EV charger [Red light]what it means

The first thing to know about a red light on a home chargepoint is that there is no cross-brand meaning, and assuming one will send you the wrong way. Wallbox publish red with the instruction do not try to charge in this condition, and bp pulse publish the same words. Easee's printed user guide publishes flashing red as something stronger still: a critical error, the charger blocked from further use and cannot be reset, contact customer support — while their help centre, rewritten in September 2026, now splits the same colour by timing: flashing red immediately after presenting a key or authorising in the app means the authentication was not accepted, flashing red at any other time means charging stopped for a safety-related reason such as high temperature and should not be repeatedly restarted, and solid red is a safety lockout for which they allow exactly one restart at the breaker.

Against that, Ohme publish steady red on their Home and Go units as connected to vehicle, waiting for vehicle to accept charge — which is an entirely normal state — and steady red combined with flashing green as actively charging. The same manufacturer then uses red on their Home Pro to mean error, so the convention is not even consistent within one brand, and Ohme themselves warn that a red screen on a Home Pro means max charge mode rather than a fault. What this means practically is that the decoder for your specific model is the thing to find, and the app is usually a better place to look than the light.

Where a manufacturer does publish a fault colour, they tend to publish the pattern too, and the pattern carries the detail: Ohme use flashing yellow for an electrical fault and all lights flashing together for a vehicle fault, which are different problems with different people to call, and they say a red flashing error light accompanies an overvoltage or undervoltage pause, which is a supply problem rather than a charger one. If red on your unit does mean stop, take that at face value. The manufacturers who publish that wording are not hedging, and Easee's user guide explicitly says a flashing-red unit cannot be reset by the owner. The other reason not to force it is that the charger has already isolated the output, so persisting achieves nothing except repeated attempts at a connection the unit has decided is unsafe.

1. 1

   Find the decoder for your exact model rather than for your brand. Colour conventions differ between models from the same manufacturer, and Ohme publish two that contradict each other.

2. 2

   Look at the app before the light. Where there is one it will nearly always give a fuller message than a colour can, including which of several faults the unit has recorded.

3. 3

   Note the pattern, not just the colour. Steady, flashing, and all-segments-flashing are different messages on the brands that publish patterns at all.

4. 4

   If your manufacturer publishes red as a stop condition, stop. Wallbox, bp pulse and Easee all use wording to that effect and none of them is hedging; Easee allow one restart at the breaker for solid red and none for flashing red.

5. 5

   Try one power cycle at the breaker if the manufacturer sanctions it, and unplug and re-plug the vehicle. Those are the two owner actions available on every brand.

6. 6

   Do not open the unit. Ohme put the general position plainly: do not attempt to open, repair, tamper or modify the charger in any way, there are no user-serviceable parts.

   This is permanently connected mains equipment with no plug. EO print it on the rating label — no serviceable parts inside, warranty void if opened — and bp pulse advise powering the unit down at the distribution board if there is any sign of damage or it looks unsafe.