If you read the very beginnings of this thread, you'd find some of the earliest units shipped had some programming problems, and Schneider's response was to send an engineer out to people's houses, across several states, to fix the problem, sometimes hiring local electricians just to switch off the breaker. It was pretty impressive. That level of support assured me that an EV Link would be a good choice. To reinforce that, here's a story for you:
Two weeks ago, I came home and plugged in. I've never had any issues before, even going from the '12 to the '15 SV w/6.6. My unit wasn't part of the above mentioned recall either. But this time, as soon as it started charging, I hear a very loud noise, reminded me of Miles Davis actually, and I thought, uh oh! At first I thought it was the car, having read a couple threads about loud hums when charging and it being my first LEAF from Smyrna. Always waiting for some build quality issue. But as I was going round to the drivers side to pop the hood, I passed the EV Link and realized that was the source.
Touching the outer casing made the noise alter in tone and pitch, so I shut it off, shut off the breaker, take off the cover, no heat issue, no burning smell. Put it back together and plug in again and nothing, same low level hum it always has, and it never repeated, still fine after two more weeks of use.
But at the time, it worried me a little, so I sent off an email to Schneider's contact page, describing the above, and asking how concerned I should be, if it indicates some kind of imminent component failure, and should I be thinking about replacing it soon. Probably out of warranty after two years.
I get a reply next day saying my message was forwarded to the EVSE group. Day after that, I get this:
Thanks for contacting us in regards to the EV station! The buzzing you heard is the contactor inside the station. This contactor may have a little bit of debris built up inside, but as you have seen, just a slight bump of it clears that away. This is not a sign of any pending component failure, but just to be sure I'd like to offer to send a replacement unit. There are some other updates to the unit (a change from a 5ma ground fault detection to 20ma) that will make it more robust, especially since your update to the 2015 Leaf!
Let me know if this is ok and a good shipping address and I'll have it delivered next week!
Best Regards,
Craig
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Craig Wallace | Schneider Electric | North America Operations | Senior Technical Support Engineer
Needless to say, this is indeed OK, and yesterday I receive a brand new EVSE. :shock: :shock:
I was expecting reassurance that it was no big deal. The bit about the debris would have sufficed. What I got was mind blowing, way, way beyond the call of duty customer service.
So,moral of the story? If you're considering buying a Schneider EVSE, you can be more than reasonably assured that service support will not be a problem.
P.S. I sent him a thank you note, and got this in reply:
Thank you for the very kind note! Schneider Electric is dedicated to providing phenomenal customer service and it helps that this mantra flows down from our senior management to empower employees like myself to ensure this experience for every customer!