Things to consider when DIY installing a wall charger / outlet

[Glen]

you probably should mount the charger body bracket an inch or so 'up' and 'over' so there is some strain relief rather than hanging from the outlet. You do NOT want that pigtail to pull out when you are in the middle of a charge under heavy load... or strain the outlet.

any old hose hanger bracket will work to coil when not in use. No 'holster' was included as far as I know.

Great advice.

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[JJCritch]

Looks good, glad you just did it right and ran the new cable. A few minutes more effort now but a better long term solution.

As for the hangar thing, my car didn't come with one either, just the plastic bracket for hanging the "body" of the charger. Might just be a clever illustration...

This option from GrizzlE should work with any J1772 plug, is cheap, and works well. I like it: https://grizzl-e.com/product/usa/accessories-usa/additional-easyevplug-j1772-2/

Okay, sounds like it wasn't supposed to come with the car. Thanks for the suggestion, I think I will pick one of those up.

As for the strain on the plug, I did Mount the bracket so there is no strain on the outlet, cord or plug.

 

[shelnian]

Thanks. That makes sense. Do I have to worry about total capacity of the box?

You not only have to worry about total capacity of your house circuit, you should contact your electric company to see if the feeder transformer can handle the extra load. I checked with my electric company (PSE) and they did a load analysis of the pole mount transformer and feeder to my house. Turned out my feeder was adequate, but the extra 11kW charging load would overload the pole mounted transformer when they looked at actual total loading of the houses connected to it. PSE indicated they're going to upgrade the transformer.

 

[ctenidae]

Throwing in my recent DIY experience to add to teh body of knowledge here-

Got the SemaConnect 4 charger, since I get a $500 rebate form the state of CT for it. Charger is fine, app sucks and heats up my phone when it hangs up on an update or something.

We have 200 amp service, and I had a "spare" 20 amp 240v braker in the subpanel. I say spare, because I don't know where the other end of the line is and the breaker has been off for over a year. So that's a little scary, but not the worst thing I've seen in our 1850's house...

I put in a 50 amp breaker, and ran 6 awg 4 conductor Romex cable through 1 inch flexible non-metallic conduit about 60 feet across a basement (above the plaster and lathe ceiling through one bay, then along the top of the foundation wall, out through a window frame, across about 10 feet outside under a deck, into the (2006 addition) garage through the cinderblock top of the foundation wall, then along the exposed top of the foundation wall and up, outside the drywall, to a surface mount 14-50 plug.

I oversized the conduit to make pulling the wire easier, but it was still a bit of a struggle and took two people to do. The conduit was surprisingly easy to work with, but I highly recommend straightening it out, getting the twists out, letting it heat up in the sun to pull it straight, etc - a little time invested up front makes a big difference later on. Having the conduit oversized also saved me about $100, since I guess 1 inch isn't all that common. Be careful and make sure you get boxes and connectors that will accommodate it. Hopefully the extra space is helpful with heat dissipation, too.

All in, probably took me 8-10 hours to do, not counting hardware store trips to get a new air chisel, and a hole saw, etc etc, but does include at least a couple of hours of head scratching and planning, replanning, and starting over.

Wasn't hard, overall, and probably saved a grand on labor costs. 100 feet of cable was almost $600, 100 feet of conduit was another couple of hundred.

 

[Jax_GT]

Long story short, every detail of your installation is covered by code. Every. Tiny. Detail. Do your research. Get a permit. Get your install inspected. Don't burn your house down or electrocute somebody.

Curious about this. If I have a professional install the new outlet and breaker in my garage, but I install a plug in EVSE and something happens, am I screwed? By install, it's literally screw it on the wall and plug in. I imagine I wouldn't need an extra permit for that, right??

 

[CHeil402]

Curious about this. If I have a professional install the new outlet and breaker in my garage, but I install a plug in EVSE and something happens, am I screwed? By install, it's literally screw it on the wall and plug in. I imagine I wouldn't need an extra permit for that, right??

No; if you're purchasing a consumer grade EVSE with a plug (and not hard wiring it) then you'll be fine plugging it into an outlet that was installed by a professional. Although, much like the outlet, the EVSE should be installed at a height were it's not likely to get crushed by a car that drives into it, etc.

 

[Jax_GT]

No; if you're purchasing a consumer grade EVSE with a plug (and not hard wiring it) then you'll be fine plugging it into an outlet that was installed by a professional. Although, much like the outlet, the EVSE should be installed at a height were it's not likely to get crushed by a car that drives into it, etc.

Thank you!

 

[DJ_indy]

A bit off topic ~ In May, I bought a PHEV Lincoln Corsair GT. Since January 2022, I've had a
MME on order. When I bought the Lincoln, I needed the 240V charger. Of course, the
electrician had to install a 240V line. I figured I would go ahead and have them set up
my Ford Connected Charge Station which I had bought in anticipation of receiving the MME. My questions are:

- Since I don't have the MME yet, should I install an electrical switch for the Ford
Connected Charge Station so that I can still charge the Lincoln and take
the load off the Ford Connected Charge Station until I take delivery of the MME?
- As best I can tell, nothing can be done with the Ford Connected Charge Station
until I can show the VIN for the Mustang Mach E that is on order, right?

I look forward to your responses.......................................................

 

[Maquis]

A bit off topic ~ In May, I bought a PHEV Lincoln Corsair GT. Since January 2022, I've had a
MME on order. When I bought the Lincoln, I needed the 240V charger. Of course, the
electrician had to install a 240V line. I figured I would go ahead and have them set up
my Ford Connected Charge Station which I had bought in anticipation of receiving the MME. My questions are:

- Since I don't have the MME yet, should I install an electrical switch for the Ford
Connected Charge Station so that I can still charge the Lincoln and take
the load off the Ford Connected Charge Station until I take delivery of the MME?
- As best I can tell, nothing can be done with the Ford Connected Charge Station
until I can show the VIN for the Mustang Mach E that is on order, right?

I look forward to your responses.......................................................

The FCCS can handle both cars (one at a time) just fine. Get it installed and start using it on the Lincoln.

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