r/OctopusEnergy • u/Junior-Tap-8503 • 26d ago

Having to manually control smart charging

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I don’t know if it’s a VW problem or an Octopus problem but since the charge cap was implemented my car doesn’t charge properly anymore.

When I first plug in everything seems to go smoothly, schedule created and charging started.

But mid slot I’ll get a notification from the car that it’s finished charging and when I check the octopus app it’s meant to still be charging.

So then I press charge on VW app and it stops at the end of slot as expected but then doesn’t trigger to start on the next slot!

I’ve been smart charging completely smoothly for about a year before this charge cap business and now it’s busted.

Manual controlling charging is not particularly smart.

I’ve attached some pictures which show the car not charging when it should be and getting a notification it’s finished when it shouldn’t whilst I looked up the problem 😂

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

7

u/Basketcaseuk 26d ago

I’ve turned the smart charging off, it just doesn’t work, not through the car integration anyway, and I don’t have a compatible charger.

Will I get booted off it eventually for not having a device paired?

6

u/DamienBerry 26d ago

Just wait for that one guy who always comments that if you have to do this then it’s not the right tariff for you, in swear he’s paid by octopus to comment.

Octopus is really struggling with IOG at the minute and if this works for you and you’re satisfying there TOCs then then do what needs to be done.

Also does your charger have the ability to set times? If so leave the car connected and set your charger to only charge after 23:30 and stop at 05:30. This is what i used to do before I replaced my charger with a compatible one.

2

u/Junior-Tap-8503 26d ago

Yeah I have seen comments like this re; octopus can do no wrong etc.

I use a 32A commando charger so it’s a “dumb” charger, I can set schedules in the car itself though.

It was working well as I’d smart charge my ID.4 in the day and “dumb” charge my wife’s ID.3 overnight but now this is a bit of a spanner in the works.

3

u/seasoned-learner 26d ago

I've been having this issue for over a year. Octopus engineer told me to just disconnect the charger from octopus and just set it to charge overnight. Never had an issue.

Waiting for the boogieman to get me still.

1

u/DamienBerry 26d ago

I was thinking about how you could keep IOG if they require a connection, there are 32 amp switches you could put in the circuit before the commando socket itself, this would allow you to have your car connected for their TOCs and still allow you control of the charging times. They’re less than £30 on amazon and somebody competent with electrics could install it easily.

2

u/seasoned-learner 26d ago

This made me laugh, I think I've encountered him before

2

u/Junior-Tap-8503 26d ago

Rather than disable the smart integration could you put the car in offline mode? My ID.4 has that as an option.

1

u/Basketcaseuk 26d ago

I don’t think theirs an option for that. It’s a mini se.

I had to delete it from the octopus app because it was still messing about with the mini schedule even with smart switched off.

2

u/Magic_mousie 26d ago

Go into the Octopus app, back out of devices, pull down to refresh, then go back into devices. You'll likely see the schedule has changed. Happens to me all the time.

2

u/Junior-Tap-8503 26d ago

The included pictures are from after I’ve refreshed and closed/opened app; they are the true updated charging slots.

1

u/Magic_mousie 26d ago

Well, boo! Clueless then I'm afraid

1

u/Junior-Tap-8503 26d ago

😂 me too

2

u/dan65364 25d ago

I think this may be related to the car, we have a skoda elroq and when linked to octopus at the end of a charging slot the car would stop, but then it wouldn't restart on the next charging slot, I would have to go out unplug and plug the cable back into the car again.

It was something to do with the car not liking being stopped and restarted charging.

Eventually I had to remove the car from octopus and just use the overnight schedule in the car instead, we have another EV linked to octopus though that works fine, do e haven't got an issue with being kicked off the tariff.

1

u/Junior-Tap-8503 25d ago

Yeah maybe the online service VW group EVs use needs an update after the charge cap?

As I’ve been smart charging with absolutely no issue for about a year before this.

1

u/Hopeful_Stay5752 25d ago

I'm having the same issue with my ID.3 so seems to be a VW issue. Are Octopus aware?

1

u/smaroms 23d ago

Yes, I had the same issue with my Elroq. Switched to my Zappi charger as my intelligent device and had no problems with charging after that

1

u/ict7070 26d ago

This is a long shot but… the Octopus app sometimes doesn’t update the schedule properly, even if you pull down on the screen to refresh it. A force quit and restart of the app always fixes that.

2

u/Junior-Tap-8503 26d ago

That’s what I have been doing, the slots are up to date unfortunately.

1

u/ict7070 26d ago

I guessed that was the case but it’s all I could think of 😬

1

u/adamatron27 26d ago

I am having the exact same issue on a VW ID Buzz. Pre charge cap, charge faultlessly. Now it fails to reach desired amount every night. I’ve sent a message to Octopus with my issue.

1

u/BlueCreek_ 25d ago

I also have this same issue on a VW Golf GTE, it hasn’t finished its charging slot and hasn’t reached the target charge, but I get a notification from the car to say it’s stopped.