Which charger to buy?

Hi All,

Just got my Rav4.

I am looking for an affordable charger, cheaper the better without sacrificing functionality or quality.

My commute is 100 miles roundtrip. I can charge at work if needed but I prefer to charge at home as much as possible to avoid rediculous blink fees.

I am renting a house, so I cannot do a hardwired charger.

I think I want at least a 30A charger, but 40A would be nice too though most of my charges will be overnight, so I dont think there will be that much of a difference.

Which do you guys recommend? I have seen mentions of Glenn and OpenEVSE, Clipper Creek, and several others.

Is there something that will fit my budget of 400-600?

Thanks

You really want a minimum of a 30A charging station. Those really start at $600. Clipper Creek, Leviton, Bosch, Siemens, and GE all have 30A or 32A stations that are about $600. If I was buying one today, I would either buy the Clipper Creek HCS-40P (30A, $644 with plug) or the Leviton EVB40-PST (40A, $949)

Pushing the price down to $500 for a 32A unit like a JuiceBox from eMotorWerks isn't worth it to me. Now, if you're going to set that up for 40A with a beefier J1772 cable, then the cost difference to the Leviton is more significant. Just be careful on the eMotorWerks JuiceBox ordering page. It's easy to end up with something that is not plug and play, especially when you're trying to keep the cost down by leaving off options.

Hopefully you already have access to a 240V outlet. You should make sure to check what its capability is before you order anything because most of these charging stations have fixed requirements for circuit capacity. For example, if you have access to a dryer outlet, none of the above will work, except maybe the Siemens because it's adjustable inside. The reason they won't work is a dryer outlet is only 30A and the charging station cannot exceed 80% of the outlet rating, so 30A is derated to 24A. The only high quality and affordable plug and play station for a dryer outlet that I know of is the Clipper Creek LCS-25P but it only delivers 20A to the car when 24A is allowed by code. I don't know why they don't offer another model at 24A - it's just a firmware change.

The garage has a box and conduit pre made for an EV outlet. Had an electrician give me a quote of $150 to install and landlord will split it with me so electrician said to pick one so he can wire it to fit the charger i get.

So clipper creek might be my best option? That was my initial choice.

Here you go. Pair that with an excellent, highly-flexible 40-amp cable from Quick Charge Power, as Glenn recommends, and you can charge at the full 40 amps for ~$350. Plus it's easy to take with you to charge at RV parks and the like or when you move to another house, and it's adjustable to charge at lesser outlets if need be. These are incredibly simple devices. A "kit" EVSE like this Juicebox or an openEVSE offers more functionality than any "retail" EVSE for less than 1/2 the price. And whatever you end up getting, you can just tell the electrician now to do a 50-amp 4-wire circuit and slap a NEMA 14-50 on it.

Oh, and whatever you do DON'T get the Clipper Creek LC2-25! It won't work with the car's charge timer because the car will look at its 20 amp pilot and assume it's a 120v EVSE. Also for 100 miles of driving a day you'll probably want the full 40 amps.

CONGRATS!!!

I also highly recommend the JuiceBox Glenn has for sale here. It's a STEAL at only ~$350, which I believe would include a 240V/40A rated output cable, essential for use with a RAV4 EV.

http://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1202.

This "JuiceBox Basic" EVSE is just about the most bang for the buck there is! It will save you hundreds of dollars! The only caveat, it is not UL approved. Some people think that is an important consideration, and should even be "required". That is not to say a JB EVSE is not "safe" to use, just that it is not (yet?) UL listed. The Electrician you hire and how he goes about installing a 240Vac receptacle to use it, is really, in many ways, far more IMPORTANT for any safety concerns! But there is no free lunch, a UL listed. commercially available, L2 capable EVSE, up to the fast charging requirements of a RAV EV, will generally cost up to a $1000 more. It's up to you to decide if just to have the UL logo on the product is really worth the extra money.

Besides the fully commercial chargers, there are the ones that have been assembled from kits by members of the forum. I have an OpenEVSE charger assembled by GlennD that has a Quick Charge Power 40A J1772 cable attached. It is designed to plug into a 14-50 Receptacle (50A breaker) and will deliver 40A. If your breaker box won't take a 50A breaker, the plug has been modified to also plug into a 14-30 receptacle (30A breaker) but will then only safely run at 24A. The unit is portable and can be used with many different power sources (you just need the proper conversion cable). Output current can be set by pushbutton on the front panel. Voltage and current is displayed. It will run on 120V (L1) but not reliably.

I am only selling this unit as I had GlennD build me another unit that will reliably run on both L1 and L2.

I am asking $425 plus shipping. Depending on where you live, I may be able to deliver.

