JuiceBox Woes

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Bought a Juice box Pro 40 and it started going offline. Would only go back online after unplugging and plugging it back in. They sent me another unit, same problem.

The new unit has a different faceplate but also a much thinner cable. Does that sound right? Did wire gauge technology make exponential progress in the last 6 months?
 
Nanewnanew said:
Bought a Juice box Pro 40 and it started going offline. Would only go back online after unplugging and plugging it back in. They sent me another unit, same problem.

The new unit has a different faceplate but also a much thinner cable. Does that sound right? Did wire gauge technology make exponential progress in the last 6 months?
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Me too. Mine even started blinking and beeping and stopped charging until rebooted. Had to replace with newer unit too with thinner cable. I checked and they are using lighter gauge wire now. They did have very fast and friendly customer service to replace.
 
V8Power said:
Me too. Mine even started blinking and beeping and stopped charging until rebooted. Had to replace with newer unit too with thinner cable. I checked and they are using lighter gauge wire now. They did have very fast and friendly customer service to replace.
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Okay thanks. Yes nice people although I never knew a charger could be such a pain. I regret buying it but it was so expensive that I guess I'll just live with the inability to use the app. Lame.
 
Nanewnanew said:
Okay thanks. Yes nice people although I never knew a charger could be such a pain. I regret buying it but it was so expensive that I guess I'll just live with the inability to use the app. Lame.
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Yes, don't give up yet... Your connectivity problem could very well be related to the robustness of your home network and radio propagation effects between the JuiceBox and your router. Adequate signal strength is sometimes elusive and it may not be obvious when you have a weak area. A WiFi extender is definitely worth trying.

Earlier in this same thread, I offered some thoughts along these lines:
https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/threads/juicebox-woes.1062/page-5#post-66581

Somebody else found some kind of interaction with other WiFi devices and fixed it by invoking a 'guest' network that was only used by the JuiceBox, and therefore it mitigated interaction with other devices.

I would bet (especially since you tried another unit) that the JuiceBox is OK, and you can fix this by tweaking your network a little. I can't speak for a specific extender device. In my case, I had another router lying around and it was easy for me to connect the second router closer to my garage with a hard ethernet running to it. Extenders are quite common, and solve a lot of problems.
 
MrFixit said:
Yes, don't give up yet... Your connectivity problem could very well be related to the robustness of your home network and radio propagation effects between the JuiceBox and your router. Adequate signal strength is sometimes elusive and it may not be obvious when you have a weak area. A WiFi extender is definitely worth trying.

Earlier in this same thread, I offered some thoughts along these lines:
https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/threads/juicebox-woes.1062/page-5#post-66581

Somebody else found some kind of interaction with other WiFi devices and fixed it by invoking a 'guest' network that was only used by the JuiceBox, and therefore it mitigated interaction with other devices.

I would bet (especially since you tried another unit) that the JuiceBox is OK, and you can fix this by tweaking your network a little. I can't speak for a specific extender device. In my case, I had another router lying around and it was easy for me to connect the second router closer to my garage with a hard ethernet running to it. Extenders are quite common, and solve a lot of problems.
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Thanks for the suggestions, I'll give them a shot.
 
Yes, don’t give up yet. My initial Juice Box Pro has connectivity issues, but the replacement has been perfect since I got it at the beginning of August.
 
Well, after a few months of fairly flawless operation, the "Deuce" (as in big #2) Box here has once again gone missing online for more than a week. Nothing seems to work for long with this POS box. Completely unreliable. Skip the obviously flawed wi-fi feature if you must buy - or better yet, buy a different product. I wish I had done that… as apparently others do as well. If it can't decipher a signal in a moderately congested wi-fi environment (which most residential areas are) then it makes better sense to find a box using a radio that can do so.
 
