David, a 22-year active-duty naval engineer based in La Mesa, California, came home from an overseas deployment to find his EV charging circuit had been causing problems for months. Three Wallbox Pulsar Plus chargers had failed on the same 60-amp circuit. He measured the breaker temperature himself and was not comfortable with the readings. Conduit throughout the run vibrated noticeably when the car was charging, and he heard intermittent arcing sounds from the main panel. His daughter's 2020 Chevy Bolt and his own Rivian R1T both relied on the circuit. San Diego Gas and Electric visited, recorded voltage data for a week, and ultimately installed a dedicated transformer on the pole outside to rule out the utility as the source of the trouble. Multiple electricians had visited the home and left without a clear answer.
Tom Moloughney from State of Charge brought in Matt Trout, owner of Trout Electric and a Qmerit-certified master electrician, to properly diagnose the system. What they found was a compounding list of problems stemming from the original install. The electrician who did that work used number six ROMX wire across a 100-foot run through the attic, a wire type not rated for a 60-amp circuit in this application. He also ran short of wire mid-job and improvised: he terminated the run at an existing NEMA 14-50 box, converted it into a junction box, and used flexible liquid-tight conduit to bridge the gap to the charger. That conduit was routed across a garage door opening in violation of code. Throughout the run, the wire had nicks in several spots. The breaker's slot in the panel had worked loose, likely from repeated thermal expansion and contraction over time.
Trout's crew replaced the entire circuit. Six gauge THHN wire was pulled in metal conduit from a new 60-amp breaker, up the side of the house, through the attic, and into the garage as a single continuous run with no splices or junction boxes. The loose breaker slot was replaced with a new breaker seated in a different panel position. After the rewire, the humming and vibration stopped immediately. But when the Rivian was plugged in, the reinstalled Wallbox Pulsar Plus faulted within seconds of connecting. A third charger was not going to be the solution. Trout's crew sourced an Enphase IQ2, the brand's newest generation home charger, from a local supply house. David already had Enphase solar equipment and was able to pair the new charger directly into his existing app. The whole job ran about 12 hours. David confirmed in a follow-up that both cars have been charging without issue since.
Bottom line: EV charging circuits pull high current continuously for hours, often back to back across two vehicles, in a way nothing else in a typical home does. That sustained load reveals every corner that got cut during installation. This one is worth sharing with anyone who just bought an EV and is about to hire whoever submitted the lowest bid.