Best home chargers of 2024 - review by State Of Charge

[Vulnox]

We had the OG JuiceBox for years and it was great, by OG I mean the one that was a silver rectangle and no LEDs or anything else. We got it for our 2016 C-Max Energi and moved it with us to Michigan and it kept going strong through the C-Max, Focus Electric, and first few months of the MME. I sold it to someone else who is still using it to this day as far as I know.

We replaced it with a ChargePoint Home Flex, and I loved it at first, then hated it when they removed the ability to adjust amperage yourself, but that came back about six months ago or so, and I love it again.

The ChargePoint Home Flex will be able to have the cable swapped to a NACS cable when the time comes too without buying a new unit which is pretty cool. I know the Tesla Universal exists, but it sounds like, last I heard anyway, the software with non-Teslas at least was not that great and the others may have it beat still on the reporting front. Maybe that has changed. But it's nothing special to replace a perfectly good unit at this point.

I think if I bought again today though it would probably be the Tesla unit as I suspect our replacement for the MME will have a NACS port and having it just be there and not needing an adapter or cable replacement would be ideal.

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[rreddy3]

ChargePoint Home Flex is pricey, but my #1 requirement was winter cable performance. I also like that the cable is the same one they use for their commercial L2 chargers, the App shows my home and paid charging sessions, can set the amperage anywhere between 32A and 48A in one amp increments, and contrary to Tom's comment the one time I used customer service they were fabulous. They even called me back a week later to see how things were going.

My ChargePoint Home Flex was installed today. Hard wired. The electrician said most of the installs they're doing are ChargePoint, although Emporium is on the upswing. He also said they no longer do 240v plug in jobs. Essentially, it's a matter of deterioration of and failure rate over time for the plugs, and customer dissatisfaction. My electrician was from southern Maryland, more or less, via Q Merit. Surprised somewhat they didn't have one in NoVA but no matter, it's done. So far so good! Only charged a short time to make sure it was up and running. Ditto on the cable, although the climate near IAD is a lot milder than at YYZ I wanted an easy to maneuver cable that wasn't a pain to horse around. I know of all you know this, but it still blows me away how much faster 240 is than 110. This electric stuff is magic ... it's not engineering and physics, it's simply magic ...

 

[markboris]

2 Emporia Chargers, both hardwired on their own 60A breaker going on 2 years. No error issues charging multiple Mach-E's. Have also charged several Tesla's and the only issue I had was a 2017 Model S would not accept a charge at all. Finally figured out it did not like the Emporia set to 48A so switched to 40A (or anything lower) and it charged just fine. Both are on firmware 467 and don't see a need to update since never had an issue with either.

 

[locks66]

I spent too much, but I went with my buddy's suggestion and installed a Tesla 48amp charger I got from Amazon. I finished the install yesterday, went through the connecting to the internet process and did my first charge last night.

On another charging question, when is Ford supposed to send me the adaptor they promised? Is there a way to follow up to make sure it's been ordered? It's been 20 days since I got Machelle.

So the adapter ford is sending won't work on that. You also have to request the adapter.

For that one you need to order the non fast charge adapter.

I would have spent the extra $100 and gotten the Tesla charger that does both.

 

[User100723]

2 Emporia Chargers, both hardwired on their own 60A breaker going on 2 years. No error issues charging multiple Mach-E's. Have also charged several Tesla's and the only issue I had was a 2017 Model S would not accept a charge at all. Finally figured out it did not like the Emporia set to 48A so switched to 40A (or anything lower) and it charged just fine. Both are on firmware 467 and don't see a need to update since never had an issue with either.

Why would it do that though? Makes no sense - shouldn’t the esve automatically downgrade itself to support vehicles that can’t accept that high of a charge rate after communicating with the vehicle?

Sounds like a bug in the Emporia to me rather than an expected feature. Unless I’m missing something?

 

[markboris]

Why p
Why would it do that though? Makes no sense - shouldn’t the esve automatically downgrade itself to support vehicles that can’t accept that high of a charge rate after communicating with the vehicle?

Sounds like a bug in the Emporia to me rather than an expected feature. Unless I’m missing something?

Both of my chargers have charged at least 8 different Mach-E's from a very early '21 built in November '20 to one of the later '23's built in October '23 and 4 Tesla's all '22-'23 models, we figured the '17 Tesla being much older without the updated software/display that my friend would have to pay $2200 for, that his car was the issue. I mean sure it may be an Emporia issue but why just that one older Tesla?

Just re-read your post and missed the "shouldn’t the esve automatically downgrade itself to support vehicles that can’t accept that high of a charge rate" and I would think no but maybe some do however the Emporia does not auto change it's charge rate. The Emporia's charge rate can be instantly changed on the fly before or while charging on their app so no big issue. I generally keep mine at the 48A setting because I usually have my chargers set to charge on excess solar which peaks at a solid 11.4kW for a few hours.

 

[EELinneman]

It's only April. Seems a tad early.

