Garage door mod for charger

With my 25' charging cord, it can barely reach from my garage wall out to the driveway for charging. I was thinking it may be cool to put some kind of flap or removable small door on the garage door do that I could get the charger outside without having to raise the garage door up and down when charging.

Has anyone done anything similar to this? I was looking for ideas that anyone may have done already...

Thanks,
Harry

I would think a pet door would work.

http://www.petdoors.com/pet-doors/manual-pet-doors/pet-doors-for-doors.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It says there that you'd want a self-framing pet door for a garage because the garage door is hollow.

I found this on the web that I may check into:

http://ddmgaragedoors.com/parts/exhaust_ports.html

The only thing to keep in mind is that there would be no way to prevent the door from being operated while the cord is going through whatever. That would be BAD. I lay my cord in the expansion joint where the driveway meets the garage floor. If the door opener is properly adjusted it does not crush the edge seal. So only the edge seal touches the cord. Been working fine for three years now. And, I can open & close the garage door as much as I want without touching the charge cord. After all, That door is meant to be used sometimes when the LEAF stays home.

I use my old school garage door remote to stop the door going down at the point where the seal just starts to kiss the EVSE cord. Has worked fine for me for nearly 4 years. You can't do this with the Homelink however, as the remote built into it does not have anywhere near the sensitivity.

Am I right in thinking that the OP's cord is too short for that, and it needs to be up off the ground a few inches?

rawhog said:

The only thing to keep in mind is that there would be no way to prevent the door from being operated while the cord is going through whatever. That would be BAD. I lay my cord in the expansion joint where the driveway meets the garage floor. If the door opener is properly adjusted it does not crush the edge seal. So only the edge seal touches the cord. Been working fine for three years now. And, I can open & close the garage door as much as I want without touching the charge cord. After all, That door is meant to be used sometimes when the LEAF stays home.

Click to expand...

If the bottom was open, there is no issue. But, if there is sufficient slack so that the cord interrupts the light beam before anything is damaged, then there should also not be an issue, I would think. The light beam on my door is a bit less than a foot off the floor.

mwalsh said:

I use my old school garage door remote to stop the door going down at the point where the seal just starts to kiss the EVSE cord. Has worked fine for me for nearly 4 years. You can't do this with the Homelink however, as the remote built into it does not have anywhere near the sensitivity.

Am I right in thinking that the OP's cord is too short for that, and it needs to be up off the ground a few inches?

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions. No, the cord can reach without having to be suspended off the ground. What I have been doing this past week is letting my garage door close on the cable. The cable isn't thick enough to trigger the "auto-raise" due to an obstruction and I can still wiggle the cord a bit so I am making an assumption that the cable isn't being pinched too much?

Thanks,
Harry

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=15077" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

cord goes under the garage door and the bottom strip conforms around cord.

http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/comment/1921410/#Comment_1921410" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; discusses how he cut a groove in the concrete slab to remove the pressure from the door seal material. I'm thinking you could make the cut narrower to reduce airflow in/out of the garage. Ideally you'd make the cut the exact depth and width needed to let the cable fill the cut and still be just below the hard part of the garage door.

dhanson865 said:

... http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/comment/1921410/#Comment_1921410" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; discusses how he cut a groove in the concrete slab to remove the pressure from the door seal material. I'm thinking you could make the cut narrower to reduce airflow in/out of the garage. Ideally you'd make the cut the exact depth and width needed to let the cable fill the cut and still be just below the hard part of the garage door.

Click to expand...

The problem with that isn't the air getting, it's the mice and rats. They can squeeze through such an opening almost no matter how small you make it.

davewill said:

dhanson865 said:

... http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/comment/1921410/#Comment_1921410" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; discusses how he cut a groove in the concrete slab to remove the pressure from the door seal material. I'm thinking you could make the cut narrower to reduce airflow in/out of the garage. Ideally you'd make the cut the exact depth and width needed to let the cable fill the cut and still be just below the hard part of the garage door.

Click to expand...

The problem with that isn't the air getting, it's the mice and rats. They can squeeze through such an opening almost no matter how small you make it.

Click to expand...

you could make a half gasket, kind of like boat gunnel molding and cement it into the channel, get it the right size so you pressure fit the cable into the channel and then close the door over it, there wouldn't have to be an opening large enough for a mouse to notice.

Really a determined enough mouse could go under my garage doors now, the doors are several inches above the ground as the bottom rubber extends down below the door something like the thickness of my fist uncompressed and then compresses down depending on the slope of the concrete. I'm positive at least part of my garage door is high enough off the ground that no channel needs to be dug, the animal could just chew threw the plastic/rubber or muscle their way under it.

I can't imagine that a channel of the right size would reduce the security of the door so long as you always have the cable in the channel. I could see the empty channel being an in for the animal if you put the cable inside the garage door but that isn't much different than how insecure the door is when fully open. You have the option of closing it with the cable in place.

I'll try to post a pic when I get home... But I solved this with a long 2" x 1/2" strip of wood (about 8'). Should cost less than about $3 on your local hardware store.

I just cut the strip about 1" (or the width of your cable) shorter than the length of my garage door, laid it on the floor exactly where the door closes, and passed the cable on the strip end that is shorter.

Here it is... not rocket science - and there was even room for a cord extension for my xmas lights.