Do I need a GFCI Circuit Breaker for EV Charging? 

@8:58, I’m glad you bought and installed a defective GFCI. In this video You were able to contrast the behavior of a defective GFCI versus a normal GFCI. It’s a God-sent bonus.

I think viewers should know that most states have actually exempted that part of the 2020 NEC when they adopted it. GFCI is actually not required for 240V outlets in the vast majority of states. Check your local code modifications, each state makes their own modifications to the NEC. Most inspectors will not give you trouble over it. Also many EVSE manufacturers do not recommend using a GFCI outlet due to phantom tripping. The EVSE has built in GFCI, having it in the breaker is redundant. You don't really need it unless you are worried about getting a shock plugging in, just flip the breaker off first if that is the case. I would only recommend putting a GFCI on a 240V outlet outside in the rain, inside a garage really isn't necessary.

Also, its funny I was just thinking about doing a video about Nema 14-50 vs 6-50 vs hardwired. It is so hard out here in California with all of the regulation. I work with 13 different jurisdictions and it seems like everyone of them interprets the code a little different. Hardwiring the charger to me is the best way to go because it eliminates a connection point (the plug) and every connection point is a potential for failure, however out here some inspectors require stricter regulation on a "permanently " installed charger versus a cord and plug connected device. Lots to think about. You explained everything very clearly. Thanks for the inspiration.

Great video. I live in California and we havn't adopted the 2020 code. I think we will adopt it later this year under the California title 24 rules. There is a lot of regulation. I wish all of the panels I had to work in were as nice as yours, that is so spacious. Thanks for sharing.

Nothing like a defective safety device… Makes you wonder how many of those have been installed. Great video!

Great info. I always thought I was the only one that got the defective part straight out of the box. Thanks for keeping this real. Cheers

This is going to be a mess going forward. I install EVSEs as a licensed electrician. First, I do not like to do outlets and try to talk customers into hardwire. In preparation for an outlet install, I asked one of my inspectors about this Code change. At first, he said yes I need a GFCI breaker but after talking with the chief inspector it was determined that our state had not adopted that change yet. On top of that, some manufacturers like Tesla will state in the manual to not use a GFCI breaker probably because of nuisance tripping. The industry has a ways to go with getting it right.

One of the functions of the EVSE (or Tesla wall charger or portable EVSE) is that it has a built in EVSE. The EVSE will look for a 20ma imbalance and the spec for a breaker's GFCI is 5ma.

Many states adapted NEC 2020 except for 210.8(a) which requires GFCI for 240V outlet. For example, Georgia amended 210.8(a) as “All 125-volt receptacles installed locations installed through…”. They removed 250-volt terms. This is because it’s not only unrealistic but also hard to buy 50A gfci breaker for older main panels. Manufacturers do not make 50A gfci breaker for older panel. It’s a Good news.

7:37 best practise is to stand aside from the panel, with your head turned away; and only use your right hand to energize circuits. that way; if there's any fault; it doesn't blow up in your face; and and voltage that may come your way doesn't cross your heart on the way to ground, as it would if you were using your left hand.

Thanks for this vid.. I’m using a Nema 6-50R in my garage to recharge a solar/battery backup unit & I need to replace the standard 50A breaker to a GFCI breaker. And, yes, the 6-50 only has 2 hots & a ground. So now I know I don’t have to worry about what to do with the middle breaker wire connector.

Some internal charging modules insides some EVs can be very finnicky while dealing with GFCIs and make them trip for no good reason. It can be very problematic to find out in the early morning that your vehicle simply did not get any charge overnight and that you are stuck.

Great video! Best one out of the 10 I've seen.

Excellent video with outstanding safety emphasis. Many thanks.

why does Tesla say that it's not required for the wall charger? cancel that you answered the question at the end of the video.

Why did you remove the white wire from the receptacle going to busbar and connect it to the breaker? Wouldn’t the white pigtail coming from the breaker have been connected when you tightened it to the busbar?

