L-1 charging questions

[SpaceEVDriver]

I use it for both L1 and L2. And have been for 42 months, 18 of which were for constant use. The point is it's silly to state that they're prone to failure based on a few reports in a forum that doesn't come close to representing most owners of the mobile charger. And even if it was prone to failure, unless it was prone to dangerous failure, might as well get use out of it until it does fail.

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[Eagertrader]

I charge L-1 at home and L-2 at my second home. I developed the habit at home, to plug in my car to charge everytime I return from an errand and have not noticed any degradation. For the most part it always charges to 100%. If I had to charge it L-1 from almost nothing to 100% it may take up to 4 days. L-2 is about 10 hours overnight. I am afraid that if you must have the faster charge you'll have to run a new 220V line from your panel to where your car is parked.

 

[William]

We moved from our house of 40 years to a wonderful retirement community this week. Our house had a 220 v 48 A wallbox that gave a consistent 9-10 amps to our er 22 ME. The car is now garaged in a 10 bay unit and I’ve installed the Ford charger that came with the car, using a 120 v outlet which runs the door opener. I’m only getting 1.2 kw out of the charger, which seems extremely slow. L1 at other places have given me 5-6 kw.
This isn’t particularly a bad speed for us as we do not have to drive very far to access anything and there are 3 DCFC very close if needed.
A couple of questions- is charging this slow in anyway bad for the hv battery. I don’t think I’m charging the lv battery, however I will drive enough through the week to hopefully keep it at a good level. This is the first time I’ve used the Ford charger so I do not know what it should be doing? Also, how long should I expect the charger to last?
Any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I have been fortunate to have used the Ford mobile charger since April 2021 at L1 with no problem. My ammeter says it draws 11.5 amps whilst charging. I did replace the 110 duplex outlet in my garage when i found it was quite warm. A commercial rated 20 amp duplex outlet I bought at Home Depot solved the problem.

 

[BullittHitsTheBone]

O/T, but related. QMerit sent an electrical contractor out to install our 'free' Charge Station Pro. He took one look at our 50YO breaker panel and said "I can't touch it, QMerit won't let me." It turns out the house my folks built 50 years ago had a breaker panel from a company called Zinsco, which was commonly installed back then but went out of business--a couple times--because, well, they're defective and a potential fire hazard (something to do with an aluminum bus). So, I bit the bullet and gave the go-ahead for a new panel(s) for my house and my rental. Since my house had underground service (240V/400A), the local utility--an 'irrigation district'--required that our service be brought up to current code, which involved digging up the old service and installing a 'christy box' a few feet from the pole and pulling about 250ft of heavy cable. I did get lucky as the utility didn't require I dig up the 2.5" conduit and replace it with 3" (it was 6' down and went under our paved road). I had to hire a mini-excavator for the dig.

So far, the 'free charger' has cost me about $20K for both houses--haven't gotten the bill for the excavator--but I'm happy; fresh wiring to the charger I'm running at 48A and my lights don't flicker anymore. I figure the Mach-E will pay for itself in about 15,000 years. Moral of the story: don't assume you can necessarily just find a free position for a 240V breaker and be done with it.

 

[DBB]

Hi! I read in this thread that there's indicator lights on the front of the Ford supplied L1/2 charger. Can someone point out where to see what they mean or tell me here. I saw an orange dot to the left of the blue pulsing light the other day for the first time while charging my other EV and also sometimes a red light on the right and nothing would charge until I turned off the breaker and back on again.

 

[RickMachE]

O/T, but related. QMerit sent an electrical contractor out to install our 'free' Charge Station Pro. He took one look at our 50YO breaker panel and said "I can't touch it, QMerit won't let me." It turns out the house my folks built 50 years ago had a breaker panel from a company called Zinsco, which was commonly installed back then but went out of business--a couple times--because, well, they're defective and a potential fire hazard (something to do with an aluminum bus). So, I bit the bullet and gave the go-ahead for a new panel(s) for my house and my rental. Since my house had underground service (240V/400A), the local utility--an 'irrigation district'--required that our service be brought up to current code, which involved digging up the old service and installing a 'christy box' a few feet from the pole and pulling about 250ft of heavy cable. I did get lucky as the utility didn't require I dig up the 2.5" conduit and replace it with 3" (it was 6' down and went under our paved road). I had to hire a mini-excavator for the dig.