Oh, I forgot to mention I have a Leviton "L2" EVSE up for sale ($700 will call to anyone living in the SF Bay Area). I paid $1500 for it from Home Depot. The specific model is mentioned below in my "signature" area of this post. It includes the Leviton wall mounting bracket, which was another $80 I paid at Home Depot. It is rated for 240V and up to 32A (7.7kW) output power. I have used it for well over a year to charge TWO EVs, my VOLT and RAV4 EVs. It will recharge my RAV4 EV in typically less than 4 to 5 hours between midnight and 7am. It has never skipped a beat! It has a 6' long NEMA 14-50P, AC input plug-in cord rated for up to 40A, and a 25' long J1772 output cable rated for 240V and up to 32A. Believe me, the LONGER both of these cords the better, since quite often your 240V receptacle is not optimally located in the garage, and sometimes it is more convenient to charge your EV parked in the driveway, not only in the garage. And I save the best for last, this is a fully "UL listed" unit I am selling. :mrgreen:

Please let me know if you or anyone else is interested.

If you can stretch the budget a bit, you can charge your Rav4 EV anywhere, from the slowest to the fastest (over 600% faster than the Toyota supplied charge cable), with the JESLAtm 40 amp J1772 portable charging solution.

$999 complete, plus any applicable tax (WA state), shipping and handling

Includes carrying bag and two plugs:

- NEMA 5-15 household 120 volt plug for 12 amps
- NEMA 14-50 plug for "50 amp" RV park or 240 volt garage for 40 amps






********************

All products at Quick Charge Power now carry a one year limited warranty.


********************


http://www.QuickChargePower.com


********************



When you attach the respective plug, the JESLA will automatically provide up to the following amperage:

............................................VOLTS / AMPS.......kW
NEMA 5-15 .......Standard Outlet.. 120 V / 12 A...... 1.4 kW
NEMA 5-20 ...... Motel air conditioner 120/16A....... 1.9 kW
NEMA 10-30......Older Dryers...... 240 V / 24 A...... 5.8 kW
NEMA 14-30......Newer Dryers..... 240 V / 24 A...... 5.8 kW
NEMA 14-50......RVs and Camps.. 240 V / 40 A...... 9.6 kW


Always, always, always check to make sure ANY socket / receptacle does not get hot with use, particularly ones that may not meet code (older house) or were installed in production / tract homes where everything is built to the absolute cheapest cost.


****************************************


Miles Gained per Hour Charging @ 87.5% charger efficiency
70F Ambient temperature - hotter or colder will decrease miles gained

--------------------------------------- 2.7 miles/kWh - 3.4 miles/kWh
------------ Amps/Volts -- Where ------ City Drive ----- 65mph

NEMA 5-15 - 12 / 120 ------- Any ------ 2.8 miles ------ 3.5 miles (North American wall socket)
NEMA 5-20 - 16 / 120 ------ Motels ---- 3.8 miles ------ 4.7 miles (motel air conditioners)
NEMA 10-30- 24 / 240 ------ Home ---- 13.6 miles ----- 17.7 miles (old style dryer outlet)
NEMA 14-30- 24 / 240 ------ Home ---- 13.6 miles ----- 17.7 miles (new style dryer outlet)
J1772 ------- 30 / 208 ------ Public ---- 14.8 miles ----- 18.7 miles (typical public J1772)
J1772 ------- 30 / 240 ------ Home ---- 17.1 miles ----- 21.6 miles (rare 240 volt public J1772)
NEMA 6-50 -- 40 / 240 ------ Home ---- 22.7 miles ----- 28.5 miles (welder outlet)
NEMA 14-50- 40 / 240 ------ Home ---- 22.7 miles ----- 28.5 miles (RV park "50 amp service")

********

********

Tony, is there a way to get a NEMA 6-50 plug with your charger?

sbportech said:

Tony, is there a way to get a NEMA 6-50 plug with your charger?

Click to expand...

Yes, we can build a 14-50 to 6-50 adaptor.

The actual Tesla 6-50 plug is no longer supported. The other answer is to change your 6-50 plug with a 14-50 in your wall, but you will need to run an extra wire for the neutral connection.

Tony

Does the charger use the neutral leg? I don't want to have to run another wire for the N leg, its a long run and I already pulled #4 wire. Levtion customer service has been horrible and I can still send it back to amazon and tell them to pound sand. If i do I will buy the Jesla unit.

No, it doesn't use the neutral, but if you change the receptacle to a 14-50 you technically do then need to have the neutral, just in case something else were to plug in (like an RV) that does need it. In your case the best solution would be to just make a simple adapter.

It is in my garage and I would not leave it like that if I left, thanks for the info.

sbportech said:

Does the charger use the neutral leg?... If i do I will buy the Jesla unit.

Click to expand...

No, it doesn't use neutral.