Just stumbled on an article (and lost the link) where hard wired chargers have GFCI built in and will trip at 20 ma but no provision for manual testing. I suspect there's built in testing that shows a fault or disables the unit. A breaker with GFCI protection trips at 5 ma. This is how those charges comply with code without the added breaker protection. Guessing the code is different for such devices, but I haven't found it in NEC. They only talk about GFCI protection in general.

I saw some others in here talking about the double GFCI issue. I charge my Tesla in my apartment off a 120v GFCI outlet and it’s tripped a few times randomly in the middle of the night. Wonder if that’s what’s causing it

Is this a sub panel or a main one as i see neutral and ground dont go together in this panel and there is no bonding screw.

just recently installed an outdoor 14-50 circuit for my welding and the 250-50 GFCI breaker is expensive costing $150 plus tax.

When gesturing at live wires, even if they are covered by plastic, it best to not actually touch them.

I was nervous to do this install myself and considered other options. Once I saw my breaker box looked just like yours and I wanted to do the exact same breaker swap, you gave me all the confidence (too much?) to swap it out. Did the job and I’m alive to tell about it! How do I buy you a beer?

South carolina is still on the 2017 NEC. And you are correct those two pole GFCI breakers are super expensive, my sister and her husband got the sticker shock when the two pole 20 amp breaker for the kitchen countertop went bad and they needed a replacement shipped to home depot 😃( they live in a tract home, built in 1995, so it was pre-AFCI, but has 12/3 feeding the outlets, and the top and bottom have the black and red with the tab broken. ) Guessing when the subdivision was built the contractors got paid by the job, and they wanted to complete as many homes as possible in a given time frame, so they were less concerned about the cost of materials.

I'm installing a hard wired charger (40 amp Juicebox) and was planning on a regular breaker. I came across your video and gave this a second thought. I noticed the edit at the end of your videos referring to GFCI not being necessary for a hard wired charger. Is this just per code, or is there no point to using a GFCI on a hard wired charger? I get that without the outlet, there is less chance for a problem, but is there still a safety advantage in using a GFCI for a hard wired charger? Can a ground happen at the charger itself? For example, if the vehicle is outdoors and it is raining, could a dangerous ground occur when the charger is plugged into the car? I would love to save over $100 on a breaker, but would rather be safe.

I am having nuisance trips at the GFCI 50A breaker in the electric panel. I asked Grizzl-e's manufacturer for suggestions and the reply was to either (a) switch to hardwire or (b) find a 50A breaker with 20mA sensitivity. Does such a breaker exist? Safe? Permissible under NEC?

Here is my issue. A Tesla Powerwall Charger does NOT have a Neutral (2 Hoya and 1 Ground)…so how do you install a GFCI Breaker, since the Breaker requires a Neutral??

Hey guys I just installed my 6-50 outlet and outlet is good. Getting 240 across both legs and 110 on each. Gfci breaker in panel as well. My model 3 however gives warning while charging stating charging slowed - poor grid power possible. Anyone every had this issue. Not sure if it's the umc, adopter, panel or outlet. (Voltage is good coming from outlet though) it only charges at 16/32 amps

Who is the manufacturer of the breaker that you are using in the pod cast? I am using copper 6/3 and Sq. D Schneider Panel. This is for an EV car charger. Looking for Qo 50 amp breaker with 3 conductor connection GFCI BREAKER . Matching a 1450 enema outlet by Leviton. Do you have any information that might help

One problem is many EVSEs have built in GFCI and protecting a GFCI device with a GFCI breaker causes false tripping. Becoming better to hardwire the EVSE and not need the GFCI breaker. Also not all jurisdictions have not yet adopted 2020 code yet.

Problem is that I can't find a GE 50 amp gfci breaker without breaking the bank. Any help where to get one?

Does it matter which breaker to get depening on the pannels brand?Electrician Told me it is impossible to find a 50 amp gfci for my pannel.

Does your Tesla charger not have a built-in GFCI? I'm looking into installing a NEMA 14-50 outlet now and have to add add the GFCI breaker because of code. But I've heard that the redundant GFCIs between the breaker and the built-in GFCI in EVSEs result in nuisance tripping. Do you know of any EVSEs that don't have their own built-in GFCIs?

