Recommended EVSE Upgrade equipment?

So less than a week in to having my Leaf we are realizing that the supplied 120v charger is woefully inadequate. After my wife almost ran out of juice twice from charging to 80% we will be charging to 100% except when we know we won't be using it much the next day. Charging all night last night starting at about 50% it was only at 93% when we got up this morning. My wife drove it around this morning and was at 60%. Since she wanted to drive it again this evening she plugged it back in. Whe she left a little while ago she was back at 93%.

I am worried that charging like this for a long period will be bad for it? We are in Bellingham WA so even though it's pretty hot lately, our climate is normally pretty mild.

So I need to be able to fully charge it overnight. After researching it looks like the Turbocord is a good and easy option. We have a dryer within reach of the garage and could run the cord on 240 from the dryer outlet to the charger for a much faster charge. The downside is that option would only be available when we don't need to use the dryer.

Do any of you use the Turbocord, or have most of you had an electrician install one of the garage chargers directly into your breaker box? Thanks for comments.

Sharing the dryer outlet with the car charger should only be a short term solution. Over time, the contacts in the outlet will wear and that can lead to arcing and fire. I would recommend getting a 240 volt EVSE installed in the garage by an electrician. I installed my own, but not everyone is comfortable with, or capable of, doing it. There are many options available. I went with the $399 unit from Home Depot. http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-EV-Charger-Indoor-Outdoor-Level-2-DuraStation-Wall-Mount-with-18-ft-Cord-EVDSWGH-CP01/205808537

If you are using a standard dryer outlet of 30A then you are limited to 24A.

OpenEVSE supports this current.

In my retirement I build EVSE's to keep busy. I only change for .the parts I use. A 50A evse less the Ji772 cable is $235 plus $25 for shipping. I can supply a 32A J1772 15 ft used cable for $115 ( My Ebay cost) or you can purchase a 40A cable from Quick Charge Power. It depends on the car. Except for Tesla cars and drive trains most cares require 30A or less. A current Leaf draws 27.5A.

All J1772 complaint cars obey the Pilot signal. If the EVSE says 24A then the Leaf must obey and charge at 24A even though it could charge at 26.5A.

I'm surprised nobody has yet recommended the actual EVSE Upgrade. The business owner is a member here, and for about $300 or so will take your stock 120 volt EVSE and make it dual voltage. Throw an adapter on and you can charge back at 120 volts again for when having dry clothes is more important than a faster charge :lol:

Look at the Marketplace section of this forum. Many people trade their upgraded EVSE's for stock ones when they trade or lease-return their Leafs.

I and probably most LEAF owners have installed a 30a EVSE. If you can afford that option, I'd do that rather than deal with the hassle of plugging and unplugging my dryer all the time. Anyway the TurboCord will work and it will charge the car about 3 times faster than the 120v option you're using now. Several people have chimed in with other options for using the dryer plug.

Before I found out about the cable upgrade options I ordered the Clipper Creek HCS-40. I was very fortunate a friend who happens to be an electrician was so excited that we got a Leaf that he came over and installed a 50 amp circuit with a Nema 6-50 plug for us. I'll be all set as soon as it gets here.

If you are going to go to the trouble to pay an electrician to install a 240v receptacle and circuit, go ahead and install a 40amp (#8 wire) one that can drive EVSE up to 32 amps. I bought the GE unit from HomeDepot.com for $399 plus sales tax and free shipping and installed it myself (but then again I bent all the conduit and wired my entire 60x60 steel building that is my aircraft hangar/shop/garage in the backyard. The Electrician is going to get the same labor to install a 40 amp circuit as a 30 amp or a 20 amp, and this GE charger is the cheapest thing going. The only thing that costs more on the higher amp installs is the wire, but that is not THAT much more. Do it once, do it right.

Edit: I'm making one grand assumption here, and that is that you got a LEAF with a DC fast charger package and the higher amp 6.6Kw charger If you don't have the Fast Charge package, you most likely have the 3.3Kw charger only and the 30 amp EVSE won't do you any good because it will step down to what the car demands, unless you upgrade cars some day. For the money, I'd still go with more........ more is better.... future proofing.

It aint purdy, but it works just like any of the others.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-EV-Ch...-Mount-with-18-ft-Cord-EVDSWGH-CP01/205808537

I have to say that after a few weeks with the clipper creek level 2 charger things are very different than with just a trickle charger. Now we can charge to just 80% over night and my wife can go out and run errands in the morning, come home for lunch and in 1-1.5 hours get from 40% back to 80% and go out again for her afternoon errands without worrying about running out. Our range anxiety is drastically reduced now.

^^^
So, you had the Clipper Creek HCS-40 installed?

Yes. Love it.

Thank you for the heads-up ! I am looking for a charger so I can go home for lunch too and run errands, or let my son use my car at nights and hope I make it to and from work the next day =) And was looking for an affordable price ! $399 is nice and even better since I have a $100 gift card for Home Depot !

S

CharlesinGA said:

If you are going to go to the trouble to pay an electrician to install a 240v receptacle and circuit, go ahead and install a 40amp (#8 wire) one that can drive EVSE up to 32 amps. I bought the GE unit from HomeDepot.com for $399 plus sales tax and free shipping and installed it myself (but then again I bent all the conduit and wired my entire 60x60 steel building that is my aircraft hangar/shop/garage in the backyard. The Electrician is going to get the same labor to install a 40 amp circuit as a 30 amp or a 20 amp, and this GE charger is the cheapest thing going. The only thing that costs more on the higher amp installs is the wire, but that is not THAT much more. Do it once, do it right.

Edit: I'm making one grand assumption here, and that is that you got a LEAF with a DC fast charger package and the higher amp 6.6Kw charger If you don't have the Fast Charge package, you most likely have the 3.3Kw charger only and the 30 amp EVSE won't do you any good because it will step down to what the car demands, unless you upgrade cars some day. For the money, I'd still go with more........ more is better.... future proofing.

It aint purdy, but it works just like any of the others.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-EV-Ch...-Mount-with-18-ft-Cord-EVDSWGH-CP01/205808537

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