Home Charger reviews by Tom Molougney

Tom, hope you get your hands on a Rivian home charger soon to review. I’ll be deciding between it and the ChargePoint. Leaning ChargePoint but a five-year warranty on the Rivian is a nice perk. Still like ChargePoint’s app.
I will definitely ask for one to review as soon as they are available
 
I will definitely ask for one to review as soon as they are available
I am owner of Charge Point. Purchased new from Amazon. Installed Oct 30 by licensed electrician even updated home panel to larger for safety reason. i use 6awg wire and connected to 50 amp breaker. Charger worked fine for 6 months and now issue that Charge point has no answer for.
been waiting 4 days for response and exhausting calls with charge point customer service. Not getting anywhere. Issue: charge point has to be reset after every charge. it faults with a RED light on the side. Mind you they say red light is supposed to be in the circle. they have no answers. Poor customer service. I purchased Charge point based on reviews. Stay away from charge point if you ever have an issue, You will be on your own.
I am hoping i will get an answer soon. current issue is Box make louds clicking sound and charges for an hour then stops.

I am going to purchase a Juice box to get by. In my opinion customer service is important. if a manufacturer cant offer customer service ina timely fashion then they should not make claims as to world class customer support.

My personal opinion stay away from Charge Point.
 
My personal opinion stay away from Charge Point
I'd be hesitant to make such a blanket statement based on a sample space of one.

Regarding Tom's excellent reviews including the HCS-40P, I offer a couple of corrections and experiences:
Clipper Creek has been around since the late 1990s. They built old J-1772 2009 version (aka AVCON) inductive chargers. These were replaced in 2009, the SAE finalized the J-1772-2009 standard. There were a few of public AVCON chargers still around in CA that I used with our Roadster using an AVCON -to- NEMA 14-50 adapter. They were extremely dependable then and continue to be.

We’ve been using a Clipper Creek CS-100 since 2009 — over 12 years but they’ve been making EV charging stations for over 20 years.

Regarding Clipper Creek’s nomenclature: Specifying the current for the circuit breaker and wiring, while, perhaps a bit confusing for the user, is arguably a safer approach than 80% that you could charge at. It is also consistent with NEC (National Electric Code) nomenclatures for electrical connectors (eg. NEMA 14-50 50 amp connector)

The Webasto Turbodock and Turbocord are much smaller than Wallbox. They are only 20 amp (charge at 16 amps) but might be worth comparing as they are easy to carry as a spare. Turbodock has an app. Turbocord is 120v Level 1 or 240v Level 2 with an adapter between the NEMA 5-15 and NEMA 6-20 plugs.

ChargePoint Home Flex: My company swapped out our Turbodocks for ChargePoint Home Flex; Overall, they’ve been quite good. We’ve had 3 or 4 out of our 24 of them go bad and need replacing and, on at least 1, the swivel head broke.

Overall great job Tom! I don't like videos as I prefer print where its easier to go at my speed, however, I actually went through a few of your videos.
 
I'd be hesitant to make such a blanket statement based on a sample space of one.


Regarding Tom's excellent reviews including the HCS-40P, I offer a couple of corrections and experiences:
Clipper Creek has been around since the late 1990s. They built old J-1772 2009 version (aka AVCON) inductive chargers. These were replaced in 2009, the SAE finalized the J-1772-2009 standard. There were a few of public AVCON chargers still around in CA that I used with our Roadster using an AVCON -to- NEMA 14-50 adapter. They were extremely dependable then and continue to be.

We’ve been using a Clipper Creek CS-100 since 2009 — over 12 years but they’ve been making EV charging stations for over 20 years.

Regarding Clipper Creek’s nomenclature: Specifying the current for the circuit breaker and wiring, while, perhaps a bit confusing for the user, is arguably a safer approach than 80% that you could charge at. It is also consistent with NEC (National Electric Code) nomenclatures for electrical connectors (eg. NEMA 14-50 50 amp connector)

The Webasto Turbodock and Turbocord are much smaller than Wallbox. They are only 20 amp (charge at 16 amps) but might be worth comparing as they are easy to carry as a spare. Turbodock has an app. Turbocord is 120v Level 1 or 240v Level 2 with an adapter between the NEMA 5-15 and NEMA 6-20 plugs.

ChargePoint Home Flex: My company swapped out our Turbodocks for ChargePoint Home Flex; Overall, they’ve been quite good. We’ve had 3 or 4 out of our 24 of them go bad and need replacing and, on at least 1, the swivel head broke.

Overall great job Tom! I don't like videos as I prefer print where its easier to go at my speed, however, I actually went through a few of your videos.

Thanks, @Earl. Oh, and judging from your knowledge of the history of ClipperCreek and the TurboCord, I assume you're the Earl that was on the EV discussion panel with Darell and me many moons ago? :)
 
Thanks, @Earl. Oh, and judging from your knowledge of the history of ClipperCreek and the TurboCord, I assume you're the Earl that was on the EV discussion panel with Darell and me many moons ago? :)
Hi Tom,
Yes, that's me, from the Oakland EVent. However, I'm done with this forum. I just stopped by out of curiosity while waiting for a meeting to start but don't plan on coming back much.
There are too many idiots and cyber-bullies on this forum. I don't mind either as I can handle them in an open forum by just countering their nonsense and obvious mis-truths. Unfortunately, however, the moderators let some of them run roughshod distorting the truth and facilitating them as they try to cyber bully folks who dare to question their stupid ideas.
I tried to help out on the Kona thread where some folks were trying to figure out what to replace theirs with. Some ?fools? were spreading incorrect nonsense that appeared to be mostly driven by Tesla hate. I tried to correct some of the errors that were being amplified as facts and was attacked as a Tesla Fanboi. The incompetent moderator, rather than damp the name-calling bullying I was receiving, chose, instead, to exile my posts into "Off topic" where they won't do any good for anyone. I had worked hard to try to listen to the concerns folks raised (in case they were genuine) about things that weren't true and address them.
I figure if the forum moderators here prefer to let garbage get amplified, support cyber bullying, and stifle the truth, it's a waste of my time. There are other places I can spend my time promoting EVs.
EVs are going to happen but this forum isn't helping much.
About the only thing of value here are your well-done reviews.
 
Thanks to Tom, I put this up Monday for a free L2 charger behind Propst Discount Drugs:
upload_2022-3-1_19-27-46.webp
  • cable holder is metal plate
  • cable from EVSE, JuiceBox 40, is double, black pull-tab secured
  • J1772 holster has no pins
  • four, concrete fasteners hold it to the wall
Bob Wilson
 
Thanks to Tom, I put this up Monday for a free L2 charger behind Propst Discount Drugs:
View attachment 15498
  • cable holder is metal plate
  • cable from EVSE, JuiceBox 40, is double, black pull-tab secured
  • J1772 holster has no pins
  • four, concrete fasteners hold it to the wall
Bob Wilson
Nice job. There are more than one location I can think of around these parts where a device like that could be utilized.
 
@Tom Moloughney is a long-time EV owner and advocate. He was involved in the BMW Mini-E program way back when, has hosted a public charging station for years, and conducts thorough tests on home charging equipment. He posts videos of these tests, along other great electric vehicle content on his channel, State of Charge.

Since home charging equipment (EVSE) is something many have questions about, I thought it makes since to feature his reviews here, so people can have a sense of what the best options might be for them.

I'll try to update this thread with new reviews as they're published.

Also note, he does not get a commission from sales and is not paid to do these reviews.

First up: the ChargePoint Home Flex



Would love to see a review of the Emporia Energy Smart EV Charger. $400 at Amazon.
 
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