Thanks for the video! Now that you've had your Tesla for a while, I'm curious if you have an idea of how much your electric costs for the car are on a monthly basis.

Canadian code is a bit looser at the moment, only requiring GFCIs for outdoor plugs. (CEC 2021, 86-306 "Receptacles for electric vehicle supply equipment")

Tighten as much as I possibly can. You really should use a torque wrench, because it is possible to strip the threads. In any case, don’t use a powered screwdriver unless it has a calibrated stop.

Great job! One question, is it not necessary to torque the lugs down been told it’s very important?

Hi, I watch a lot of you tube and recently discovered that all fuses have a torque pressure that the cables have to be tightened to shown on the side of the fuse, on most fuses it is 36 pd of torque but the person doing the electrics used a screwdriver that went up to this torque and applied much more pressure than you did. Are you aware of this requirement?

You could also put in a gfci disconnect switch

If I have a 6-50 receptacle should I just remove that curly white pigtail?

Gotta love someone that says you have to do this to be code compliant, but fails to follow code in torquing his in panel connections!

Sir can you help me with a question, I'm trying to charge my tesla on a 110 my breaker is a 20amp it keeps tripping from what I can find it's a square d cafci white button could that be why I can't charge? No matter why I set the charge to it pops

There should NEVER be a white colored wire energized from a breaker, the only legal energized white, or neutral wire is in the event of a reverse fed light switch when home run goes to light location first. And only in residential i belive, but great video! Very informative and well thought through.

Thank goodness my state is still using the 2017 code. No way I'm putting a GFCI on my 240v EV charging outlet.

thank you.

If i have space in my breaker to install a 50amp like you did, does that mean it’s ok to add it? I was reading about overloading my breaker box which could cause fires? I just took delivery of my tesla and using the 12amp normal outlet sucks! Haha! Keep up the great work!

Another reason to hardwire the wall charger (which provides GFCI protection itself) instead of using it with the outlet.

My charger (hardwired) has GFCI protection built in.

Does anyone know if this is required in Florida? I had an electrician install a 14-50 plug in my garage and there is no test option on the breaker. Is this to code? im getting conflicting results when searching.

My charger (Electrify America) has a built in GFCI. So that would conflict if we also had a GFCI in the panel. For us to be compliant, we’d need to hardwire the charger instead of having the plug. We wanted the plug for convenience should we ever move. So the choice was either don’t be compliant or don’t have a plug. It was clear when we spoke to the MFR they really didn’t us working off a plug. I don’t think the charger folks should advertise the plug so much since it really poses a lot of challenges given the electrical code.

Its more important to install a high quality 14-50 outlet (Hubbell) than a gfci breaker. I installed a cheap big box 14-50 outlet and it probably would have burned my house down.

Thank you, sir. I was thinking it might be code. Glad you cleared it up. Cheers!!

What about of car handbooks that said “ GFCI are not recomended in installations” They burn the neutral and trip the breaker by itself. Also make no sense, 240v don’t need the neutral. So Didn’t work on a EV charger installation

What state though

Has your Tesla ever tripped the breaker gfci breaker?

Thanks the for info!

Gfci breakers in rv park pedestals

As an Australian who has GFCI protection on every circuit apart from the oven and electric hot plates, i still cant understand why U.S systems dont use GFCI breakers on all circuits

i am lucky my city uses 2019 book

Have anyone had this issue when using GFCI breaker the internal breaker of evse tripped? I had to reset breaker of the charger for it to work again

You still not in compliance with the code, because you didn’t use a torque screwdriver. 😊

Follow the money 😂 $100 more. That's how lobbyists work!

What software are you using to edit

the breaker that has the test buttons is an AFCI

The Tesla mobile connector will trip the gfci all the time once it starts charging

It’s just fire code. What’s the big deal

EVSE standard includes GFCI protection. Not sure how much the double GFCI will help you.

