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EV Charger Troubleshooting
Level 1 needs an outlet. Level 2 needs a plan. The charger is the easy part. Whether the service can carry it alongside the air conditioning and the dryer is the real question.
EV Charger Troubleshooting in O’Fallon and across St. Charles, St. Louis, Lincoln and Warren counties.
Owner-operated by Clint Ehman. Seventeen years in the trade, four of them running his own shop.
5.0 from 94 Google reviews · BBB A+ since 2022
What this work actually involves
If the service is tight, load management is an option that costs far less than a service upgrade and does the same job.
A number follows a measurement here, never a guess. You get told what the reading was and what it means before any work is agreed, including on the days when the answer is one loose connection.
Permitted and inspected where the address requires it, labeled at the panel, and done by the person who diagnosed it rather than handed down a chain.
When people call about this
- A garage with no dedicated circuit
- Wanting a second charger
- A charger moved from an old house
- A new EV on order
Why people choose Clint for it
What the reviews keep mentioning is being told what the problem actually was. That is what an owner-operated shop can do and a dispatch model structurally cannot.
Seventeen years in the trade, 5.0 from 94 Google reviews, and BBB accredited A+ since December 2022.
Where this is done
O’Fallon is home and the shortest drive. Beyond it, St. Charles County, St. Louis County, St. Louis City, Lincoln County and Warren County.
See the full service area, or the rest of our ev charging work.
Where the charger goes and why it costs what it does
The run from the panel to the parking spot is usually the larger part of the install. A charger on the far side of a finished garage is a different job from one on the panel wall, and an attached garage is a different job from a detached one.
So the route gets walked before anything is priced: what it passes through, whether existing cavities can carry it, and whether the cable will reach the car’s port with slack on the side it actually parks.
Load management instead of new service
Load management lets the charger share capacity with another large appliance rather than adding to it. The charger backs off while the range or the dryer runs, then resumes. For a car sitting in a garage for ten hours, that pause costs nothing.
It is code-compliant, it is far cheaper than a service upgrade, and it is the answer a great many houses around here should be getting instead of a quote for new service.
How the fault gets found
The method is division. Reproduce the symptom, split the circuit, see which half still has it, split again. Four splits reduce a houseful of possibilities to a single termination.
That is slower than guessing for the first twenty minutes and much faster after that, and it ends with a reading rather than a replaced part and a hope.
What the car actually needs from the house
A Level 2 charger is a continuous load, which means the circuit is sized at 125 percent of the charger’s draw rather than to its nameplate. A 48 amp charger therefore wants a 60 amp circuit, and that is the number that has to fit inside what the service already carries.
Where it does not fit, there are usually two honest answers before a service upgrade: a smaller charger that still fills the car overnight, or load management that lets the charger share capacity with the range or the dryer. Both are cheaper than new service and both are code-compliant. You get the load calculation either way.
What gets left behind when the work is done
A labeled panel, accessible junctions, the old parts if you want to see them, and a straight account of anything found along the way that was not part of the call.
Where something else was found, you get told what it is and whether it needs doing now, later or not at all. That third answer is a real answer and it gets used.
“Clint did an excellent job installing two bathroom exhaust fans. He installed high-quality fans that were far superior to the ones I had purchased from a big box store. I highly recommend his services.”
David Hinners · Google review
How the visit goes
- The call
Which car, which charger, and where it parks. Those three answers decide most of the install before anyone visits.
- The measurement
A load calculation against the existing service, plus the run from the panel to the parking spot and what it passes through.
- The finding
Either the service carries it, or load management lets it share, or a service upgrade is genuinely needed. You hear which, with the number behind it.
- The work
Dedicated circuit sized for continuous duty, disconnect where the code and the inspector expect it, charger mounted so the cable reaches with slack, and a test charge before anyone leaves.
What the job includes
- Load calculation to confirm the service can carry the charger
- A dedicated circuit sized for continuous duty, on its own breaker
- Charger mounted where the cable reaches the car with slack to spare
- Disconnect where code and the inspector expect it
- Permit and inspection where required
- Conduit for a second charger while the wall is open, if you want it
What it does not
- Supplying the charger itself, unless you ask
- Utility rebate paperwork, though we will tell you what exists
- Charging network accounts and apps
Work that is not electrical gets a referral, not a quote. Recent jobs are worth a look before you call.
Related ev charging work
EV Charger Troubleshooting across the metro
Housing stock varies sharply across the counties here, and so does the work. Same trade across five jurisdictions out of O’Fallon, with a different inspection process in each.
Warren County
Two kinds of work share the same ZIP codes here: recent subdivisions with modern wiring and tight services, and farm properties carrying several eras at once.
St. Charles County
St. Charles County is mostly 1990s and 2000s subdivisions. The wiring is modern and the services were sized before anyone owned an electric car or finished a basement, so capacity is the usual constraint rather than condition.
St. Louis County
This is where the genuinely old wiring lives: cloth insulation, no equipment ground, fuse panels and the mid-seventies aluminum. Each has an accepted remedy rather than requiring a whole-house rewire.
The whole working radius is mapped on the service areas page.
Questions worth asking first.
Can two cars share one circuit?
With load-managed chargers, yes, and for most two-car households overnight charging still finishes both. It is considerably cheaper than new service.
Can my panel handle a charger?
Often yes. The load calculation checks what the house already runs against the service rating. Where it is tight, load management lets the charger share capacity instead of forcing an upgrade.
Level 1 or Level 2?
Level 1 plugs into a standard outlet and adds a few miles an hour, which suits short commutes. Level 2 needs its own circuit and fills a car overnight. The honest answer depends on your daily miles.
How long have you been doing this?
Clint has seventeen years in the trade and has been running his own shop out of O’Fallon since 2022.
What do your reviews say?
5.0 from 94 Google reviews, and A+ accreditation with the BBB held since 2022. The reviews are on the reviews page with links to where each was posted.
Talk to the person who will do the work.
No dispatcher, no salesman. Clint takes the call and Clint does the job. EV Charger Troubleshooting in O’Fallon and across the metro.
Mon-Thu 8-5 · Fri 8-4 · Sat 10-3. Prefer to write it down? Write it here.