He's racing the blue cruise update!

 

[User100723]

Both of my chargers have charged at least 8 different Mach-E's from a very early '21 built in November '20 to one of the later '23's built in October '23 and 4 Tesla's all '22-'23 models, we figured the '17 Tesla being much older without the updated software/display that my friend would have to pay $2200 for, that his car was the issue. I mean sure it may be an Emporia issue but why just that one older Tesla?

Just re-read your post and missed the "shouldn’t the esve automatically downgrade itself to support vehicles that can’t accept that high of a charge rate" and I would think no but maybe some do however the Emporia does not auto change it's charge rate. The Emporia's charge rate can be instantly changed on the fly before or while charging on their app so no big issue. I generally keep mine at the 48A setting because I usually have my chargers set to charge on excess solar which peaks at a solid 11.4kW for a few hours.

Oops, should have known I’d be talking to the legendary @markboris before writing my response! (love your work BTW!)

My bad, was just thinking aloud based on my extremely limited experience of that one time I plugged in my Mustang Mach E into a 350k charging station, where either the car or the station seemed to automatically set the max rate that the car could accept on a plug and play basis (150k).

I’m looking into various home charging solutions myself, and was just intrigued as to why the Emporia couldn’t charge the older Tesla when properly set up at 48a - even though the Model S and Tesla’s own Wall Connector from that era could properly do 80a.

 

[markboris]

Thanks User100723 but I actually am not an expert when it comes to EV charging or chargers for that matter. Many others here especially Mach-Lee would be able to answer any technical questions you might have.

I now see you were referring to a Level 3 charger and yes they communicate with the cars a lot more than I believe the Level 1 and 2 chargers do.

 

[NetDoc]

So the adapter ford is sending won't work on that. You also have to request the adapter.

For that one you need to order the non fast charge adapter.

I would have spent the extra $100 and gotten the Tesla charger that does both.

Mine came with the J1772 port. Clips right in. Charges just fine. What am I missing?

 

[67 Stang Convertible]

You would be in September or later based on that order date.




JuiceBox should be on a NEVER BUY list based on the butchering of their software and the removal of capabilities. I filed complaints with the Michigan Attorneys General office as well as the FTC for false advertising.

They are crowing on social media about a brand new app THIS WEEK. Maybe it will bring back those capabilities lost. We'll see. I'd love them to buy mine back.

Rick,

Educate me on what capabilities were lost. I pretty much use it as a dumb charger. I plug it in the car and the car activates it to start charging around midnight. I have the app, but don't pay much attention to it.

 

[Vulnox]

Emporia

Value equation has held up yet again.

I got around to the video today, not sure if this is what you meant, but he did not name the Emporia as the winner. He said it won last year, and this year he was listing the 7 best with no specific winner.

 

[RickMachE]

Rick,

Educate me on what capabilities were lost. I pretty much use it as a dumb charger. I plug it in the car and the car activates it to start charging around midnight. I have the app, but don't pay much attention to it.

I have two. Initially, load sharing didn't work, so they moved people back to the old app. In December, they forced movement. Load sharing worked, but TOU doesn't work. In addition, despite TOU being turned off, no charging takes place in your peak hours (good) despite you not having any (bad). You plug in say at 4PM, with off-peak starting at 7PM. At 7PM, nothing happens. You have to go out and unplug and replug the vehicle. The RESUME button does nothing. It changed last week to A1625 instead of resume. They killed the website with all the history and load sharing info, the new website produces errors when you try and log in, if you do get in there is no load sharing data. The support is CRAP. Their level 3 support doesn't talk to customers, and talks to reps weeks delayed. They waste hours of your time trying to get it working, then escalate it. A month later they call you, out of the blue, and ask you if it's working. You say "what did you fix / change?" They don't know. When you tell them nothing has changed, they say "does it still make the breaker pop?" You respond "it never made the breaker pop?" Yet, they ask that question EVERY TIME...

I have spent many many hours on this and am fed up. I told them to buy them back and I will be gone. They don't respond to that, so I'm putting pressure on them in social media, and have written to the CEO. I filed complaints with the Michigan Attorney General and the FTC, for false advertising.

 

[RickMachE]

It really is annoying. Especially because I only want a single feature - tell me if I forgot to plug my car in by 9pm. The old software could do it, why can't their new stuff. I don't need a bunch of stuff about using other chargers, just give me the single feature I used to use.

Or Ford could implement that feature and I'd delete the Enel X app completely.

Yup. And many more things.

New app is supposed to come this week per their social media accounts.

 

[Herbknowsit]

ChargePoint Home Flex is pricey, but my #1 requirement was winter cable performance. I also like that the cable is the same one they use for their commercial L2 chargers, the App shows my home and paid charging sessions, can set the amperage anywhere between 32A and 48A in one amp increments, and contrary to Tom's comment the one time I used customer service they were fabulous. They even called me back a week later to see how things were going.

Glad to hear you have good experience with the Home Flex since I just had mine installed two days ago.

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