Highest Amps for Plug - In wall charger

[krafty81]

Doing a 14-50 plug on a 60A line and fuse. Which charger gives the most amps for the car while plugging into the 240V outlet? Looks like Grizz-e will do 40 amps. Any others? I do not want to hard wire it.

Sponsored

 

[eltonlin]

Doing a 14-50 plug on a 60A line and fuse. Which charger gives the most amps for the car while plugging into the 240V outlet? Looks like Grizz-e will do 40 amps. Any others? I do not want to hard wire it.

The Max you can do for a plug-in is 50Amps (hence the 50 in 14-50).

There are a number of options out there - JuiceBox, Grizzl-E, Chargepoint to name a few of the more popular ones.

 

[macchiaz-o]

Not sure if you want to stick to the fire safety codes or not... If that is desirable, then a 14-50 receptacle needs to be on a dedicated 50A circuit breaker (and not a 60A breaker).

Also, per code, since EV charging can occur for hours at a time, the highest amperage charge rate will be 40A on your 50A circuit. (There is an 80% rule.)

If you'd like to charge up a little faster, you could choose to replace the 14-50 receptacle and hardwire a 48A EVSE to the 60A capable circuit. (At that point, you'll use a 60A circuit breaker.)

 

[woody]

Clipper Creek:
HCS-80, 64 Amp, Level 2 EVSE, 240V, with 25 ft cable
The HCS-80 is one of the latest high quality, high power, low priced charging stations from ClipperC..

$969.00
hardwire
or
HCS-50P Plug-in, 40A, L2 EVSE, 240V, NEMA 14-50
ClipperCreek now offers the HCS-50P, a plug-in 40 Amp electric vehicle charging station with th..

$659.00

hardwire a bit faster, but the HCS-50P works great.
The charger in the MME should charge faster (than my Bolt with a smaller charger, and the Bolt does fine).

 

[methorian]

Doing a 14-50 plug on a 60A line and fuse. Which charger gives the most amps for the car while plugging into the 240V outlet? Looks like Grizz-e will do 40 amps. Any others? I do not want to hard wire it.

I would advise not use a 60 amp breaker for a L14-50 receptacle. The 50 in the name refers to 50 Amps, which is the max that receptacle is rated to handle, the breaker is there to trip before the receptacle catches fire from overloading.

As others have stated 40A is the max continuous load you can have on a 50A circuit. If you wanted anything higher you'd have to hardwire.

Wiring for higher amperage is fine. I generally recommend folks who are having a new circuit placed to plan for 60A+ in case they want to hardwire later on for faster charging. Swapping out a breaker and having a new unit hardwired is easy compared to running new copper.

 

[mr_raider]

Current ouput is usually 80% of the breaker limit. So that would mean 40A max adviseable on your setup.

The 48A setups usually don't une a 14-50 plug and are hardwired.

That being said, the real life difference between 40 and 50 will negligible in daily useage. I have a 32A EVSE, on car that can barely draw 3.6 kW.

 

[machefan]

I would advise not use a 60 amp breaker for a L14-50 receptacle. The 50 in the name refers to 50 Amps, which is the max that receptacle is rated to handle, the breaker is there to trip before the receptacle catches fire from overloading.

As others have stated 40A is the max continuous load you can have on a 50A circuit. If you wanted anything higher you'd have to hardwire.

Wiring for higher amperage is fine. I generally recommend folks who are having a new circuit placed to plan for 60A+ in case they want to hardwire later on for faster charging. Swapping out a breaker and having a new unit hardwired is easy compared to running new copper.

I actually would advise krafty81 to call an electrician and go that route for safety sake. Need I say more?

As said NEMA 14-50 maxes out at 40 AMPS which is the max you can get using the plug in versions. When you step-up to hardwired along with using the correct wire, conduit and breaker it can be 48 AMPS or greater.

Personally I have a 32 AMP charger already for my Leaf and it's fast enough. I think folks are thinking they need the MAX they can get without really ever owning an electric car prior. Unless you run it to 20% every day and need a really quick turnaround charge it might not be needed. The faster the charger the more strain on the battery (debatable at these lower AMPS).

