Almost Burned my House Down... Thoughts / Theories?

[Carlos Thomas]

As an update, I inquired about the wiring from the panel to the disconnect and they said it is #4 SER.

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[REM]

However, the disconnect box does not appear to be grounded. That's bad.

Yep! In practice, it's technically correct to have an equipment ground lug for each separate enclosure for sure ... however when I am lazy and can't be bothered on my own personal stuff, I rely on the mechanically connected lug from the other equipment and the fact that he has a path to ground from the armored BX cable lol.

The amount of things that would need to go catastrophically wrong for the ground to completely fail would be infinitesimally small, and by then you very likely have much larger issues to worry about; like the tornado that twisted your house into a pretzel to make that scenario even plausible.

Having said that, if you want it done completely right, that disconnect switch should be using a grounding lug/terminal block.

 

[Carlos Thomas]

Yep! In practice, it's technically correct to have an equipment ground lug for each separate enclosure for sure ... however when I am lazy and can't be bothered on my own personal stuff, I rely on the mechanically connected lug from the other equipment and the fact that he has a path to ground from the armored BX cable lol.

The amount of things that would need to go catastrophically wrong for the ground to completely fail would be infinitesimally small, and by then you very likely have much larger issues to worry about; like the tornado that twisted your house into a pretzel to make that scenario even plausible.

Having said that, if you want it done completely right, that disconnect switch should be using a grounding lug/terminal block.

So what should I tell the electrician that is showing up later today to finish the install of the new Wall Chargers?

 

[REM]

So what should I tell the electrician that is showing up later today to finish the install of the new Wall Chargers?

I would mention that you have concerns about equipment grounding and ask him if he can examine it more closely and let you know his thoughts.

But it should be an easy fix. You can remove one of the screws holding the box to the wall and replace it with a grounding lug or block for the bare wire to either pass through (or it can be terminated into a block). The instructions for the disconnect box should give you the info needed.

 

[ModelXer]

Last night at 9:12 pm, I got a “communication error” while charging my CyberTruck. It stopped charging at 41%. I went out to the garage to check and the entire garage was filled with smoke. The breaker tripped and the Cybertruck appears to be okay. The home was built in November 2024. Moved in April 2025. We have two Tesla Wall Chargers.

The builder sent our the company who did the electrical work and they are here now.

Thoughts?

Is that aluminum wire? With aluminum, or has to be torqued properly. We don't use aluminum for house wiring... it's illegal here. Has to be copper. The whole install looks a little funky, but that's just my opinion.

 

[Yoodie]

Last night at 9:12 pm, I got a “communication error” while charging my CyberTruck. It stopped charging at 41%. I went out to the garage to check and the entire garage was filled with smoke. The breaker tripped and the Cybertruck appears to be okay. The home was built in November 2024. Moved in April 2025. We have two Tesla Wall Chargers.

The builder sent our the company who did the electrical work and they are here now.

Thoughts?

Check out @tommolog on X and his state of charge rescue series on youtube. Looks to be a couple of potential problems here. Joining of wires doesnt appear correct and gauge also appears off. Some electricians treat EV chargers as any old item but the amount they draw for the amount of time they draw it takes very specific measures to ensure safety. Wires should be joined by connectors that can be torqued. Almost looks like some were just twisted together but hard to tell.

 

[AeroTool]

I'm sure you called your LAWYER...

 

[freddms]

That was not installed to code. You don't twist wires that size. They need to be landed on clamps and torqued. This does NOT look like electrician work, it looks like a DYI install.

I have plugs for mine - which generally is not a good idea (more failure points). But a good electrician will get everything landed and torqued right.

 

[ikwill]

Just make sure the electrician have few Tesla wall charger experience under their belt! If this is the first time installation for them, just thank them for their time and send them away. Our electrician here had plenty experience and it took them 3 hours to install the system then spent another hour for him to recheck everything while the car was in charge, since we are in an extreme lightenings zone, , he put extra grounding just in case not trusting the home’s ground system.

 

[Hangpilot]

I do this work
We use a torque measuring wrench
And check 3x call it a day once

the heat sensor idea is great

Last night at 9:12 pm, I got a “communication error” while charging my CyberTruck. It stopped charging at 41%. I went out to the garage to check and the entire garage was filled with smoke. The breaker tripped and the Cybertruck appears to be okay. The home was built in November 2024. Moved in April 2025. We have two Tesla Wall Chargers.

The builder sent our the company who did the electrical work and they are here now.

Thoughts?

if no one has mentioned it check out YouTube channel “State of Charge “ with Tom Malogany. He does a series on bad charger installations.

 

[lrpena]

Looks like they connected copper to aluminum cable. That’s not safe it can build up heat

 

[wjb]

I live in Phoenix. When it gets the weather really hot the charger reduces the the charging amperage. Either you’re charger was defective or there was catastrophic failure in the wiring that the charger couldn’t react to on time. Have Tesla inspect the charger as well as an independent electrician look at the wiring. Keep us posted.

 

[Bridgeboy69]

What a nightmare...but at least it was not a worse nightmare...


And sorry if this was already mentioned (6-pages already and I did not read everything), but Tesla literally forced me to go through Q-Merit to get a licensed electrician that they approved of to install my home charger. Maybe it was because I have a Foundation Cyberbeast that came with a Powershare Gateway....although I didn't even have them install the Powershare, only the charger.

So, anyway, I am just wondering how this could even happen if you hired a Tesla approved electrician....but obviously, in this case, I assume you didn't.

I don't want to throw any salt on your wounds...but this seems to prove the point that you should not try to save a few bucks on things like electricians. Even I was second-guessing the $1,500 install charge and contemplating paying a neighbor down the street less than half of that, but after seeing your story here, hell no. Family safety is too important to cut corners to save a few bucks.

Please don't take this the wrong way, because you didn't know, and it's not your fault, but this incident seems a perfect fit for the following meme...it's like picking up pennies in front of a steam roller...it's just not worth it...

 

[MIGUEL GONZALEZ DEL REY]

Maybe the wire splice was not tight enough

 

[Subman]

Last night at 9:12 pm, I got a “communication error” while charging my CyberTruck. It stopped charging at 41%. I went out to the garage to check and the entire garage was filled with smoke. The breaker tripped and the Cybertruck appears to be okay. The home was built in November 2024. Moved in April 2025. We have two Tesla Wall Chargers.

The builder sent our the company who did the electrical work and they are here now.

Thoughts?

It Looks like the house is wired with Aluminum wire. Hard to tell on those pictures, but Aluminum and copper mixed together can cause a lot of problems. Most states no longer allow aluminum wire to be used in homes.

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