Recommended brand for level 2 plug in

We didn't want to spend the money for a new 240v connection in our garage because we know it would be quite costly for us. Our breaker panel is old with 125 amp. It's already maxed out with no more space left for a new breaker. We would need to upgrade it to 200 amp to meet new code, or install a sub-panel. We could smell thousands of $$$$ for this upgrade.

So instead, we've decided to use our existing 10-30P dryer plug for Level 2 charging. We bought a Duosida Level 2 charger with 10-30P Dryer Plug on EBay for $189 (free shipping, no tax). It's been working very well for us. It takes about 4 hours 10 mins to charge from empty, instead of 12 hours 30 mins using Level 1 charger. We plan to get an unit from Dryer Buddy so that we can keep both dryer and Duosida plugged in at all time.

 

I purchased a ChargePoint unit from Amazon. Love the WiFi but better yet is the units ability to synchronize with my hydro company’s seasonally changed time of use charges. It automatically creates a schedule to start charging when the utility rate drops to the low rate. And automatically changes the schedule when my utility company (hydro one) changes to summer time of use rates.

 

I am in a similar situation as you (only 100A service) and upgrading to 200A was cost prohibitive.

You can always make room in the panel by using spacing saving (thin) breakers to group together a bunch of 15A’s.

I added a new 40A breaker for the Chargepoint (same circuit draw as stove). While it technically fails a load calculation and wouldn’t pass inspection, unless I run it with the stove drawing max amperage (e.g. making Christmas dinner), I won’t overload and trip the 100A panel.

Given that 95% of the time I’ll be charging overnight, I don’t foresee any problems not being able to cook up a storm in the middle of the night. Lol.

And for the few times I’d charge on a weekend during the day, that would be a day I am out and about and wouldn’t be a cooking marathon either.

Electrical code is designed to keep you safe (avoid fires). There are always exceptions where you can justify that safety hasn’t been compromised.


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I have a rarely used 240v dryer outlet in my garage with a 30 amp breaker. I decided to be a minimalist and get a 16 amp 240v Zencar charger on Amazon. It was just $260 plus tax. I could have purchased a 24 amp charger, but they were $500 and up.

It works well. I would enjoy some more features, but I am able to charge the car in about 4 hours...so it does what I need it to do.

 

How do override charging timer?

 

If its the timer in the Clarity just press and hold the button that opens the charge door. The car will beep and start charging, which you can confirm with the green charging LED.

geo

 

Thanks. I knew that, but is there a way to do the override in the vehicle?

 

Here’s my cheapskate method to get 32 amp Level 2 charging with Internet monitoring of energy. Helped to have newer (20 yr old) house with 200 amp service.

-I bought an open box, direct wire ChargePoint off EBay for $450. Comes w mounting hardware (even drill bit and nut-driver bit) and the hookup is easy-peasy spring loaded push tabs.
-25ft of NM-B 8/2 wire for $27 (If you need 50 ft it’s $55) and $9 for a 40 amp breaker. (Home Depot)
-locate stud in garage wall, use provided template to drill opening in drywall, go to attic and drill through top plate of wall and fish wire to breaker panel. (My panel was in garage and I cut an opening above it to fish wire and covered it with a $10 louvered air vent cover
-Pay licensed electrician to connect wire and breaker to panel so you never mess with live wires and have proof of code following installation. My electrician charged $100 for the service call and was in and out in under an hour

So if your a DIYer (even with no desire to play w electricity like me) and you do the grunt work, you can get it all for
as little as $600-$625 (depending on how much wire you have to buy). If I did not have easy access to attic, I could have installed surface conduit, pulled wire and let electrician do similar hook up.

Notice the green glow of success and green WiFi led indicator in last pix.

 

A flaw using the charging timer. I have it set for 8:10 pm to use the least expensive power. If the car is plugged in after that time it will not charge unless one uses the Start Charging button in the app. In the Leaf it would start charging as long as it was plugged in after the start time and before the stop time. Oh wait, there is no way to pick a range of charging time, nor is there a second timer available. The Leaf had 2 timers. I used one

 

It was too annoying to have to start charging using the fob when I was at public stations during the day so I turned off the timer on the Clarity and use the timer on my OpenEVSE charging station. If I need to charge when the OpenEVSE is in it's paused state I just press the button on the front of the station and it starts up.
One nice feature for the OpenEVSE is that the display glows violet when it's paused and green when it is ready or active so it's easy to see the state it's in.

geo

 

I would also second spending a little more money to get one that has Wi-Fi capability and one that also tracks the KwH being used by the car. Originally purchased the cheaper Siemen's EVSE which worked fine but then upgraded to the more expensive one with Wi-Fi for the connectivity and data tracking capability. Nice to know exactly how much we're spending on the car.

