What home charger are you happy with?

[PA Bob]

I'll be getting a 2022 Mach-E very soon and want to know which home charger to have installed inside an unheated garage in Dallas. Some cold weather but usually not more than a few days at a time. Any consensus on good ones to buy? Any to avoid? Thanks!

Also, check to make sure which ones your state will give you a rebate for. At the time I bought mine, Pennsylvania would only rebate for ChargePoint and Juicebox.

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[ddr24]

Ok, I've only been up and operational a few days, so this is limited review. I have a Wallbox (48, hardwired, professionally installed and inspected). The device itself is fine. The support folks are lovely, but I'm sorry, in my experience, the app blows.

BT connectivity to my iPhone was a nightmare...the connection was recognized every time by the iPhone, but only jumping through hoops (including powering on off the circuit to the charger) was I able to (after multiple attempts) secure the BT connection in the app. Note that the BT connection is relatively useless...I mean, the whole goal is getting this thing on wifi...which you cannot do until you make the BT connection. Ok, so BT connection is made, wifi connection is made. I "go about my business" and come back to the charger later. Wifi connection gone...can't make BT connection in app. Jump through hoops again. Same result. Contact support (again, super helpful). Turns out, the wifi connection really wants to be on a network that is 2.4Ghz only, has no spaces in wifi password (ok) and no special characters in wifi name or password. Really? Well, turns out...yeah...really. Once I setup a new 2.4Ghz only guest network and plugged in a simple wifi name and password w/o any special characters (seriously?), all worked fine. Basically, once the wifi connection gets made, BT is "whatever". Plenty of times the app will tell you it lost its connection...but if you go back one screen, or close and open the app, all is good.

The process for doing a software update works if you have a wifi connection...but the experience, again, blows. You get a screen with "this may take awhile...with a fake progress bar". It does tell you that you don't have to stay on that screen...and that you can actually close the app if you want...which is true...and, in fact, there's really nothing you can do in the app while it's doing this given it stays on that screen with the option to "cancel". You don't ever get notified up the update being complete mind you...you're only awareness is when you get back to the home screen for your charger and don't see any notification to update. Swell.

The charging sessions are kind of wonky too. You can setup a charge schedule OR you can manually kick off a charge. If you setup a schedule...that's all it is...select days and times...that's it. So, if you want to actually limit to a 90% charge (for example), you've gotta set that up in Ford Pass. Ok, fine. If you manually setup a charge, your options in the app are "start" and "pause". There is no "stop" or "end session", so even if you're not charging, the session stays open until you unplug. Not terrible, but not great. What really isn't great is there seems to be no coordination between a manual charge session and a scheduled session. I have to do more testing on this so would love to hear other feedback, but E.g., I kicked off a manual session prior to my scheduled charge window...then paused it prior to the scheduled charge time...it'll stay in that state even though the scheduled charge window opened...

Oh, and I can't seem to get my Wallbox linked to Google Home...one of the bennies for this charger that had a coolness factor. That's next for support.

Yes, I'm whining. And yes, I haven't collected enough experience/data. Just hasn't been the super experience I was expecting, yet.

 

[markboris]

Ok, I've only been up and operational a few days, so this is limited review. I have a Wallbox (48, hardwired, professionally installed and inspected). The device itself is fine. The support folks are lovely, but I'm sorry, in my experience, the app blows.

BT connectivity to my iPhone was a nightmare...the connection was recognized every time by the iPhone, but only jumping through hoops (including powering on off the circuit to the charger) was I able to (after multiple attempts) secure the BT connection in the app. Note that the BT connection is relatively useless...I mean, the whole goal is getting this thing on wifi...which you cannot do until you make the BT connection. Ok, so BT connection is made, wifi connection is made. I "go about my business" and come back to the charger later. Wifi connection gone...can't make BT connection in app. Jump through hoops again. Same result. Contact support (again, super helpful). Turns out, the wifi connection really wants to be on a network that is 2.4Ghz only, has no spaces in wifi password (ok) and no special characters in wifi name or password. Really? Well, turns out...yeah...really. Once I setup a new 2.4Ghz only guest network and plugged in a simple wifi name and password w/o any special characters (seriously?), all worked fine. Basically, once the wifi connection gets made, BT is "whatever". Plenty of times the app will tell you it lost its connection...but if you go back one screen, or close and open the app, all is good.

The process for doing a software update works if you have a wifi connection...but the experience, again, blows. You get a screen with "this may take awhile...with a fake progress bar". It does tell you that you don't have to stay on that screen...and that you can actually close the app if you want...which is true...and, in fact, there's really nothing you can do in the app while it's doing this given it stays on that screen with the option to "cancel". You don't ever get notified up the update being complete mind you...you're only awareness is when you get back to the home screen for your charger and don't see any notification to update. Swell.

