What's the best charger to buy now?

[Mrs Chivus]

I've been charging my '21 Mach-E with the Ford charger that came with it, plugged into a 240V outlet in my garage for the past 4 1/2 years. Well, it died last night. What's the best and least expensive charger that I can buy now to replace it? I don't want a fancy installed machine. I just want to plug it in and charge. Thanks for your recommendations.

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[HuntingPudel]

I've been charging my '21 Mach-E with the Ford charger that came with it, plugged into a 240V outlet in my garage for the past 4 1/2 years. Well, it died last night. What's the best and least expensive charger that I can buy now to replace it? I don't want a fancy installed machine. I just want to plug it in and charge. Thanks for your recommendations.

If you're looking for a mobile unit and already have a Tesla to J1772 AC (Destination) adapter, the Tesla Mobile Connector is hard to beat. It's not pricey and works fine. Otherwise, I would suggest you check out Tom Muloughney's State of Charge videos on YouTube. He compares and contrasts a lot of EVSEs.

 

[bibkisbu]

tesla mobile connector can be purchased "new" on ebay for a pretty low price

EV chargers do not have to be hardwired. you can buy a wall charger and connected it to the 240v plug

 

[HughJazzol]

tesla mobile connector can be purchased "new" on ebay for a pretty low price

EV chargers do not have to be hardwired. you can buy a wall charger and connected it to the 240v plug

I second this.
There are many chargers that plug in just like the mobile one you had, but they are a fixed box on the wall, and have more features. I'm contemplating perhaps getting one I saw that allows me to set the amperage to 40. This will allow me to charge a bit faster than thr Ford mobile one that is limited to 32 amps.
The brand is Grizz-le

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

EV charging involves running a lot of power through a relatively small cable for extended periods of time. This is an equation for lots of heat. The higher the resistance, the more heat. Some resistance (and therefore heat) is unavoidable, bit lots of heat is bad. It can lead to catastrophic failure. A common source of resistance is outlets. An outlet will (almost) never provide as good a connection as hard-wiring will. Another potential issue is inexpensive chargers. ("Chargers" are technically known as an Electric Vehicle Service Equipment, or EVSE). Yes, lots of people have outlets and with the majority of those nothing bad happens. But it can really suck if something bad does happen. As such, I suggest that if you don't actually need to be able to travel with the EVSE, have it hard-wired rather than using an outlet. But if you have the need to travel with it, then by all means get a mobile EVSE, but do yourself a favor and look at recommendations on this forum (in other threads) regarding the brand of outlet to get. They aren't all created equal!

 

[HuntingPudel]

To add to what @JohnFoxeSheets said, each plug or unplug event degrades the outlet’s connections so it’s best if the EVSE can remain attached.

 

[Fremont Kid]

@JohnFoxeSheets is correct. I will add that your current 240V outlet should be, probably is, wired through an AWG 6 cable, a quality 14-50 plug and a 40Amp or greater circuit breaker. If so, these are adequate to withstand charger generated heat. Note that you don't need to unplug and plug in your charger regularly. Just leave it plugged in to avoid plug wear.

Your question implies that you may not know the circuit breaker should be calculated at 20% more than the charge level. For example, the Ford Mobile Charger outputs at 32A so the circuit needs to be 40A. The AWG 6 cable can accommodate 48A charging, which calculating up 20% means needing a 60Amp circuit breaker at 240V. Many other forums present more information.

If you upgrade be sure your electrical panel has the capacity. Probably should have a 200Amp panel providing electricity to your home.

If all this is confusing, just stay with a 32Amp charger or consult a certified electrical contractor. Will be $ well spent.

All the best.

 

[MacherAWD]

Not flashy, not a name brand, not a major corporation. But I bought this charger 10 years ago and it worked perfectly every day since

https://www.jadaniell.com/

My ford Mobile also starts to over heat when I use it, the fancy Grizzl-e I upgraded to this spring charges faster, but also has gone offline on multiple occasions from updates, network items. That original one is now at my parents house in their garage but still works perfect. The cables are very thick and it feels like quality.

 

[HuntingPudel]

To add to what @Fremont Kid posted, a 60A fuse (48A charge rate) is only acceptable with a 60A outlet (very rare, very expensive, also no EVSE has a plug for it) or by hard-wiring, so I would avoid that since you are not looking for a “fancy installed machine.” If you were content with the amount of charge the Ford Mobile Charger gave you, just find another unit capable of 32A charging, as you know your outlet will support that.

 

[MacheYellow2021]

I have been charging my 2021 Mach E GT, 2024 Mach E Premium and my F150 Lightning with the grizzly charger, the basic one, the refurbished one and not issues since 4 months ago, I’m attaching a picture of it.

 

[highland58]

I am using my Ford mobile charger with the 14-50 on a 50A breaker, until my replacement hardwire charger arrives. I have been leaving the charger plugged in, but turning off the 50A breaker when I'm not using it. Is this less risky (chance of the 14-50 receptacle failing) than unplugging the charger when not using it? Perhaps I should just leave it powered on when not using it. I am seeing 7kw charging rate, which is less than the usual 11.5kw at 48A, but better that the 1.2kw on a 15A circuit.

 

[Mach-Lee]

I am using my Ford mobile charger with the 14-50 on a 50A breaker, until my replacement hardwire charger arrives. I have been leaving the charger plugged in, but turning off the 50A breaker when I'm not using it. Is this less risky (chance of the 14-50 receptacle failing) than unplugging the charger when not using it? Perhaps I should just leave it powered on when not using it. I am seeing 7kw charging rate, which is less than the usual 11.5kw at 48A, but better that the 1.2kw on a 15A circuit.

The outlet would fail while you’re charging, not while it’s idle. So there’s not much point in turning it off each time. In fact, switching the breaker on and off many times can wear out the circuit breaker because it wasn’t designed to be a switch. Same thing if you plug and unplug repeatedly, it wears out the receptacle. Just leave it plugged in and turned on.

The mobile charger is only 32 A, so you’ll see a charge rate of about 7 kW in FordPass.

In terms of EVSEs is, the ones I recommend are ChargePoint, Emporia, and Wall Box.

For EVSE ratings by State of Charge, see here: https://evchargingstations.com/

 

[jefftuck]

The Grizzl-e and Emporia are almost always rated as good options.

I have the latter. You can turn off all the smart options, but it still has an app that shows you what you’ve used and when. But, I let the car control everything else. The Emporia app lets you set the max charge based on how you’ve safely wired it up, then you can ignore it from then on if you want.

 

[WR221]

Really like the basic Grizzl-E Classic 40A charger. It's robust and the cables are heavier than comparable units. I found that 32A is adequate to keep up my MME and EV6 charged, so I reduced the power to 32A using the internal DIP switches for a better safety margin on a 50A circuit.

 

[Womps]

I happen to think this is the best Charger to buy!

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