 

The HondaLink app lets you set the start and stop time. I use that to try to avoid having a 100% charge so I don't have to deal with the ICE starting on a full battery when I drive down the hill from my house.

 

A flaw using the charging timer. I have it set for 8:10 pm to use the least expensive power. If the car is plugged in after that time it will not charge unless one uses the Start Charging button in the app. In the Leaf, it would start charging as long as it was plugged in after the start time and before the stop time. Oh wait, there is no way to pick a range of charging time, nor is there a second timer available. The Leaf had 2 timers. I used one for the weekend when power is cheap all day.

What happens if you plug it in after the start time?

 

No love.

BTW...I bought the Jekayla 32A charger through Amazon and it has worked really well. It has a (small) digital screen on it that keeps cumulative track of the KwH that it send to the car. No wi-fi, but at least I can see how much juice I'm using.

 

I've been using a Siemens charger for our Honda Clarity PHEV for almost five months, charging almost every night, and it meets my need perfectly, with no problems so far. I had an electrician wire in a new circuit. He provided and installed the dual 40 Amp CB, about 40 feet of #8-3 romex, the receptacle and box, along with, incidentally, a 20 amp circuit and 30 feet of #12-3 wiring and receptacle for a garage refrigerator, all for $350, but of course every installation is different. The advice by others to get several bids is a good one. To be honest, though, I was so happy with the $350, I just went with that bid, and the electrician did a great job, with all wiring hidden behind the walls in the garage.

I found that I really wanted to be able to monitor the power used by the charger, so I later added in an EKM kWh meter, purchased directly from them. I bought the Meter (EKM-25IDS) for $90, and an Indoor Enclosure Kit (EKM-IENC) for $40. They charged $14 for 2-day shipping via USPS. It was shipped within hours of the order placement from Santa Cruz, CA, and delivered to me in North Carolina in less than 48 hours, and I wired it in myself. I'm really happy having that meter.

I also wanted to avoid the possibility that the charger would be active during a power outage that had activated our whole-house generator, and could put a massive, instantaneous (7.2 KW) load on our generator, so I installed a home brew power failure detection circuit that drives the Remote Control feature of the charger to block any charging until line power has been restored, and I have manually reset it.

 

Getting multiple quotes was definitely the right idea. What was interesting was that it was all over the place. The first couple of guys came in around $1500 and the next three about $750. Just completed install for $725 (not counting $500 rebate from utility towards install, net cost $225). Glad took the advice to get multiple quotes!! Went with the Siemens hardwired option from Amazon for $409. Am on storage rate with utility (power is available only from 11pm-7am, charged at 4.4c/kwh).

 

I would also suggest having the electrician run 6/3 rather than 8/3.

Costs a little extra but in the future if you end up with a vehicle that can charge at higher rates you just change the breaker and the charger. Peanuts to upgrade since the main fee an electrician is charging for is to run cable.


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Have any of you experienced a problem with Siemen’s WiFi VersiChargeSG mobile app returning an “unknown Error” even though the charger is working perfectly? Also can’t log into VersiChargeSG.com. Is their web site down? Really a bummer as I’m tracking daily KWh usage and haven’t been able to for 2 days now.


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Agreed. After quite a bit of research into the many charging stations on the market, I concluded that the Siemens plug-in version was the best value. I also concluded that all the smartphone WiFi stuff I could want is already in the Honda Link app anyway, so why pay extra for a charger with WiFi just to inform the charger's manufacturer (and who knows who else) of your use patterns of your own charger (I like privacy, too)? Hint: if you are a veteran, you can get an additional 10% off the cost if you buy it from the big box home improvement store with a blue logo, or from their online <dot>com store. And, depending on where you live, you might qualify for some credit or other incentive from your local government and/or electric utility.

 

The $1,500 does sound high to me too, although I have no actual quotes for an installation effort of your scale. Mine was for a new receptacle just a few inches from the existing breaker box and cost $170 for the electrician. I bought the parts (receptacle, box, cover plate, breaker) for less than $35 at a big box store, while the electrician provided the cable.

By the way, you should consider whether you want to have the electrician pull a local permit for the work. Here, the cost of a permit to the city ran only $25, and having a permit and city inspection of the finished work is required by some charger manufacturers to validate their factory warranty of the charger unit itself.