new owner in Charleston, South Carolina

just picked up my Leaf and am going through the learning curve on its operation which is pretty easy. I waited almost a year to take ownership and am very excited about it. The manual says not to use an extension cord if you get into a situation where you must use the trinkle charger, however everyone I talk to says to use one as long as it is the three prong. Any pro's or con's on that?
Charleston, South Carolina

Just that you'll lose more power heating up the wires in an extension cord, so fewer of the kilojoules you pay for will actually make it into the LEAF's battery. Might not be too bad; probe the voltages at each end of the cord while the car's charging and see what the drop is.

Greetings from Beaufort SC. Good to see another Leafer in SC. My contact information is on PlugShare if you need to charge in Beaufort.

No information on using an extension cord. You must be a good distance from the plug. The charger cord that came with the Leaf is over 20ft long. I installed a L2 charger in my garage. Had an electrician put in a 240 line and purchased the charge station on E-Bay. The total cost was $1,350.

Which Charleston dealer did you get your Leaf from? While I was in Charleston last week I stoped by Morris and Hudson to get a charge. Both of the dealers were very accommodating.

Have fun,

BarryE

realestatetomtom said:

... however everyone I talk to says to use one as long as it is the three prong. Any pro's or con's on that? ...

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Get a heavy duty one that has 12 gauge wire, 10 gauge if it's more than 50ft. Avoid using one that's much longer than you need, and don't leave large amounts coiled up when you're using it as that can trap heat.

realestatetomtom said:

just picked up my Leaf and am going through the learning curve on its operation which is pretty easy. I waited almost a year to take ownership and am very excited about it. The manual says not to use an extension cord if you get into a situation where you must use the trinkle charger, however everyone I talk to says to use one as long as it is the three prong. Any pro's or con's on that?
Charleston, South Carolina

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It must be a three wire cord - must have ground.
A 50 foot extension of #14 copper wire will result in a voltage drop of about 3 volts input to the unmodified EVSE. If #12 copper wire, about 2 volts. The result will be a very small increase in charge time.

With an extension cord, you do lose the GFCI built into the EVSE.

Bill