Charger locking problems - how widespread?

[YaR]

I use the egg chargers at my work during the day, however about half the time something goes wrong and I can't unplug my type 2 cable from the charger. The only way to fix it is for security to turn it off and on again. It's not a problem with the car or cable as other people are having the exact same problem with a variety of EVs.
I was just wondering, how common is this kind of thing? Are my work just unlucky in having a bank of dodgy ones, or are these widespread known issues?

 

[DBedford]

it’s not an uncommon problem. Turning the car on and off a few times should release the cable.

 

[BrianHere6]

Frustrating isn't it... Worked out a method that works for us.
Unlock car on fob.
Get car to Ready state.
Select charging on screen. If can still stop, press stop.
Unlock car again on fob.
Wait up to 30 secs.
Releases charging handle everytime.

Weird, but it got so bloody annoying trying get Zappi/MG4 to let go of the charger plug.

 

[Ian Key]

Frustrating isn't it... Worked out a method that works for us.
Unlock car on fob.
Get car to Ready state.
Select charging on screen. If can still stop, press stop.
Unlock car again on fob.
Wait up to 30 secs.
Releases charging handle everytime.

Weird, but it got so bloody annoying trying get Zappi/MG4 to let go of the charger plug.

I've got a Zappi. To remove the cable after charging I stand by the car's charging port, unlock the car with the key fob and after a couple of seconds there is a slight click as the cable is unlocked and can then be removed. The car will lock the cable again after about 30 seconds. I remove the cable from the charger after I've removed it from the car.

 

[tsedge]

The charging screen in the car also has an unlock cable button.

 

[SimonS]

All the above advice is great but the OP did say that the cable is stuck in the charger not the car.

 

[gnutrino]

We had a massive issue with Alfen chargers locking customer's cables and not letting them go but that got fixed with a firmware update and I don't think Egg use Alfen chargers.

If it's attached to some form of CPO backend they should be able to send a remote cable unlock command to the charge point but without knowing the details of how the backend is set up I can't guarantee it. Is there a customer support number somewhere on the charge point? That's normally where I'd start for something like this if only to make sure the issue gets logged somewhere.

 

[pollenface]

Personally hitting the unlock button on the remote frees it up. I imagine you could file out the notch in the cable if you really wanted.

 

[mg4mc]

As above, the OP was talking about the cable stuck in the charger not the car.

The car always has the last resort manual cable puller in the boot to mechanically release it.

 

[pollenface]

As above, the OP was talking about the cable stuck in the charger not the car.

The car always has the last resort manual cable puller to mechanically release it from the boot.

Okay, file notch out?

 

[YaR]

Yeah, I was talking about the charger. The cable will not release from the car if it detects a current, and presumably the charger was sending a small one while it was talking to it, even if it wasn't charging. I couldn't stop the charger with the charger app nor any button on it.

I've had no problems freeing the cable from the car after a charge - although it does tend to take 30s or so after the machine stopping before the car releases, but I'm assuming that's by design.

 

[pollenface]

. The cable will not release from the car if it detects a current,

Mine unlocks the cable momentarily when i unlock the car and charging pauses. If cable is not removed within a couple of minutes, it locks the cable again and resumes charging.