Love how you end up working in a live panel box! So much for all the safety BS at the start of the video

I have always preferred to have GFI receptacles over a GFI at the breaker box, because a GFI can be subject to tripping and the GFI receptacle indicates it has been tripped and can be reset at the receptacle. I don't like the practice of stringing other receptacles from a GFI receptacle. It can be nearly impossible to find the GFI receptacle when it was tripped by a down stream receptacle. Also GFI receptacle have a much lower non returned trip current than a GFI breaker, meaning they should be better at protecting humans connecting cords to them and the device then a circuit breaker GFI, but also much more prone to phantom tripping from current loss in long wire runs downstream from the GFI receptacle. I had to dry out an outside downstream receptacle from an inside bathroom GFI receptacle because it wouldn't allow resetting the inside GFI receptacle when it was moist. At least that's how it behaved because I've done this procedure about three times now. Note: the outside receptacle didn't appear moist I assumed the extension cord plugged into it had water follow into the receptacle.

You are not in the trade so you do not know that most of jurisdictions having authority over electrical installation are lagged behind. What do I mean by this? There are many places still using 2017 NEC or older. Your assumption that everyone must go ahead and get the ridiculously expensive GFCI breaker is not correct.

Only need a GFCI on a circuit rated 50 amp or less. So if your EV maximum amperage is 48 amp, it will take a 60 amp circuit. No GFCI would be required then.

I just had a 50 amp breaker and dedicated circuit ran to my garage and inspected. The electrician said the juice box has a gfci and doesn't have to add one. The inspector passed it. It is not hard wired

My first 240v/50 amp circuit installation. I was going to spend $20 on a breaker, but after this, I'm going to spend $120 on that breaker. Thanks for this video so I could do the job correctly!

I have run across many of these Square D GFCI breakers that are "defective" most don't "test" like yours, and some don't reliably allow the passage of current, as in they will be functional until they just aren't, without any indication as to why. Not a huge fan of these based on my experiences.

Great video. Don’t forget to torque your breaker lugs. It’s also a code requirement.

The pigtail coils should be straigtened out to minimize inductace in that leg.

Changed mine a month ago. Read about nuisance trips with built in GFCI in mobile connector, none yet. The drywall debris in your box still triggers my OCD.

Not complaining at all. You do a great job with your video’s. I do think it should be mentioned that anyone installing the hardwired Tesla wall charger should NOT install a GFCI breaker because the Tesla unit already includes a built-in GFCI. See Tesla wall charger instructions. Stringing GFCI’s will cause them to trip. The other point is that no matter how hard you tighten a screw on a wire, the wire will quite often loosen if the wire is wiggled, or after it has been used and the temperature has changed significantly. Once the screw has been torqued down, wiggly it and it will quite often pull out. At least re torque it once or twice after wiggling the wire.

That is the correct way , As a Houston Tx master electrician HMEL. I aways install a GFCI plus pull permits to cover our company .

Yeah, I had to replace my old 50 amp with new GFCI Homeline 50A, its very expensive.

Curious to why you use a 50 amp breaker when the Tesla mobile connector maximum amp is 32 amps. Wouldn’t you use a 40 amp breaker?

Great video, was not aware of this, I have two 220 in my garage for charging my EV’s, neither have GFCI, I’m using a plug in JuiceBox, I will need to swap these out, thanks.

How much did it cost gfci breaker? I just had mine replace electrician charge me $285 for part, is that too much?

Would level 1 charging require a GFCI outlet ?

Good stuff. We haven't adopted 2020 NEC yet where I live but it is coming soon.

Why the rv pedestals in rv parks are not gfci?

Hi Chris, I’m in NJ and we sometimes have power outages. I have a whole house standby generator (20kWh generac) would I be able to charge level 2 in a power outage with my generator? If not at same 48-50amp perhaps lower at 26-30 amp? TIA

Thank you

Thanks for sharing, i am about to install two 50 amps receptacles one inside the garage and one outside. I am worry to get electrocuted since one 50 amps receptacle in outdoor and doesn't have gfci. There are none 50 amps receptacles are GFCI. Just wondering why they don't made it like the 110v. Totally agree this type of breaker is good to have.

