EV charger not charging? The delay, the schedule, the light

Start with the law, not the charger

Since 30 June 2022, a chargepoint fitted at a British home or workplace has had to comply with the smart charging regulations, and the regulations require it to behave in ways that a reasonable person reads as a fault.

It waits before it starts. The unit must add a randomised pause when a session begins. myenergi describe the pause as anything from a few seconds to a full ten minutes, and note that there is no setting to switch it off for good — only a per-session override. Ohme say the government can ask for the pause to be lengthened to half an hour. So the cable goes in, the car sits there, and the charger is simply counting down. Ohme also explain a consequence almost nobody expects: the same randomisation is applied when a scheduled window closes, and it can only shorten the session, never lengthen it. Their worked example is a window due to finish at 04:30 that actually stops somewhere between 04:20 and 04:30, which is why a car sometimes comes off charge a few miles short of the target.

It has a schedule you did not set. Every compliant unit leaves the factory with an off-peak window already programmed, and the window is the manufacturer's choice. For the Ohme ePod it means no charging on weekdays from 8am to 11am or from 4pm to 10pm. Plug a brand-new charger in at teatime and it will do nothing, correctly. Ohme confirm that the moment you create your own schedule the factory one is switched off, and other makes work the same way.

It may be waiting for the sun. Several units default to a solar-surplus mode as delivered. In that mode a grey afternoon produces no charge whatsoever, and the charger gives no sign that it is being choosy rather than dead.

Then there is the vehicle. Most cars carry their own departure timer or charge limit, and a timer in the car will hold back a charger that is entirely ready to go. Two schedules set in two places produce a result neither explains. The order of work, then: give it ten minutes; open the app and read the schedule the charger believes it has; replace it with yours; confirm the mode; check the car's timer; and if you need power tonight, press boost or max charge, which is the override the regulations allow.

Reading the light against the app

Most home chargepoints have no screen and no fault codes. The status is in a light, and the decoder differs not just by make but by model.

• Ohme Home and Go use a ring of three segments. Steady red means connected and waiting for the vehicle — normal. Lights flashing in sequence mean the charger is waiting for its schedule, with the randomised delay possibly running on top. Flashing yellow is an electrical fault. All segments flashing together is a vehicle fault.
• Ohme Home Pro has a screen and two indicator strips, and the colours mean different things from the Home and Go: no light is finished or unplugged; solid green is plugged in but not drawing power; green fading in and out is active charging; blue is delayed charging, waiting for a scheduled window; red is error. When a Home Pro shows the word Error with red strips, there is no code to look up — Ohme publish none — and the thing to do is tap Next View twice with the car plugged in to see the live voltage screen. A highlighted number above 253 V or below 207 V is the answer, and the next section of EV charger tripping or showing an earth fault says who fixes it.
• Ohme ePod is decoded in the app rather than on the web: Ohme's support page for the ePod points to the colour reference in the My Charger section of the app, and the ePod product manual carries the same table.
• myenergi zappi shows a written message with an exclamation mark — PE Fault !, Contactor Fault !, Charge Blocked — and the manual pairs most of them with a number between 23 and 32.
• Wallbox, bp pulse and Easee all publish red as a stop condition, and none of them is hedging. If your manufacturer says red means stop, stop.

The general rule: where there is an app, look there before drawing conclusions from a colour. It will nearly always give a fuller message than a light can, including which of several faults the unit has recorded, and on an Ohme Home or Go it shows the live mains voltage.

The two resets

Every manufacturer in this category sanctions the same two owner actions and nothing else.

1. Unplug and re-plug the vehicle. Ohme list this first because it is the less disruptive of the two. Ohme's instruction is simply to unplug and re-plug; looking at the plug and socket for water, grit or damage while it is out is this site's suggestion, not theirs, because moisture in a connector is a common transient cause of a fault.
2. Power cycle at the charger's own breaker in the consumer unit. Ohme publish five seconds off, then on. For a charger that has gone offline they publish a longer version: unplug from the car, switch off at the dedicated breaker, leave it fifteen minutes to drain remaining power, switch back on. myenergi's standard action across nearly every zappi code is to unplug the EV, then press and hold the button to reset — and on two codes they add "make sure the fault has been removed" first, which is their way of saying the condition is outside the charger and resetting into it achieves nothing.

