Mobile charger cable too short

Orangefirefish

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Not exactly. A standard NEMA 5-20 receptacle (20A rated) will accept both 15 and 20A plugs thanks to having both a vertical and horizontal slot on the neutral.
It's the other way around - to prevent 20A appliances from being plugged into a 15A-only receptacle.

1614529935451.png
Ah gotcha, that makes sense.
 

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Not exactly. A standard NEMA 5-20 receptacle (20A rated) will accept both 15 and 20A plugs thanks to having both a vertical and horizontal slot on the neutral.
It's the other way around - to prevent 20A appliances from being plugged into a 15A-only receptacle.

1614529935451.png
I'm well past 40 years old and literally never knew why some NA outlets looked that way until now.
 

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Not exactly. A standard NEMA 5-20 receptacle (20A rated) will accept both 15 and 20A plugs thanks to having both a vertical and horizontal slot on the neutral.
It's the other way around - to prevent 20A appliances from being plugged into a 15A-only receptacle.

1614529935451.png
Thank you for posting this, I appreciate you sharing your pretty comprehensive knowledge of all things electric across this forum, I feel like I learn something new every time I read one of your posts!
 

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If your a stats nerd and want a smart charger with finer controls.

The included charger is 7.6kW 32A, you can get up to 40A using the NEMA 14-50.

Above that goes hard wired.
Thanks for the reply. I should have been a little more precise: I was wondering about the advantage of evseā€™s that plug into the NEMA 14-50 outlet over the mobile charger. Are there 40A evseā€™s that are good? I may upgrade to one in the future if 40A is significantly faster than 32A with my driving needs.
Or Since I plan to have the electrician install 60A wiring to the NEMA 14-50 outlet, I can remove it and add a wired evse down the road.
 

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When the Mobile Charger is using the 120v plug it assumes a 15 amp breaker (not a 20 amp breaker) and will only pull 80% of that load ... so 12 amps is all it will draw. Make sure nothing else is using the circuit at the same time.

Get the shortest extension cord you can find with the beefiest wire guage (smaller gauge number = thicker wires. Thicker wires means less resistance (more pathways for the electrons to flow) and that translates into less heat and is safer). A cord that can handle 15 amps is adequate but don't use 100' long extension cord reels ... you would ideally want something less than 10'.

When I had my garage wired for the EVSE charger I had the electrician place the outlet closer to the garage door ... and not near the front of the car. That way the cord still reaches the car's charging port regardless if the car is parked inside vs. outside.
 


TheVirtualTim

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Thanks for the reply. I should have been a little more precise: I was wondering about the advantage of evseā€™s that plug into the NEMA 14-50 outlet over the mobile charger. Are there 40A evseā€™s that are good? I may upgrade to one in the future if 40A is significantly faster than 32A with my driving needs.
I it changes the number of miles added to your range per hour of charging by a small amount.

Plug-in is simply a convenience over hard-wire. But a NEMA 14-50 outlet is rated for 50 amp max and the charger must not pull more than 80% of that limit (so 40 amps is the max charge rate on a plug-in NEMA 14-50 outlet). To go any higher than that requires a hard-wired install.

Ford's estimates (presuming a RWD car) are that the mobile charger will add about 20 miles of range per hour of charging at the 240v 32amp rate. At 40 amps ... it'll be closer to 25 miles of range added per hour. Subtract about 10% from those estimates if you have an AWD car.

If you charge overnight ... say a 10 hour charge, then

32 amp on a RWD car = 200 miles range
40 amp on a RWD car = 250 miles range
32 amp on an AWD car = 180 miles range
40 amp on an AWD car = 225 miles range

Range is highly subjective and based on weather, driver aggressiveness, etc. but that's the general idea.

Many EVSE's can have their amperage reduced. E.g. the ChargePoint Home Flex is a "50 amp" charger. But you tell it the circuit breaker capacity (in the software setup app) and it auto-configures the max charging amperage to 80% of that capacity. So if your garage is wired using 6 gauge wire (which can handle that amperage) then you are good "up to" that max but can set it to a lower amount to match the amperage that your electric service panel can offer.
 

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When I had my garage wired for the EVSE charger I had the electrician place the outlet closer to the garage door ... and not near the front of the car. That way the cord still reaches the car's charging port regardless if the car is parked inside vs. outside.
This is good advice. My EVSE is next to the garage door and about 3 wall feet from the circuit breaker box. The EVSE has a 24 ft cord. If I pull into the garage the cord will easily reach the charge port (same side). When charging outside (as has been done with friends' BEV's) it works perfectly for them as well.
 
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I charge in the rain all the time, even at work we have the chargers outside in the elements with no issues.
On the extension cord 12ga only and no more then 25 FT. When longer the cord ends can melt after a while otherwise due to the high amps due from the drop off.

best not to but if you have to etc.

A92A08E9-1390-44AD-BDEE-28546408C8C3.jpeg
That plug looks horrified... Like it kept telling you not to use it. Then you gave it a black eye.
 

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thanks, i'm just using it on 120v right now with the mobile charger, until i can get an electrician in to add a NEMA outlet. I have a Chargepoint Homeflex waiting for it... BTW, any concerns about doing charging in the rain?
manual specifically says not to use an extension cord with the moblle charger but that may be just a CYA thing, I guess if you don't have the choice you gotta do what you have to.
 

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If you want to keep your mobile charger in the car for traveling or charging away from home for any reason, you would have to roll up the mobile charger and store in the trunk each time you left home. Then get it back out when you returned. Having a home-installed EVSE eliminates that - just unplug and go.
you could also buy a second mobile charger cable.
 

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That plug looks horrified... Like it kept telling you not to use it. Then you gave it a black eye.
It was over 2 years to take place on a 50 foot 12ga extension cable. Yeah dumb on my part, but using a different setup now thatā€™s not going to let that happen. Iā€™m really just trying to show others what can happen if go the extension cord route.

The GFCI Outlet did not look good either, again my mistake.

All replaced!

Ford Mustang Mach-E Mobile charger cable too short 6898B186-95BB-4ABA-8AD1-50A998090D32
 

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Charged mine with mobile charger on my 14-50 outlet (which is on a 40A GFCI breaker) last night. From what I could estimate it was topping up at a rate of about ~6.5kW. According to the app I added 36% for the SR in 3h 50min. The dedicated home chargers just allow you to charge faster but to get the higher charge rates your wiring and breaker has to be sized appropriately.
 

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thanks, i'm just using it on 120v right now with the mobile charger, until i can get an electrician in to add a NEMA outlet. I have a Chargepoint Homeflex waiting for it... BTW, any concerns about doing charging in the rain?
I've been using an extension cord to a 115V outlet with my Fusion Energi's mobile charger and haven't experienced any issues. Not sure how the current draw of the MME on 115V compares to the Fusion Energi, though.
 

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manual specifically says not to use an extension cord with the moblle charger but that may be just a CYA thing, I guess if you don't have the choice you gotta do what you have to.
A Mobile Charger at 240v pulling 32 amps is 7,680 watts (7.7 kW). But the same mobile charger on 120v at 12 amps is 1,440 watts (1.4 kW) ... quite a bit less.
 

zvez

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A Mobile Charger at 240v pulling 32 amps is 7,680 watts (7.7 kW). But the same mobile charger on 120v at 12 amps is 1,440 watts (1.4 kW) ... quite a bit less.
I get that, as I said it's probably a case of Ford doing a CYA thing. I can't see a 120v heavy duty extension would not work
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