Charger help

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Nikko508

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Hello everyone
I need some help with a charger I'm looking for a 110 15 Amp OUTSIDE charger that will charge faster than the one that came with the car.
I found a zencar 110 / 220 15/16 Amp on amazon but it says it needs a 20 Amp circuit to work and it should be used inside. i really dont get that but thats what it says.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
 
You will get more technical responses but unfortunately I don’t think there is such a cable. The limiting step is not the cable, but the power that can be provided continuously by a 115V 15A outlet. The original cable already draws all the current that such an outlet can continuously provide. If you want faster charging you need both a higher amperage (or voltage) circuit/outlet and a cable sized for that new outlet.


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jorgie393 said:
You will get more technical responses but unfortunately I don’t think there is such a cable. The limiting step is not the cable, but the power that can be provided continuously by a 115V 15A outlet. The original cable already draws all the current that such an outlet can continuously provide. If you want faster charging you need both a higher amperage (or voltage) circuit/outlet and a cable sized for that new outlet.


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Thats what im thinking but the discription on that charger is claiming that it charges 2 time ls faster than the stock charger I'm a little sceptical about it to be honest..
 
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The advertised charger will charge faster, but it requires at least a 20 amp circuit on 110 volts. (This would be 25% faster than stock).

To charge really fast, it would require a 20 amp circuit on 220 volts. (It would be over two times as fast as the stock charger).
 
First off, the charger is actually built into the car, and the EVSE provides power to it. As stated above, the limiting factor in your situation is what the available outlet (and circuit) can provide. A different EVSE will not provide a faster charge from that outlet (but may have the capability to charge faster from other outlet types).

In order to charge faster, you will need to install a higher power circuit and appropriate outlet and purchase an EVSE with matching capabilities. A 20A circuit can support a 16A EVSE, 30A will run a 24, 40 a 32 (this is the most the charger in the car will utilize).
 
The stock charger only draws 12 amps. This is the maximum recommended for a 15-amp circuit.

You do not want to use a 15-amp outlet for a device that draws 15-amps for long periods.
 
I use a Duosida dual voltage (120-240) charger in my garage to charge about 25% faster than the stock OEM Honda charger (120V).
maxresdefault.jpg

I had the electrician change out the NEMA 15 to 20 amp socket for L1 charging.

Works very well for daily charging as it finishes charging in about 7 hours instead of 9-10 hours.

I keep the Honda OEM charger in the trunk for travel.

As for rain, it's safe to use outdoors as the charger will not energize until it makes a complete connection to the car. Its on a GFCI 20A dedicated outlet.
 
I use an old 1998 vintage L2 charger at home (was originally AVCON and I changed the cable to J1772). It's a beast, rated at 40A, probably weighs 75 pounds, mounted on a couple of studs in the basement. I wired it with #6 copper and put a 40A breaker on it (since the most I plan to use it for right now is 32A for the Honda). For the travel charger, I was able to pick up one of the 2011-2012 Chevrolet Volt chargers that is switchable from 8A to 12A for about $65 delivered on Ebay. I like it in that if I am plugging in overnight somewhere and I don't know the circuit loading or capability, I can set the charger to 8A and not worry too much about throwing someone's breaker or overheating something (I still ask permission before doing this, it just limits the charging to about 1 kW as compared to 1.44 kW, and I'd hate to have to go back to whoever I asked permission from and tell them I had tripped a breaker). Since I was able to buy the travel charger pretty cheaply, I don't worry too much if someone decides to steal it. If that happens, I'll try to find another cheap one, or just quit trying to pick up those few "free" kWhs...
 
4sallypat said:
I use a Duosida dual voltage (120-240) charger in my garage to charge about 25% faster than the stock OEM Honda charger (120V).
maxresdefault.jpg

I had the electrician change out the NEMA 15 to 20 amp socket for L1 charging.

Works very well for daily charging as it finishes charging in about 7 hours instead of 9-10 hours.

I keep the Honda OEM charger in the trunk for travel.

As for rain, it's safe to use outdoors as the charger will not energize until it makes a complete connection to the car. Its on a GFCI 20A dedicated outlet.
Click to expand...

So I purchased that charger I couldn't use it on a 15 Amp 110 outlet, correct?
 
Nikko508 said:
So I purchased that charger I couldn't use it on a 15 Amp 110 outlet, correct?
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That is correct. You would not be able to use it (according to this anonymous internet 'expert'.)

It may or may not work... It would probably trip your breaker. If the breaker did not trip, you would be pushing the wiring to be a fire hazard.

The stock charger is the fastest charger that you can safely use on a 15-amp circuit.
 
Duosida / Zencar chargers needs a dedicated 20A circuit.
If you use it on a standard 15A household outlet, and shared with anything else, it may overload the circuit breaker.

You should have your electrician check to see if he can make it independent and change the 15A to 20A NEMA outlet.
My electrician, covered other outlets that shared the circuit, made the charger port a single 20A outlet making it dedicated.
He also added a GFCI trip on the circuit.
Then he replaced the breaker from 15A to 20A.
$85.

