What Car Unplugged on an Ohme actually means
On a Home Pro, the top left of the screen reads Car Unplugged until the charger detects a vehicle, then changes to Smart Charging with the session detail. On an ePod, the equivalent is the light bar going from solid green to solid green with a green corner when a car is connected, and solid orange if it cannot communicate with the car once plugged in.
So “it says unplugged and it is plugged in” means one thing, which is that the charger and the car have not completed their handshake. The cable is in, but electrically the charger does not see a car. That points at the connection or the car far more often than at the charger.
What to check when an Ohme says the car is unplugged
1. Reseat the plug, both ends. On a Home Pro the cable is tethered, so it is the car end only. Push it fully home until it clicks. On an ePod, check the charger end too. A plug that is nearly in will do exactly this, and it is the first thing we ask about, because it costs nothing to rule out.
2. Wake the car. In our experience some cars stop answering the charger when locked, asleep, or when the twelve volt battery is low. Unlock it, open the door, try again. If the car has a charge port lock, make sure it has actually latched.
3. Look for a car side reason. The next three checks come from Ohme’s guide for a car that will not accept a charge. They matter when the plug seats, the reading changes, and it still does not charge. Ohme’s Suspended EV guide lists the settings that make a car refuse or limit a charge, a departure timer, an AC charging limit, or a reduced AC or eco charging mode. Ohme also notes that a car firmware update can quietly switch one of these on. Turn them off and try again.
4. Check the tariff pairing. If a smart tariff such as Intelligent Octopus Go is paired to the car rather than to your Ohme account, Ohme’s guide says the two can conflict. Pair the tariff to Ohme, not to the car.
5. Unpair and re pair the car in the app. Settings, My EV, Unpair my EV, plug in for thirty seconds, unplug, Pair my EV. This fixes the app’s view of the car, not the handshake at the plug, but Ohme suggests a charge with the car unpaired when an odd charging fault will not pin down.
6. Unplug any powerline network adaptors. Ohme names these specifically as a cause of charges failing to start, because they put noise on the house wiring. Take them out and switch the charger off at its breaker on the fuse board for fifteen minutes.
Two tests that settle whether it is the car or the Ohme
Ohme’s own diagnostic, and ours, is to try the car on another AC charger, a public one or a neighbour’s, and to try another car on your Ohme. If your car charges elsewhere and another car charges on your Ohme, the problem is between that car and that charger, and in our experience it is usually a setting or a cable. If nothing charges on your Ohme, the charger’s connector or control electronics may have failed.
Debris and corrosion in the connector
The handshake between car and charger runs through two small signal pins in the plug, not the big ones that carry the current. They only need to be dirty to stop working. We see two things at the connector, and both give exactly this fault.
Debris. Grit, road salt, leaf matter or general dirt sitting in the connector, usually because the plug has been left on the ground or hung with the face pointing up to collect rain. It only takes enough to hold one pin off its contact.
Corrosion. Copper and brass corrode when they get damp and stay damp. On a charging connector it shows as a green or blue green crust around the pins, or a dull brown to black tarnish on what should be a bright metal face. Both are worse in coastal air and on any plug that lives outside uncovered.
There is one thing you should treat as different. Brown or black scorching around a pin, melted or distorted plastic, or a smell of burning is not corrosion. That is heat, it means a poor connection has been running hot under load, and it needs looking at before the charger is used again.
What to do about it. Switch the charger off at its breaker before you go near the connector with anything, and never put metal into a connector that is live. A visual check and a photo is all most people need to do. On a tethered Home Pro the cable is part of the unit, so if the connector has corroded on its own and the charger is inside its 36 months, that is a warranty conversation with Ohme and they should put it right at no cost to you. Contact cleaning kits exist and can work on light tarnish, but the pins are plated and the wrong abrasive takes the plating off and leaves you worse than you started. That is why we would rather look at a photo first and tell you which of the two you are dealing with.
When it is the Ohme itself
A tethered Home Pro cable or an ePod socket can lose the pilot pin contact that carries the handshake. If it has failed on its own, that is a defect, and inside 36 months it is Ohme’s to put right, on site, at no cost. If the cable has been run over, kinked hard, or left out with the connector face down in water, that is damage, and Ohme’s warranty excludes accident and misuse, so it is a paid repair whoever does it. Outside the 36 months, or for damage, we test the pilot signal at the connector and tell you whether it is the cable, the socket or the board before we quote anything.
