One click as a session starts, and another as it ends, is the charger’s contactor — the heavy internal switch — doing its job. Clicking that repeats while the car should be charging steadily is a different sound: each click is a session dropping and the charger trying again. The pattern is the evidence: when it clicks, how often, and what shows alongside.
Key Takeaways
- A click at the start and end of a session is the contactor by design; repeated clicking mid-session is a session dropping and restarting.
- Read the pattern first — timing, interval, message — before changing anything.
- The driver is one of four classes: supply, protection, the car, or the unit itself.
- Clicking with heat, a smell, a fault light or trips ends home diagnosis: escalate, with your record.
Reading the Pattern
The contactor closes only when the start checks pass, and opens when one fails. Repeated clicking mid-session means a check passes, then fails: the loop is the symptom, and the table’s classes are what drives it.
| Pattern | The class it points to | First move |
|---|---|---|
| Clicking starts minutes into every session; charging comes in bursts | A protective check cycling, or the supply dipping under load | Note the timing and what else is running in the building; repeating across days makes it installer and manufacturer territory. |
| Clicks that line up with the car pausing or finishing | Car-side behaviour: the vehicle ends, holds or re-requests the session — a charge limit, or its own schedule edges | Read the car’s charge settings before touching the charger. |
| Clicking together with a fault light or a message | A protective stop that keeps retrying | End the session; the message, verbatim, is the report support needs. |
| Clicking with no car connected at all | Not a session problem — the unit is cycling by itself | Stop using it; contact the manufacturer with the record. |
The Classes Behind a Dropping Session
- The supply, under load. Charging is the heaviest continuous load in most buildings; a supply that sags under it drops the session, which restarts — over and over.
- Protection, cycling. A unit protecting itself (heat protection is this class’s common shape) stops, recovers, retries. The cycling is protection working in a loop; the cause is what it protects against.
- The car, pausing. Vehicles pause and resume sessions for their own reasons; every pause is a contactor cycle at the charger.
- The unit itself. A failing charger drops its own sessions — the service class, identified by elimination: the pattern survives a different car and a quiet supply.
Clicking at plug-in, before a session begins, is a separate pattern with separate causes.
Your Moves — and the Stop Rule
- Record before you act: how far into the session it starts, the interval between clicks, any message verbatim, and whether the car gained charge.
- One clean restart at most. A routine of restarts hides the pattern and leaves the cause in place.
- Gather isolation evidence: a different car, a different time of day — observations made entirely from outside the unit, each halving the problem. The driver’s checklist for a charger that is not working orders the general checks.
- Stop and escalate if the clicking comes with heat, a hot plug, a smell, a fault light or a tripping breaker. Chatter plus heat ends home diagnosis — manufacturer or licensed electrician. The signs in our guide to charging cables and heat mark the same boundary.
What Normal Sounds Like on EVDANCE Chargers
The EV-AC03201T dual-connector AC station (two Type 2 connectors, up to 43 kW shared) and the EV-ACT5006T 48A Level 2 wall charger both switch sessions with contactors — a click at each start and end is by design, as on any charger. EVDANCE listings state ratings and features, not sound behaviour, and no listing promises repeated cycling. Report it as a session problem, with your pattern record. EVDANCE chargers carry a 3-year standard warranty; the route is the contact page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is any clicking during a session normal?
A single click tied to a session starting, ending or the car pausing is the switch working. A repeating cycle, seconds or minutes apart, is a session dropping and restarting — never a feature.
It clicks every few minutes, but the car does charge. Can I leave it?
Charging in bursts is still a fault pattern: the switch cycles far more than it was designed to, and whatever drops the session — supply, protection or the unit — stays unaddressed. Record it and report it; do not let it run all night.
Why does it click when nothing is plugged in?
With no car connected there is no session to drop, so the cycling is the unit’s own. Stop using it and contact the manufacturer with when it happens and what it shows — a service report, not a setting.
Related Reading
- Why Is My Electric Car Charger Not Working? A Driver’s Checklist
- Are Home EV Chargers Safe?
- Do EV Charging Cables Get Hot?
