ROLEC caravan hook up issues

[kerching]

Am I losing the plot or was there a thread on here about these being moody?
Son is away in his caravan and the lights went out and the smell of "money" came through the window. He went outside to investigate and.......
Pic taken after he had blasted it with his own powder extinguisher ( site ones were all water!!!!!!!) and trumpton had attended

 

[johnb2713]

Rolec have a bad rep in car chargers too

 

[Murdoch]

Rolex stuff is a bit Lap really

 

[kerching]

Rolec have a bad rep in car chargers too

Not too good with caravan hook ups

 

[johnb2713]

Not too good with caravan hook ups

Seemingly not, I did come across more than one burned / faulty unit when I was caravanning.

 

[mort2376]

Loose connection, probably never been opened and checked for years.

Lucky escape that he was there at the time. It could have spread quickly. But I do like the built in sprinkler system !!!!!!

 

[kerching]

If he had parked any close I dread to think of the outcome
As it was the van was only 2' from the hook up and luckily the awning ( with sides) was on the opposite side

 

[Phoenix]

I've got two browned looking rolec C40 MCBs on a shelf at work, they would have only been carrying 32A, but tripped and when ovening up the chargepoint to reset (a complete game in itself - thanks rolec) the tripped MCB was clearly overheated from inside, there is no head damage on the terminals but the side of the case is browned. A few months later the same happened with the MCB for the other side.

I don't know what make they are having re branded, but clearly not upto much

 

[binky]

I don't know what make they are having re branded, but clearly not upto much

I fitted 2 charge pillars a few years ago, if I remember correctly it was Chint gear inside.

 

[binky]

Rolec have a bad rep in car chargers too

I think it's fair to say they were early movers in the car charging market, and hence an awful lot have been fitted. So time and quantity would mean you would see more issues.

My local branch if Denmans stopped supplying Rolec, not because of technical issues, but poor supply and sales support.

 

[johnb2713]

I think it's fair to say they were early movers in the car charging market, and hence an awful lot have been fitted. So time and quantity would mean you would see more issues.

Very true but the type of issues reflect badly on quality and workmanship. MYEnergi ZAPPI is in it's version 2 but I've never heard of an issue with any of them like Rolec. The Rolec units usually suffer with connections / relays / mcb's burning up through bad connections / loose connections / poor quality.

My local branch if Denmans stopped supplying Rolec, not because of technical issues, but poor supply and sales support.

Does that not speak for itself?

 

[Andy™]

My local branch if Denmans stopped supplying Rolec, not because of technical issues, but poor supply and sales support.

i don't fit them either. i wouldnt say poor customer support. more like no customer support

also got a customer that had some of their commercial type chargers fitted a few years ago. inside the building used for charging their vehicles, plug & charge. nothing special. need to pay an annual fee to use them. don't pay and they remotely switch them off. rolec not interested in setting them to plug & charge, just subscription only no matter their use (doesn't apply to their stand alone home charger though, they are / were plug & charge)

 

[michael8554]

The Rolec brand RCBO on Rolec EVSE car chargers often go into meltdown, despite revisions of design over the years.

Garo brand replacements have proved to be reliable.

 

[UNG]

Is the failure electrical equipment these days due to poor or rapid build quality with today's JIT culture, poor installation practice, a lack of periodic maintenance or some or all of the factors listed
Most if not all new consumer units have a note with them telling the installer to check the integrity of the terminations within the unit, how many bother or was that the real reason plastic consumer units had a higher failure rate in London as no one checked the factory made connections
Those who think a torque screwdriver is the be all and end all of making a good termination do they use a torque it once option or do they revisit the terminations after 10 - 15 minutes and retorque so the effects of copper and terminal creep are mitigated

Back in the days of my apprenticeship we had a full easter weekend in a small factory checking the terminations of the switchgear and distribution equipment this was done every 2 years and it was surprising how much was needed to retighten some of the terminations after the previous PPM 2 years prior, ok some only took a fraction of a turn but others needed ½ to ¾ of a turn to bring them back to spec

So is it the actual brand that has a problem or do we as electricians and to some extent the end user contribute to the problem with poor installation practice and the customer for not wanting to pay for periodic checks or ongoing maintenance and by maintenance I mean a full check and not a limited EICR inspection.
From what I have seen on some forums some opinions seem to dismiss the EV point as not being part of an EICR, is this because they don't have / won't buy the appropriate test adaptors to do a complete installation inspection is it fair gain to add a limitation to exclude it from an EICR as more and more installations have them installed. When you look at an EV chargepoint it is the most sustained significant load on a domestic installation so does this add to the problem of equipment design

 

[Andy™]

Most if not all new consumer units have a note with them telling the installer to check the integrity of the terminations within the unit, how many bother or was that the real reason plastic consumer units had a higher failure rate in London as no one checked the factory made connections

i do check manufacturers connections, however at the same time, why should i? if i buy something i expect it to be complete and working, i don't expect to buy something then have to go over all the fixings to make sure the manufacturer has done their job correctly. really its just passing on the blame from manufacturer to installer for their failures

 

[binky]

I would say it's more to do with cheap components, and high loads. Most domestic circuits rarely see full loading, so cheap components don't fail so regularly. Whereas EV chargers are pulling high loads for kong periods of time, ergo, get hot and suffer plastic flow far more. The Rolec chargers I installed recommend annual testing and check of the terminations, I suspect few people do that.

As for torque screwdrivers, my hand is calibrated to nipped up, tight and firkin tight . It is interesting when fitting a board how after only half an hour you can nip up all the terminals, which I usually do, likewise when testing I run through the board .