Beyond that, the position is unambiguous and shared. Ohme: do not attempt to open, repair, tamper or modify the charger in any way, there are no user-serviceable parts, and not following the safety instructions can result in electric shock, fire, serious injury or death. myenergi: everyone involved in commissioning, maintaining and servicing must be suitably qualified, and the device must always be disconnected from the supply before removing the cover. EO print it on the rating label. This is permanently connected mains equipment with no plug.

Slower than expected

• The car's own limit. A vehicle that accepts 7 kW on alternating current charges at 7 kW on any home charger. This is the most common answer.
• Load balancing. The charger backs off while the oven and the shower are on and restores itself afterwards. That is the installation doing its job.
• The CT clamp. If the limit is constant and sits around 3.7 kW, Ohme publish that a removed or faulty clamp makes the unit revert to 16 amps. The clamp is part of the installation rather than the charger, so that is an installer visit.
• Heat. The zappi shows wavy lines over its icon when it is thermally limiting; myenergi's remedy is ventilation — move anything touching or covering the unit — and the charge resumes on its own when it has cooled. On hot afternoons, shift charging into the evening.
• Cold, and a nearly full battery. Batteries accept power more slowly when cold, and most cars taper near full, so the same charger looks different on two nights.

Two messages that are not faults

Charge Blocked on a zappi means the car keeps asking to charge after it already reported complete, and the zappi has stopped answering. Check the state of charge against the limit set in the car — an eighty or ninety per cent limit produces this at the end of most sessions — and unplug the vehicle, which is myenergi's published action.

A cable stuck in the socket is alarming and usually mechanical. Work out which end is holding it: in most cases it is the car, and the release is to unlock the vehicle and end the session from inside it, with an emergency release in the boot on some models. At the charger end the published fix is the opposite of the instinct — push the plug firmly all the way in rather than pulling, take the weight of the cable, then press and hold the button to reset and withdraw it straight. myenergi publish this as the release for Lock Failure, code 23. Do not lever, cut or force it, and do not work round a socket problem with an adaptor or an extension lead: myenergi and Easee both state that adaptors, conversion adapters and cord extension sets are not allowed.

When to call, and whom

If a fault pattern persists after one of each reset, the route depends on what the unit is telling you. A genuine electrical fault on the charger itself — flashing yellow on an Ohme Home or Go, a Contactor Fault on a zappi — is a manufacturer call, and within warranty that should be free. Anything about the supply voltage is your distribution network operator's, not the manufacturer's. Anything about the earth, the RCD or the installation is a registered electrician's. The second guide for this category sorts those out; this one ends where most not-charging reports do, with a working charger and a schedule you did not know it had.

Sources

• The Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021 (in force for private installations from 30 June 2022), as summarised in the myenergi zappi v2.1(G) user manual revision 1.7 (July 2023) and in Ohme's published troubleshooting and ePod product manual (randomised delay, end-of-window delay, default schedules).
• Ohme UK support: "Ohme Home Pro: How do I know what my charger is doing?" (indicator strips and screen), "Troubleshooting: Voltage Errors" (253 V / 207 V, Next View, DNO route), and the Ohme Home and Go product manual v2.0 (light ring, power cycle, no user-serviceable parts); fetched 3 September 2026.
• myenergi zappi v2.1(G) user manual revision 1.7, section 22 Fault Codes (Charge Blocked, Lock Failure code 23, the overheating symbol, the reset action) and myenergi product support.
• Wallbox, bp pulse, Easee and EO published status-light guidance and rating-label wording, as cited on the "Red light" and "Cable stuck in the socket" code pages.
• The published meaning of each code here is on its own page, with the source it was taken from.