So far, the 'free charger' has cost me about $20K for both houses--haven't gotten the bill for the excavator--but I'm happy; fresh wiring to the charger I'm running at 48A and my lights don't flicker anymore. I figure the Mach-E will pay for itself in about 15,000 years. Moral of the story: don't assume you can necessarily just find a free position for a 240V breaker and be done with it.

In case you aren't aware, some of those costs are eligible for a tax credit. https://www.energystar.gov/about/federal-tax-credits/electric-panel-upgrade

 

[RickMachE]

Hi! I read in this thread that there's indicator lights on the front of the Ford supplied L1/2 charger. Can someone point out where to see what they mean or tell me here. I saw an orange dot to the left of the blue pulsing light the other day for the first time while charging my other EV and also sometimes a red light on the right and nothing would charge until I turned off the breaker and back on again.

Your owner's manual. Pages 171 - 176. https://www.fordservicecontent.com/...g_Mach-E_Owners_Manual_version_1_om_EN-US.pdf

 

[mkhuffman]

Hi! I read in this thread that there's indicator lights on the front of the Ford supplied L1/2 charger. Can someone point out where to see what they mean or tell me here. I saw an orange dot to the left of the blue pulsing light the other day for the first time while charging my other EV and also sometimes a red light on the right and nothing would charge until I turned off the breaker and back on again.

Once fhe Ford EVSE starts overheating the damage is done and it will get worse and worse. That's what the red lights mean. Mine worked fine for a couple months but then it overheated and I could barely get it to work reliably again, even at L1 speeds. It's a piece of crap, IMO.

 

[ex2bot]

They’re reliable for at least two years.

Nope. I got my car in Feb of ‘24. My mobile EVSE slows all the time when temperatures get in the upper 80s or higher. It also errored out once last summer and twice this summer (red error light). It’s a POS.

 

[Space_Pony]

Nope. I got my car in Feb of ‘24. My mobile EVSE slows all the time when temperatures get in the upper 80s or higher. It also errored out once last summer and twice this summer (red error light). It’s a POS.

Why don't you get a real EVSE? This is what I use, but there are plenty of options.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B8NFFYXT?ref_=ppx_hzod_title_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1_0&th=1

 

[ex2bot]

Why don't you get a real EVSE? This is what I use, but there are plenty of options.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B8NFFYXT?ref_=ppx_hzod_title_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1_0&th=1

Well, I did. I bought myself a nice Grizzl-E, but SOME DUMMY (me) drove over the connector.

 

[music_cities]

If there is a will, there is often a way.

Lobbying the board that runs the community to put in some L2 EVSEs is a good idea. BEVs are slowing growing in popularity, and I expect many who live there will appreciate the ability to charge faster than L1.

I am very tempted to work with my mom's retirement community to advise them on setting up L2s. (I'm an electrical engineer.). But my mom's giving up driving and they're a for-profit company, so my motivation hasn't quite gotten past the tipping point.

 

[bbulkow]

Just in case you care if it's a dedicated circuit you (or your favourite electrician) can probably double the voltage on that outlet in 15 minutes by swapping just the breaker and the receptacle. (No new wires.) Then, you could buy an L2 EVSE that allows you to set the maximum current to what those wires allow (typically 15amps), e.g. maybe a Grizzl-E. With that EVSE you'd charge 2.5 times as fast (15*240)/(12*120) = 2.5.

But then you'd have trouble opening your garage door, since it requires 120V. The garage door uses very little power, so you could buy a Jackery or something to power it. (I wish there were 240V garage door openers one could buy in North America.)

This is simple and (as far as I can tell, as your electrician) entirely safe and legal. Well, except that it seems there might be a legal requirement to have a 120V outlet in your garage in some jurisdictions.

If you intend to stay there for a while, I'd skip the receptacle and hardwire in the EVSE — a bit safer, and cheaper overall too since it's one less thing for the electrician to install.

The garage door may accept 240, they could check the tag. Some units might ac to dc convert for motor and control and thus be broad minded about voltage. Although generally probably not, motors like that are more likely to be ac directly....

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