Mobile Charger Lifespan

[chl]

Never bothered paying thousands for an electrician to install the FCSP that came with my lightning (back in 2022 before they offered the install incentive) since we could just use the 240v outlet in the garage with the mobile charger. Have now had two mobile chargers get the red light of death for internal faults. The first one lasted about 2 years and the second one lasted about a year.

It’s worth noting me and my lady use the mobile charger for both her Mach E and my Lightning. We don’t drive a ton though, ~300mi/week combined.

Am trying out an emporia level 2 charger next instead of ford.

What has everyone else seen for a lifespan from their ford mobile charger or other brands?

Quite a few reports of failures when used as an everyday charger, some with literal meltdowns.
As soon as I could I put it away in the frunk for emergency use only, and installed a FCSP.

The meltdowns suggest either poor quality components that can handle the heat over time or maybe a glitch where they run at a higher amperage than they should.

However some failures happened because the 240V dongle was not fully seated and heat built up at the loose connection:

They are made for Ford by Webasto and the non-Ford branded ones, the Webasto Go, have also had their share of failures and bad reviews - they used to sell them on Amazon. Those were 240V 32A max, but the were down-graded to 30A for the Lightning to use with the PPOB. Yellow Tape on the 240V dongle indicates down-graded to 30A to use with the Pro Power On Board 240V 30A outlet.

One of the failed units was opened up by an owner to see if he could repair it:

There have been a few possible explanations:

1) overheating from the 14-50 outlet not being a heavy duty commercial grade outlet resulting in overheating effecting an over-heat shutdown of the Ford Mobile Power Cord.
2) Loose dongle connections with the same effect.
3) The Webasto Go units actually had a couple of recalls, one in 2018 because a capacitor could fail, and another due to a shock hazard from a software bug that might not detect a lost ground condition resulting in a shock hazard (these were shipped with the Chevy Bolt EUVs), so maybe there is another problem with the Ford branded ones like another software glitch?
4) Inability to dissipate heat when the ambient temperature is too high.

Whatever the reason, I'd recommend getting a higher quality charger for everyday use and have it installed by an experienced electrician.

PS: If I had known how problematic they were, I'd have deleted it from the invoice when I bought the truck - $500 is a lot for something that can't be relied on.

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