Sorry to hear. Mine is still going strong after they sent me the replacement. We'll see how long it lasts.
 
bfd said:
Well, after a few months of fairly flawless operation, the "Deuce" (as in big #2) Box here has once again gone missing online for more than a week. Nothing seems to work for long with this POS box. Completely unreliable. Skip the obviously flawed wi-fi feature if you must buy - or better yet, buy a different product. I wish I had done that… as apparently others do as well. If it can't decipher a signal in a moderately congested wi-fi environment (which most residential areas are) then it makes better sense to find a box using a radio that can do so.
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Too bad they didn't have a ethernet port on the box so you could hardwire it to your network and not bother with wifi. I think I'm going to skip on the Juicebox altogether and buy a Chinese $300 32amp evse from Amazon that does display the amount of power consumed for each session.
 
Or you could spend a little more and get a ChargePoint Home in either direct wire or plug in. I’m in the “buy once, cry once” camp myself. Mine hasn’t skipped a beat or given me a problem in almost 2 years and their customer service (when I caused the problem) was excellent.

I thinks it’s the EVSE equivalent of crossing Marilyn Monroe with the Maytag Repairman.

Here’s the proof and a look inside. It comes with all the mounting hardware including a drill bit and nut driver. And it doesn’t need a neutral so you save on 8-2 instead of 8-3 wiring. If you don’t hardwire, you hook up the plug to the 4 connections on the right.
That soft green glow greets me when I pull in the garage and lets me know she’s ready to go. The green glow changes to white if it loses the WiFi connection and to blue when charging so you know at a glance from across the garage.
6AFAD250-AAE9-4F29-AE11-010280174283.webp
C2C5E111-92F5-4E92-BC05-8E2386D1E163.webp
 
bfd said:
For those of you looking at a JuiceBox, I'd offer this cautionary tale… I bought one before Christmas and it worked fine until just a few weeks ago when it lost its way to the router. The support at eMotorwerks has been very helpful, we tried to revive the wifi on the box several ways, with no success. So they sent a replacement unit. I reinstalled the replacement unit only to find that it too can't connect. Not only that, but within two days, it lost its ability to transmit - no blue light at all. I reopened a ticket with eMotorwerks, but I haven't heard from support yet, so I don't know what they'll suggest.

I work with statistics, so I know it's quite possible to get two bad boxes without it being some kind of indictment of the mfgr as a whole. But it makes me wonder about the build on these boxes. I am hoping they'll send me another one (then I'll have three (!!) since I haven't even had time to return the first box yet).

So take this for what it's worth. I can say that support (so far) has been responsive and helpful in resolving this, but they can't fix boxes that are coming off the assembly line when they don't work. As always, YMMV.
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I have had a Juicebox for 2 years for another car. No problems.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
I bought my Juicebox Pro 40 in 2016 for my Nissan Leaf. I've had constant problems with it ever since. Luckily, the company has a great warranty and great customer service during the warranty. Enel-X has replaced my juicebox pro 40 twice under the three year warranty. Most recently in December 2019. It's like clockwork that the device lasts only 18 months. In March 2021, this week, my juicebox pro 40 shorted out and bit the dust. Enel-x will not help me replace it since it's outside the original 3 yr warranty but the device is less than 2yrs old. Like a clock, they are designed to fail.
Here's what failed in mine (see image)
20210325_111823.webp
 
Bummer - the Pro 40 do seem to be very problematic. I had 2 fail - the first lasted about a year, and the second much less time. It is some sort of ground fault failure. Luckily, the older cylindrical model has worked for 6+ years.

I only got the Pro 40 to get the wireless data function. The old one has the optional wireless board, but it required WMA and I never got it to work.
 
@B_Jazz, I'm sorry that your Pro 40 failed and that Enel-X isn't supporting a replacement. What are you considering for a replacement? I had connection issues with my first Pro 40 (see #52 and #155 above) but the replacement they sent me has worked flawlessly for the past 2 years. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will continue to do so -- I regularly use the wifi access so, in that regard, it has worked well for me.
 
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