Here's what the 20A outlet looks like:
51dF2Y6dNRL._SL1038_.jpg
 
4sallypat said:
Then he replaced the breaker from 15A to 20A
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I have no reason to doubt the electrician involved here...

But in general, you cannot simply replace a 15A breaker with a 20A because the wiring is not compatible. A 20A circuit requires AWG 12 wiring. It is possible that AWG 12 was used with a 15A breaker, but more commonly the wiring would be AWG 14 and not support simply changing to the 20A breaker.
 
MrFixit said:
I have no reason to doubt the electrician involved here...

But in general, you cannot simply replace a 15A breaker with a 20A because the wiring is not compatible. A 20A circuit requires AWG 12 wiring. It is possible that AWG 12 was used with a 15A breaker, but more commonly the wiring would be AWG 14 and not support simply changing to the 20A breaker.
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Yes, my electrician confirmed that 12ga solid copper was used in the garage before he replaced the circuit breaker.

It was cheaper than trying to pull new copper wiring from the breaker box thru the limited space conduit. That extra conduit run for 240V would have cost me over $1200.

Much happier with an $85 solution...
 
Sandroad said:
Correct. No EVSE will supply more power to the car (safely) than the Honda EVSE if you have only a 15A outlet.
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Also worth noting that the Honda EVSE (or any other EVSE for that matter) needs to be on a circuit with nothing else plugged in - no fridge, freezer, etc.

Some EV's default to 8 amps on a 120V circuit for this vry reason. On some, you can change the default (BMW, i.e.), others you can set up geofencing that allows 12A charging for a "Home" location (Chevy Bolt, i.e.)
 
4sallypat said:
Yes, my electrician confirmed that 12ga solid copper was used in the garage before he replaced the circuit breaker.

It was cheaper than trying to pull new copper wiring from the breaker box thru the limited space conduit. That extra conduit run for 240V would have cost me over $1200.

Much happier with an $85 solution...
Click to expand...

@4sallypat - I don't know if you saw another thread here where a member wound up with a clever solution that seems very applicable to your scenario. As you describe it, you currently have a dedicated 20A AWG12 circuit going to your EVSE. If your electric box is not completely full, there is another 'trivial' upgrade available to you... All you need to do is replace the 20A breaker with a 2-pole 20A breaker, and change the garage receptacle an appropriate 220V NEMA 6-20 or similar. Voila - you then have Level 2.

Your Duosida EVSE is already dual-voltage.

With this, you will be even happier because it should be another ~$85 upgrade that will give you Level 2 without any complicated wiring changes. Your charge time will be reduced to a mere 4 hours. Well worth the small effort from where you are now !
 
MrFixit said:
@4sallypatIf your electric box is not completely full, there is another 'trivial' upgrade available to you... All you need to do is replace the 20A breaker with a 2-pole 20A breaker, and change the garage receptacle an appropriate 220V NEMA 6-20 or similar. Voila - you then have Level 2.
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Perhaps misunderstanding, but would he not need to pull an additional “hot” wire from the panel to the outlet for 240v?
 
No...

That's the beauty of it. The standard wiring is 12-3.
You can use the existing black and white wires for the 2-phases of the 220V and you have the safety ground.
An NEMA 6-20R 220V receptacle is set up for this.

It must be a dedicated circuit (or, if you are hijacking an existing non-dedicated circuit - you need to make it dedicated by capping off any other outlets on that run).

I will include the usual disclaimer about not being an electrician, but playing one on TV... It was a proclaimed electrician who brought this up as a possibility, and it was subsequently implemented. It was a long thread with a lot of back-and-forth before this solution was identified and implemented. I'll see if I can find it again.
 
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MrFixit said:
No...

That's the beauty of it. The standard wiring is 12-3.
You can use the existing black and white wires for the 2-phases of the 220V and you have the safety ground.
An NEMA 6-20R 220V receptacle is set up for this.

It must be a dedicated circuit (or, if you are hijacking an existing non-dedicated circuit - you need to make it dedicated by capping off any other outlets on that run).

I will include the usual disclaimer about not being an electrician, but playing one on TV... It was a proclaimed electrician who brought this up as a possibility, and it was subsequently implemented. It was a long thread with a lot of back-and-forth before this solution was identified and implemented. I'll see if I can find it again.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. IF it is a dedicated circuit, it is in theory easily changeable to a 240v from a 120v. It requires only a change of breaker in the box.

You do not need to pull a third wire, because you are just changing the use of the existing two conductors: you had a 120 V “hot “wire plus a neutral, and are changing to a configuration with two 120 V “hot “wires that are out of phase and therefore make 240 V between them.

This arrangement is quite suitable for a car charger, which only needs 240 V. It is not suitable for certain appliances, such as most dryers in the lake, because those also expect a neutral so that they can separately have 120 V power available to them.

Not an electrician, etc. (though I used to work for one).






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