I personally suggest hardwired (correctly) since it allows for greater amps to future proof it. I suggest anyone, who is a DYI, please follow correct NEC specifications. These can be looked up and followed fairly easily or call in an electrician.

 

[RonTCat]

I would advise not use a 60 amp breaker for a L14-50 receptacle. The 50 in the name refers to 50 Amps, which is the max that receptacle is rated to handle, the breaker is there to trip before the receptacle catches fire from overloading.

As others have stated 40A is the max continuous load you can have on a 50A circuit. If you wanted anything higher you'd have to hardwire.

Wiring for higher amperage is fine. I generally recommend folks who are having a new circuit placed to plan for 60A+ in case they want to hardwire later on for faster charging. Swapping out a breaker and having a new unit hardwired is easy compared to running new copper.

TL;DR

60amp wire ?
50amp circuit breaker ?
14-50 receptacle ?

60amp circuit breaker with 14-50 receptacle ?

60amp circuit breaker with 60amp wire and hardwired EVSE ?

 

[mr_raider]

Yeah the difference between a 32a and 48a EVSE when filling an empty battery on the long range is 12 vs 8 hours. I guess for someone who works 16 hour days and drives 275 miles a day it make a difference.

If you aboslutely want to future proof, I would go with 6 GA wire, so you can later come back and change the breaker and go hardwired if needed.

EVs are the same as gas cars. The amount of gas you consume depends on how much you drive, not how bug your gas tank is.

 

[Tim_C]

Looks like Grizz-e will do 40 amps. Any others? I do not want to hard wire it.

I purchased the Enel-X JuiceBox 40 Plug-In. Capable of 40A / 9.6 kW. I don't have the Mach-E yet to try out the charging, but the app / WiFi setup went smoothly.

 

[TheVirtualTim]

I have a ChargePoint Home Flex ... the setup will ask you to input the amperage of the breaker ... then automatically sets the max amperage of the charger so that it will not exceed 80% of the breaker rating. (That particular charger can handle charge rates up to a max of 50 amps... although I'm told most cars wont use more than 48. Also, a 50 amp charge rate requires a 70 amp breaker. Technically it requires 62.5 amps but there is no such beast as breakers only come in 10-amp increments. So the next step up above a 60 amp breaker is a 70 amp breaker.)

HOWEVER... any amperage above 40 requires a hard-wire install AND appropriate wire gauge (my electrician installed 6 gauge wire ... it's pretty stiff wiring and takes a bit of wrangling to install it.)

If you are using an existing NEMA 14-50 outlet and wiring and it must be a plug-in (not hard-wired) then 40 amps is the most you can safely draw regardless of who makes the charger.

 

[krafty81]

Thanks all for your great info. Yes, I am using an electrician. I want to do a plug-in in case I want to change to something else in the future or have to return it. I think 40A is fine for me, so I will go 14-50 w a 50 amp fuse. Already got an estimate and he says I have room in my box for that. Looking at Clipper, Grizzl-E, and couple others. 400 bucks to do the electrical work.

 

[Jimrpa]

TL;DR

60amp wire ?
50amp circuit breaker ?
14-50 receptacle ?

60amp circuit breaker with 14-50 receptacle ?

60amp circuit breaker with 60amp wire and hardwired EVSE ?

If I could add one thing:

licensed electrician??

 

[krafty81]

I am between the two Home Depot chargers. Chargepoint and Juicebox. I get a 10% military discount. Chargepoint looks beefier but Juicebox can be controlled via Alexa. I will charge at 40A, 14-50 on a 50 amp fuse with 60A wiring all installed by an electrician. Opinions?

 

[shutterbug]

I am between the two Home Depot chargers. Chargepoint and Juicebox. I get a 10% military discount. Chargepoint looks beefier but Juicebox can be controlled via Alexa. I will charge at 40A, 14-50 on a 50 amp fuse with 60A wiring all installed by an electrician. Opinions?

ChargePoint can be controlled by Alexa also.

Sponsored