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[quixotic]

luckily, my wife pestered me about a weird smell in the garage.  Any thoughts on what might be the cause?  It is the 15 amp cord supplied by Zero, which has been working just fine for the last 18 months or so.  The 110 voltage in the garage has never caused a problem.  Normally, the cord gets a bit warm, but never this.  The plug's dust cover on the bike is always used, and the garage is not especially dusty.  Should I be cleaning the female end of the cord with a pipe cleaner and rubbing alcohol occasionally? 

I've ordered another 15 amp cord from amazon (couldn't find a 12 amp one anywhere), but now I'm really nervous about plugging the bike in.

[mrwilsn]

luckily, my wife pestered me about a weird smell in the garage.  Any thoughts on what might be the cause?  It is the 15 amp cord supplied by Zero, which has been working just fine for the last 18 months or so.  The 110 voltage in the garage has never caused a problem.  Normally, the cord gets a bit warm, but never this.  The plug's dust cover on the bike is always used, and the garage is not especially dusty.  Should I be cleaning the female end of the cord with a pipe cleaner and rubbing alcohol occasionally? 

I've ordered another 15 amp cord from amazon (couldn't find a 12 amp one anywhere), but now I'm really nervous about plugging the bike in.

Don't unplug from the bike first.... especially while charging. You must unplug from the wall first and then unplug from the bike. Unplugging from the bike first causes a spark and over time will melt the plug and cause some residue to be left on the charge port pins. That increases resistance which then makes the problem worse.

At this point you cannot just replace the cord because the pins are covered in residue. A new cord will look like your current cord in no time unless you clean the pins on the bikes charge port first.

I did the same thing on my 2014 Zero S for over a year and had the same problem. I had to use a Dremel to clean the pins and then replaced the cord and everything was fine. Now I ALWAYS unplug from the wall first even if charging is stopped.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[DPsSRnSD]

How does the socket on the bike look? When you get the new cord, you can plug it in and immediately check the charging current with the app. It shouldn't get too hot in the few minutes it will take to make sure it's charging correctly. Be sure to plug in at the bike first and then at the wall. Let the bike fully charge before unplugging, These practices prevent arcing at the bike socket and at the wall, respectively.

[Shadow]

Adding my experiences that heat from the power cord transfers very well into the socket connection, and this is only more intense if the connection is dirty or less than ideal. Those plastics on the connector ends are not rated for such heat.

It's a widely known problem. Be careful. I lobbed on dielectric grease to clean electrical connectors between a right-angle C13 cord semi-permanently fixed to the receptacle on my Zero DSR and it still melted to crap.

As for where to find replacements, I'll keep buying the "3ft 14AWG Right Angle Power Cord #7683" from Monoprice when mine melts, which it is want to do from time to time.

[Erasmo]

Also if you happen to have 220V in your garage use that to reduce the amperage.

[Justin Andrews]

I use a switched wall socket.

My procedure is as follows : starting charge
Ensure socket is switched off
Plug in cord to bike
Turn on the wall socket

Ending charge.
Switch off socket
Unplug cord.

As such I have never had a spark event at the bike, OR the wall socket, and I've completed years of charging without incident.
It also helps that UK domestic power is 240v as well.

[Erasmo]

Switched sockets, so sad that they never took off outside the UK... And of course you lot have the best plug design!

[hubert]

Yes, the UK plugs are robust.... and bulky!

[quixotic]

Wow!  thanks for the excellent info, everyone.  From now on, I'll certainly plug and unplug from the wall socket last/first.  And I'll have a closer look at the male pins on the bike to do a cleaning.

[DonTom]

Wow!  thanks for the excellent info, everyone.  From now on, I'll certainly plug and unplug from the wall socket last/first.  And I'll have a closer look at the male pins on the bike to do a cleaning.

Or you can wait until you're 100% charged and the current drops  to almost nothing.  But right at 100% indicated, you're not quite at 100%. It has to be after the contactor  opens. One way you can tell the contactor is open (if you're not there to  hear it) is if you have the bike at 100% and you have no BlueTooth communications with the bike when it's still plugged in. If Bike cannot be found, it proves contactor  is open and then it doesn't matter how you unplug the bike.

The stopping of the charging light flashing is NOT an indicator that the contactor is open.

Or just leave the bike plugged in for 15 minutes or longer after you reach 100% SOC.  That's what I usually do.  Cord should feel cool by then.  Then unplug anyway you wish.

-Don-  Reno, NV

[quixotic]

If I used a 6 foot, 14 AWG cord attached to a 10 foot, 14 AWG cord (the latter plugged into the wall), would I be fairly safe if I unplugged first from between the two cords, instead of at the wall socket? (the latter being slightly more difficult to access).  Related to that, is it the distance from the bike that determines the amount of spark that results from unplugging? 

[mrwilsn]

Yes you can disconnect the two instead of at the wall. It's not about distance to the bike or wall.  For convenience, I used to use a 25ft extension cord and plugged in a very short 1ft c13 to 5-15 cable. I would disconnect the short 1ft cable from extension cord then unplug from bike. Now I have an outlet right next to where I park my bike so I just unplug from wall then bike.

You will still get arcing when you unplug from the wall first if the bike is charging when you unplug. The issue is the c13 end of the plug is being pulled out of a confined space that is already warm from charging. Add the arcing and that plug just melts and then works it's way onto the pins in the charge port and as it builds up increases resistance which makes things get even hotter. It can take a while for it build up but eventually the result is what happened to your plug.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[DonTom]

If I used a 6 foot, 14 AWG cord attached to a 10 foot, 14 AWG cord (the latter plugged into the wall), would I be fairly safe if I unplugged first from between the two cords, instead of at the wall socket? (the latter being slightly more difficult to access).  Related to that, is it the distance from the bike that determines the amount of spark that results from unplugging?

If anything, a shorter, thicker and better AC cord would cause the biggest spark when you disconnect because then the current would be higher, because the resitance is lower, making the voltage  higher  under load. IOW, the better the cord, the more of a spark. So it's  the better cord will have the largest spark when you disconnect under load.  But that doesn't mean use a cheap cord. You want the cord to be thick enough so  it doesn't  get very warm during the heavy charging. Longer (and thinner) AC cords have more resistance and higher voltage drops. That will cause the wasted power to turn into heat (AC cord gets hot--cheaper cords, mean a more heated AC cord).

Bottom line is to always use the shortest and thickest AC cord possible.

If the cord is going to be extra long, you want it to be extra thick to help reduce the voltage drop (and heat in the AC cord). That's different than the spark when disconnecting under load.

I really think the very best way of all is wait until all the charging has stopped, as I mentioned in my previous post. That way, it's easy on everything when you disconnect. Then it's easy on  the cords, the outlets, the switches and then it doesn't matter how you disconnect.

But if you must disconnect while charging, I would disconnect at the bike last, as everything else is a lot cheaper and easier to deal with than the bike having a problem at the charging connector caused by the heat or sparks.

-Don-  Reno, NV

[DPsSRnSD]

The best thing would be to wire a switch at your AC outlet. The switches are designed to dampen the arcing. I now wish I'd done this when I had my outside outlet installed. But then I thought my bike was going to have a Charge Tank when I ordered it.

[NEW2elec]

Has anyone tried a simple power strip with an on off switch?  Nothing else plugged into it of course.