to dump REMA and find a better nozzle and save themselves a lot of future headaches.

UPDATE:

Another cordset installed today. I'll give them this, they've been responsive. Second one works fine, but I just measure temps after about 45 minutes of charging and I'm 40 degrees above ambient, whereas the original nozzle never read more than 30 degrees above. I think the crimp on my original nozzle must have been fine.

Yesterday I was seeing 40 degrees above, today I'm seeing up to 60 degrees above ambient. I unplugged before it got any hotter. I'm calling tomorrow to ask that they replace the REMA cord/nozzle with the Leviton set and see if that clears up the problem.

Had the third new cordset installed today, and this one appears to be on par with the original one they replaced--much cooler. I showed the service guy, who is great BTW, the photos from Ingineer of the Yazaki nozzle and the REMA, the ones he posted on MNL. I also showed him the $133 30A cordset from Leviton and asked if they might switch my cord for that one, so I'll see what happens. He said he'd talk to the engineers here in town and see what they say. I think it's worth $133 for them to see if it makes a difference, and the tech was really surprised by how cheap the retail Leviton cordset was.

I called Blink to let them know I got a RAV4 EV, they are coming out Friday, to set the maximum current on my Blink to 16 amps. :shock: Thanks for nothing Blink.

pchilds said:

I called Blink to let them know I got a RAV4 EV, they are coming out Friday, to set the maximum current on my Blink to 16 amps. :shock: Thanks for nothing Blink.

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Um, excuse me, but WTF? What was the original charge current on your Blink unit? Cutting the allowable current in half (or more) is not an acceptable solution to their crappy J connector problem.

It was turned down from 30 amps. I intended to catch the password when entered, but I hit traffic and he was early. It is a six digit password starting and ending with 9, that is only 10000 combinations to try. :twisted: He also was that it is Toyota's fault and Toyota is working on a fix. :shock:

It sounds like everything was fine before Blink started messing with it! Be sure to keep all records of any changes they've made in case of any damages to your RAV or Volt.

pchilds said:

I called Blink to let them know I got a RAV4 EV, they are coming out Friday, to set the maximum current on my Blink to 16 amps. :shock: Thanks for nothing Blink.

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That is completely unacceptable. When my RAV4 arrives, I will not be allowing blink into my garage if that is their plan. Thanks for the heads up. But... I will be keeping a close eye on the handle. I don't need my own "gory pictures" of fried contacts. Long term I look forward to the 9.6 Kw Leviton.
Update... I guess the Clipper Creek 60 is now my front runner.

Blink came out and replaced the J1772 cable and set the amps back to 30. The new cable looks the same as the old one. I will be watching it closely when I charge the RAV4.

pchilds said:

Blink came out and replaced the J1772 cable and set the amps back to 30. The new cable looks the same as the old one. I will be watching it closely when I charge the RAV4.

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Gee, that only took 3 1/2 months. Great job Blink!

No excess heat from the J1772 connector. The 10 awg cable gets nice and warm, as does the 40 amp contractor, I added, to stop the Blink from sucking up 25 watts 24/7. A timer powers up the Blink for 30 minutes a day, so it can phone home, I hit the manual override when I need to charge.