Suggestions for Portable/Adjustable EVSE

[cwerdna]

Re: Mustart, via https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/musta ... ost-719644, TIL of this pretty damning report on that brand at https://www.macheforum.com/site/attachm ... pdf.51197/.

It's yet another reason to stay away from no-name random EVSEs on places like Amazon.

[jjeff]

I've had no issues with the several "no name, Chinese" EVSEs I've purchased off Amazon and even directly from China, although I've never ordered off Alibaba, I ordered directly from the Chinese mfg, Zencar in my case.
Zencar is possibly the top of the line "Cheap Chinese EVSE mfg" but as they were getting a bit expensive for my tastes, I ordered an even cheaper EVSE off Amazon for my last purchase
I ended up ordering an "Anbull" Level 1-2 adjustable EVSE 16a off Amazon. The price was a crazy cheap $114.99 (currently $145 due to Amazon's Yo-Yo pricing) and I couldn't be happier. Nice cords, nice options, great price. Note as it will max out at 16a and has no "dummy proofing" if you set it to 16a and plug it into a 15a circuit, well you're probably going to see smoke but that's not the fault of the EVSE, IMO it's an "operator error" but people are always looking to place blame and the mirror is the last place they want to look.
Look, I'm not saying one can't buy crap and possibly unsafe products off Amazon, and to a greater degree eBay and an even greater degree off something like Alibaba or even worse but one just needs to do their due diligence. Looking for my latest EVSE I saw even cheaper EVSEs on Alibaba but they just didn't seem Kosher to me, I'm glad we live in a country where we can mostly purchase what we want(ya I'm talking about "chicken tax"!!) not that I think someone should be able to sell something that is obviously unsafe and dangerous but hey, I've been using no-name EVSEs since '14 and using a little common sense, haven't gotten a shock nor blown up my car
Read reviews but take some with a grain of salt, I seriously believe sellers are starting(and probably have for some time) put out fake reviews, good and bad, which I don't like but again try and gain a consensus and try and sus out ones that are overly positive or negative. It's one reason I like to post my experiences on EVSEs here on MNL, I have nothing to gain if someone purchases something I've given a good review on or the opposite on a negative review, of course with everything YMMV
I have no personal experience with the Mustart EVSE quoted but just looking at I'd probably go with something different.

[cwerdna]

Every now and then, we keep hearing of more victims of Mustmelt (melted and/or damaged J1772 inlets). This is besides some other possible issues like what Nissan found when testing them.

https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/updat ... low.43499/ was a recent one. It began with https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/canno ... ier.43462/ and from https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/canno ... ost-714817, sure enough, Mustmelt struck again.

[jjeff]

I do worry about that at times, most often when using public L2 EVSEs. In that case, I've kind of made it a habit of looking inside the J1772 connector to see if I can see any obvious meeting or discoloring of the plastic. I pretty much never see it but did notice it at once at a dual cable, free ChargePoint EVSE. Luckily no one was using the other cable, which looked fine so just used it. When I got home I also filed a report with ChargePoint. I had kind of forgotten about it until well over a month later when I got a response back that my report had been fixed, took them a long time though.
That kind of got me thinking, I know in the case of at least the old Nissan OEM EVSEs they had a heat sensor in the wall plug that would stop? charging if it got hot, to help eliminate fires. I wonder why Nissan and other mfgs. don't incorporate a heat sensor in their J1772 inlet. If it detects too much heat it either cuts the charging amperage or stops charging altogether. Can't believe it would add that much cost to the car and if it were to save a melted J1772 inlet or even yours or a public station's J1772 plug, it would be worth it, I wonder if any mfgs. incorporate such a sensor in their cars?

[SageBrush]

Mustart is a safety issue, but warranty and customer service should also be considered.

I was reminded of this yesterday when my wife brought me a battery powered hedge trimmer to try to fix. The motor made spinning sounds but the blade did not move. I found a gear that had a broken off piece, and ground up teeth. Not great for a 9 month old device that cost $100.

But it had a 1 year warranty so I called Amazon. It took about 10 - 15 minutes of my time to have them set up a free replacement product for me, along with a free return shipping label to send them the broken product.