The charging sessions are kind of wonky too. You can setup a charge schedule OR you can manually kick off a charge. If you setup a schedule...that's all it is...select days and times...that's it. So, if you want to actually limit to a 90% charge (for example), you've gotta set that up in Ford Pass. Ok, fine. If you manually setup a charge, your options in the app are "start" and "pause". There is no "stop" or "end session", so even if you're not charging, the session stays open until you unplug. Not terrible, but not great. What really isn't great is there seems to be no coordination between a manual charge session and a scheduled session. I have to do more testing on this so would love to hear other feedback, but E.g., I kicked off a manual session prior to my scheduled charge window...then paused it prior to the scheduled charge time...it'll stay in that state even though the scheduled charge window opened...

Oh, and I can't seem to get my Wallbox linked to Google Home...one of the bennies for this charger that had a coolness factor. That's next for support.

Yes, I'm whining. And yes, I haven't collected enough experience/data. Just hasn't been the super experience I was expecting, yet.

Dan, after reading your post wanted to add my opinion of the software connecting on two home chargers I have personally used. I think from what I've used and seen with others, most all these charges do a great job of charging the car with virtually no issues. However it's the software associated to them that can be a real bugger. I originally owned the ChargePoint Home Flex and the software was just ok. I not only set up mine but two other friends that had them all with iPhone's and good Wi-Fi to the garage. While I never had major issues it sometimes would take a few tries to connect to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. A few times needing to restart the charger by flipping the breaker. Once connected, not really an issue unless you want to change settings then might have to go through the process again.

For several months now, I've been using the Emporia Vue Energy Monitor system monitoring 40 circuits, solar and PowerWalls. It's a really slick system and wanted to add their home charger because it will monitor my solar and vary the charge amperage depending on production. I hard wired my ChargePoint so it was an easy swap for me to unmount it and mount the Emporia right in the same place. After powering up the Emporia, went to their app (same one I am using now to monitor the circuits) and chose to add the home charger. I got a screen within a couple of seconds that said it had already connected to the bluetooth on my phone, then another screen came up that displayed my home wi-fi network and asked for the password. After entering the password it was connected and finished. This literally took less than 30 seconds and I never had to go into settings on my iPhone or anything. I was shocked at how fast it all went. About a minute or so after it was up and running, I got a screen that stated the firmware needed to be updated. That took about two minutes to finish and all has been well since. While I really liked the ChargePoint Home Flex for the almost two years I had it, I am really liking this Emporia even better.

As far as charging schedules, I never have used that feature in either the Ford Pass app (which I don't use for anything) or the charger's app. The only time I charge is during solar production (or batteries at night if there was little solar production during the day) and using the Emporia makes this much easier for me.

 

[ddr24]

Dan, after reading your post wanted to add my opinion of the software connecting on two home chargers I have personally used. I think from what I've used and seen with others, most all these charges do a great job of charging the car with virtually no issues. However it's the software associated to them that can be a real bugger. I originally owned the ChargePoint Home Flex and the software was just ok. I not only set up mine but two other friends that had them all with iPhone's and good Wi-Fi to the garage. While I never had major issues it sometimes would take a few tries to connect to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. A few times needing to restart the charger by flipping the breaker. Once connected, not really an issue unless you want to change settings then might have to go through the process again.

For several months now, I've been using the Emporia Vue Energy Monitor system monitoring 40 circuits, solar and PowerWalls. It's a really slick system and wanted to add their home charger because it will monitor my solar and vary the charge amperage depending on production. I hard wired my ChargePoint so it was an easy swap for me to unmount it and mount the Emporia right in the same place. After powering up the Emporia, went to their app (same one I am using now to monitor the circuits) and chose to add the home charger. I got a screen within a couple of seconds that said it had already connected to the bluetooth on my phone, then another screen came up that displayed my home wi-fi network and asked for the password. After entering the password it was connected and finished. This literally took less than 30 seconds and I never had to go into settings on my iPhone or anything. I was shocked at how fast it all went. About a minute or so after it was up and running, I got a screen that stated the firmware needed to be updated. That took about two minutes to finish and all has been well since. While I really liked the ChargePoint Home Flex for the almost two years I had it, I am really liking this Emporia even better.

As far as charging schedules, I never have used that feature in either the Ford Pass app (which I don't use for anything) or the charger's app. The only time I charge is during solar production (or batteries at night if there was little solar production during the day) and using the Emporia makes this much easier for me.

Thanks, Mark. I appreciate knowing of experiences with other chargers. I soaked up a bunch of research, watched many "State of Charge" video reviews, and I didn't recall hearing of feedback on the app side of things that would have made folks (like me) reconsider.

I'm just really surprised how "wonky" the app is for Wallbox. I know that's not a great description, but we all use apps on our phones these days, and we know when we use apps that have you ask yourself, "it's an iPhone app...you guys have devs that have done an iPhone app before, yeah?" And, while I'm not a dev, having to resolve an issue by setting up a wifi password with no special characters just seems incredibly silly...and "silly" is being nice.

Anyway, I get that I need to "play" more and maybe things "get better". And again, I've had a great experience with Wallbox support thus far...

 

[acosmichippo]

also a wallbox owner and I agree the app is pretty wonky. Wifi reception is also a bit wonky.

But, once I got it finally set up how I wanted it has been pretty hands off.

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