Wrong kind of lightning strike - damaged charger

[GarageMahal]

A storm blew through this evening and we took a lightning strike that knocked out one phase of our home power. Cycling the main breaker brought it back to normal but I found this when I went to check on the garage:

That probably explains why the breaker to the garage also tripped... Needless to say I'm leaving the breaker to the charger off. I did reset it before I saw the damage and nothing happened (device did not power up). Truck seems fine and is responding to FordPass app but I did not try to start or drive it.

The worst part is that our utility room (not where the electrical panel is) has a strong ozone/burning smell. No visible signs of any damage but needless to say we will be checking it frequently through the night.

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[Grumpy2]

Wow, looks bad for that charger. I hope the remainder of your circuits are OK.

 

[GarageMahal]

Possible you got a spike on one leg. Did you lose TV, fridge, or any other device?

Yeah, lost everything for a second. Half the house came back on right away. The toaster oven was making strange noise so that has been unplugged for now but nothing else found to be broken so far.

I'm still amazed by the physical damage to the charger with no external signs of heat. Looking forward to opening it up but it might be a day or two before I have time.

 

[Toby57]

You may want to inform your home insurance. They may want to have someone look at other things. There may be damage you cannot see.

 

[Maquis]

If it were me, I’d get a reputable, licensed electrician to check out your home’s wiring system. Given the symptoms you’ve discovered, there’s likely other hidden damage. Your homeowner’s insurance might cover this.

 

[metroshot]

Gee, I have the Emporia and they have a standard workmanship warranty for 3 years.

But a lightning strike - don't know if they cover that....

Emporia's site says:
"If the hardware fails to conform to the warranty within the warranty period, Emporia will either (a) repair or replace any defective hardware or component; or (b) accept the return of the hardware and refund the money actually paid by the original purchaser for the hardware. Emporia will not replace or repair any hardware with water damage or resulting from uses not specified in the Installation Guide or other instructions provided by Emporia. This warranty does not cover labor or other costs that may be incurred by the buyer such as, but not limited to, costs associated with diagnosis, removal, replacement, or installation of the Defective Parts or Products. Emporia is not responsible for transportation costs associated with returning the defective product."

 

[Peddyr]

Gee, I have the Emporia and they have a standard workmanship warranty for 3 years.

But a lightning strike - don't know if they cover that....

Emporia's site says:
"If the hardware fails to conform to the warranty within the warranty period, Emporia will either (a) repair or replace any defective hardware or component; or (b) accept the return of the hardware and refund the money actually paid by the original purchaser for the hardware. Emporia will not replace or repair any hardware with water damage or resulting from uses not specified in the Installation Guide or other instructions provided by Emporia. This warranty does not cover labor or other costs that may be incurred by the buyer such as, but not limited to, costs associated with diagnosis, removal, replacement, or installation of the Defective Parts or Products. Emporia is not responsible for transportation costs associated with returning the defective product."

Something tells me Emporia may invoke the words "Act of God" to get out of replacing it.

 

[Zprime29]

Something tells me Emporia may invoke the words "Act of God" to get out of replacing it.

I might be worth contacting them to see if they are interested in getting it for analysis. Maybe they'd like to see what damage was caused by the strike as it could help them design a future version to be more robust against it. They might send out a replacement if you agree to send them the damaged one back.

Last year we had a near strike, I think it hit the neighbor's house. It fried the dishwasher control board which was running at the time of the strike.

Glad to hear no fires started right away. I agree with others in regards to contacting insurance to get an electrician out.

 

[Chado]

Wow! I have two of those Emporia chargers, opened one to hardwire, the only thing I could think of that could cause that cover to crack would be a transformer but even then the gap from cover to the board where everything is mounted seemed at least 1" away

 

[Maquis]

Wow! I have two of those Emporia chargers, opened one to hardwire, the only thing I could think of that could cause that cover to crack would be a transformer but even then the gap from cover to the board where everything is mounted seemed at least 1" away

If there are any capacitors on the board beneath the cracked area, those are prone to catastrophic failure when overstressed. They can explode violently.

 

[Chado]

If there are any capacitors on the board beneath the cracked area, those are prone to catastrophic failure when overstressed. They can explode violently.

True, we used to put electrolytics in backwards as fireworks.
Come to think of it, it's a somewhat sealed box so the air pressure of it popping tops of caps is probably what did it

 

[GarageMahal]

Something tells me Emporia may invoke the words "Act of God" to get out of replacing it.

I might be worth contacting them to see if they are interested in getting it for analysis. Maybe they'd like to see what damage was caused by the strike as it could help them design a future version to be more robust against it. They might send out a replacement if you agree to send them the damaged one back.

Last year we had a near strike, I think it hit the neighbor's house. It fried the dishwasher control board which was running at the time of the strike.

Glad to hear no fires started right away. I agree with others in regards to contacting insurance to get an electrician out.

I did reach out to Emporia today and although he did say "Act of God" he was eager to replace it under warranty anyway. That was quite the pleasant surprise as I had already ordered a replacement from Amazon assuming it wouldn't be covered.

 

[Zprime29]

I did reach out to Emporia today and although he did say "Act of God" he was eager to replace it under warranty anyway. That was quite the pleasant surprise as I had already ordered a replacement from Amazon assuming it wouldn't be covered.

That's great to hear! I'm really liking everything I hear about this company. I'm thinking about getting their monitoring system and I'm eagerly waiting more details on their bidirectional equipment coming soon.

 

[Chado]

I did reach out to Emporia today and although he did say "Act of God" he was eager to replace it under warranty anyway. That was quite the pleasant surprise as I had already ordered a replacement from Amazon assuming it wouldn't be covered.

Wow that is nice!
The two times I emailed them technical questions about their charger I was surprised to receive an email back from a real person who knew the product in 1-2days.

 

[Lytning]

I have a Whole House Surge Protector installed in my main electrical panel to mitigate damage from nearby lightning strikes and other power surges. It has worked well, but it will not protect from a direct lightning strike, which appears may have happened to you. You may consider adding one if you do not have one installed.

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