MisMach
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- #1
I have just installed a Leviton 200A loadcenter with a Leviton EV48W 48A home charger and am worried about charging in a cold climate. As verified by Leviton support, the charger apparently needs to be unplugged and plugged back in, in order to restart a charge (much like a commercial charger).
I'll share with you some "tests" of how I arrived at my cold weather worry since it is summer and not cold out. I can work around this quirk in the summer, but not the winter. I suppose a heated garage would be a work around....
Assume that the car has been discharged to about 50 percent at the start of each test and the Control Pilot connection is good (car works with Ford Mobile charger and public charging stations)...
Test 1) First using the myLeviton software only. The car's schedule is turned off and can not set a charge level. Without a schedule, the car will charge to 100 percent and stop. Now use the myLevition app to set a schedule for the car, just the way it does for its brand of smart switches. The schedule works, however, the car will always charge to 100 percent (if the window for charging is long enough). There is no way to set a preferred level of maximum charge in the myLeviton app of say 80 percent as you can with FordPass. The Leviton always goes to 100 percent.
Test 2) This time no scheduling in the myLeviton app. Now using the car and FordPass for charging. Plug the car in, and it will charge to a preferred level of, say, 80 percent and stop. Good so far. Next, use FordPass to boost the charge to 90 percent. The charger won't respond. You have unplug the charger and plug it back in, in order to charge to 90 percent. Want to go to 100 percent? Set 100 percent in the application (or car). Unplug the Leviton and plug back in again to get to 100 percent. Like returning the nozzle to a gas pump, you physically have to restart a pumping session if you want more gas.
Test 3) Now plug the car in and set a scheduled charge window with FordPass/car say from 1:00AM to 4:00AM. At 6:00AM the car will not have charged at all. Try this again, but unplug and plug in after setting the schedule. Same as before, car still has not charged at all.
Test 4) Next, Leviton's troubleshooting guide says to plug in the car during the car's schedule, in this case at 1:00 to 4:00AM. Success, the car will charge to the car's desired charge level and stop. Of course, the car is ready at 6:00AM. Downside, you have to stay up until (insert your own start time here) to charge the car using your schedule.
About Test#3 above. When you plug the Mach-E to the Leviton, The car seems test the communication with the Leviton by initiating a charge and then stopping it. I am guessing that puts the Leviton into a "done charging" state and not a "ready" state.
This is a problem, because the car will not be able to automatically restart the Leviton anytime the car needs to heat the battery in the winter. Recall from Leviton support, "once any charge has been stopped by the car, the charger will not restart without unplugging it and plugging it back in". This behaviour may also affect features such as pre-conditioning, departure times.
The EVSE standards includes programming for software restarts of an EVSE. Knowing that, to me it appears that my EV48W charger is not really a home charger, may not be fully compatible with Ford EVSE standards, or is simply defective. I imagine this behaviour should also be a problem for Teslas, Audis, etc. but there does not seem to be any posts - except for one Audi owner. Maybe this the way high ampere home chargers are supposed to work? for safety reasons they can't be restarted automatically/remotely?
Has anyone else experienced this behaviour with the new Leviton EV family of chargers? in this case EV48W (hardwired), EV480 (corded).
I'll share with you some "tests" of how I arrived at my cold weather worry since it is summer and not cold out. I can work around this quirk in the summer, but not the winter. I suppose a heated garage would be a work around....
Assume that the car has been discharged to about 50 percent at the start of each test and the Control Pilot connection is good (car works with Ford Mobile charger and public charging stations)...
Test 1) First using the myLeviton software only. The car's schedule is turned off and can not set a charge level. Without a schedule, the car will charge to 100 percent and stop. Now use the myLevition app to set a schedule for the car, just the way it does for its brand of smart switches. The schedule works, however, the car will always charge to 100 percent (if the window for charging is long enough). There is no way to set a preferred level of maximum charge in the myLeviton app of say 80 percent as you can with FordPass. The Leviton always goes to 100 percent.
Test 2) This time no scheduling in the myLeviton app. Now using the car and FordPass for charging. Plug the car in, and it will charge to a preferred level of, say, 80 percent and stop. Good so far. Next, use FordPass to boost the charge to 90 percent. The charger won't respond. You have unplug the charger and plug it back in, in order to charge to 90 percent. Want to go to 100 percent? Set 100 percent in the application (or car). Unplug the Leviton and plug back in again to get to 100 percent. Like returning the nozzle to a gas pump, you physically have to restart a pumping session if you want more gas.
Test 3) Now plug the car in and set a scheduled charge window with FordPass/car say from 1:00AM to 4:00AM. At 6:00AM the car will not have charged at all. Try this again, but unplug and plug in after setting the schedule. Same as before, car still has not charged at all.
Test 4) Next, Leviton's troubleshooting guide says to plug in the car during the car's schedule, in this case at 1:00 to 4:00AM. Success, the car will charge to the car's desired charge level and stop. Of course, the car is ready at 6:00AM. Downside, you have to stay up until (insert your own start time here) to charge the car using your schedule.
About Test#3 above. When you plug the Mach-E to the Leviton, The car seems test the communication with the Leviton by initiating a charge and then stopping it. I am guessing that puts the Leviton into a "done charging" state and not a "ready" state.
This is a problem, because the car will not be able to automatically restart the Leviton anytime the car needs to heat the battery in the winter. Recall from Leviton support, "once any charge has been stopped by the car, the charger will not restart without unplugging it and plugging it back in". This behaviour may also affect features such as pre-conditioning, departure times.
The EVSE standards includes programming for software restarts of an EVSE. Knowing that, to me it appears that my EV48W charger is not really a home charger, may not be fully compatible with Ford EVSE standards, or is simply defective. I imagine this behaviour should also be a problem for Teslas, Audis, etc. but there does not seem to be any posts - except for one Audi owner. Maybe this the way high ampere home chargers are supposed to work? for safety reasons they can't be restarted automatically/remotely?
Has anyone else experienced this behaviour with the new Leviton EV family of chargers? in this case EV48W (hardwired), EV480 (corded).
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