I switched from the GFI to a non GFI breaker because the Tesla Mobile adapter has a GFI built-in, it conflicts with the breaker and the charging stops intermittently.

As I recall, a garage outlet that is used for a freezer should not have a gfi due to erratic tripping, which could in loss of freezer contents. Same principle for an EV charger; you could find your car not charged in the morning. Also, I understand that the chargers have their own built in GFI. Having two gfi in the same circuit causes problems.

Wow! This video has exactly what i am looking for! Very good one, Thank you. Now i understand why i need a GFCI breaker but a friend of mine who has tesla wall charger does not need one!

Was I being taken for a ride with a electrician trying to charge me $300 for a GFCI for EV Charger?

Personally, I believe that NEC or some governing body should rule that all EV chargers should be 1) exterior to the home by xx feet for fire safety and 2) all should be hard wired to eliminate that bit of issue.

If you get the Tesla wall connector you do not need a GFCI in the electrical panel because it is built into the Connector itself. Even the power connector cable, that came will all Teslas until recently, has a GFCI built in. In some states there would still be a requirement for a 240 volt outlet in a garage, whether used for car charging or anything else, to be GFCI protected, but it would provide no additional protection when used with the Tesla wall connector or Tesla charging cable.

In South Africa, we always had (30 years +), WHOLE house ground fault protection standard. All circuits are covered by one central ground fault breaker (25-30mA sensitivity). Also, plug and light circuits must be separate. Normally 10 amps for lights and 15-20 amps for plugs. Single phase is 230v 50Hz though. We are in Canada for almost a year now, and I still try to get used to the American standard. Also, our SA homes have PVC conduit going down from the attic/ceiling, and normally have single cores running in it. Easy to replace/upgrade/extend, except the part where you have to break open a concrete wall to add another plug point.

So my garage is not below grade, it’s level with slab, so this has to be upgraded. Also prior to 2020 only work done after have to be brought up to current code.

I'd like to know the voltage drop between the breaker box and the 240 volt receptacle when the car is on full charge. The kind of measurement that would be made using a hand DVM. There may also be a way to get the car to display all kinds of charging and electrical measurements. Another possibility is the raw data can be downloaded to a calculating application to give all kinds of statistics and graphs. The charging system likely has sense wires to the A.C. plug or very close to it for checking and possibly even logging the wall socket voltage. Typically home A.C. circuits run way below their circuit breaker trip currents and for the occasional high load like running an electric lawnmower we don't worry about voltage drop and power loss, but a Tesla has labeled on its in car charger as 48A. Which is a substantial high load possibly over six hours. It might be worth the effort and expense in a new installation to pay for higher capacity lower power loss wires then simply sizing them for occasional maximum load as is the common practice. The in car Tesla charger senses the charging type as its own home charger hardwired or through is mobil connect to a 240 volt receptacle and many others. For some unknown reason the Tesla mobil connector is capped at 32A and will not pull the in car chargers maximum 48A through a 50A socket. The advantage of 50A outlet of course is it is universal for any BEV. The disadvantage is Tesla's in car charger, likely software changeable, does not run its maximum 48A capacity except with its own hardwired charger connection system.

I’ve never seen a dryer with a GFCI breaker and they are always right next to a washing machine with water fixtures (“wet area”).

Nicely done video. You did mostly a great job. If I may be allowed, I have a few comments. 1. As others noted, you are only required to do what is the current adopted electrical code, not the current published code. 2. It is obvious that the outlet below the panel was added after the original inspection. If you installed it, surely you got a permit (as you stated would be required) and it was installed, inspected, and approved under the 2017 code. Therefore GFCI was not required. 3. Standard breakers are designed for overcurrent and short circuit. GFCI is not for short circuit as stated in the video. If your two hots went short circuit, the breaker would trip it, not the GFCI. GFCI is for when current goes out and a small amount is going to a grounded object. Like a human standing on concrete with no shoes. It is set to trip at 5 milliamps.

How can I find out if my state or county has adopted these or other new codes?