Hi Phil etc
I’ve got a couple hard wired EVSEs, a GE with kWh and amps display added and an 
OpenEvse.com in the garage with KWh and amps display since we have 3 EVs, a 
Leaf, Bolt and now a Tesla, no fossil fools.  Adding a 3rd weatherproof 14/50 
mobile home unit I got from Lowes at lunch seems like a simple addition if 
everyone’s plugged in at the same time.  Dielectric grease on the blades helps 
long term reliability on connectors used outdoors, should be better than the 
250 200% load cycles UL tests to (assuming I don’t park the portable EVSE there 
until trips like others I know do).  I typically charge once a week with the 
high range so even if cycled that’s 5 years of operation worst case.  
Best regards 
Mark

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 26, 2021, at 4:05 PM, (-Phil-) <[email protected]> wrote:


IMO, you can now buy decent heavy-duty well-constructed J1772 EVSEs for rather 
low cost, and if you own a Tesla, their wall-connector EVSE is a good bargain 
for what you get.  If you just dropped many tens of kilobucks on a new EV, do 
yourself a favor and get a decent EVSE.  Save the included portable unit for 
emergencies/travel.  The portable units are much less reliable, so if you get a 
wall-mounted one, you then have a backup should it fail.

A proper hard-wired installation is more reliable and less prone to failure, 
simply because there are less connection points, especially those of the 100 
year old NEMA connector designs still in common use.

An EV charging load is challenging, which is why the NEC (National Electrical 
Code) implemented the 125% rule to oversize things to provide additional 
headroom and protection from overheating.  Even with this, I can't tell you how 
many times I've seen NEMA 15-40 outlets being used for EV charging get 
overheated and damaged because of corrosion, worn contacts, or most commonly; a 
loose wire termination.  It's even worse on 120v Level 1, with many people 
using the included portable EVSE old worn-out garage outlets, or worse; and 
undersized cheap extension code.   Do yourself, your family, and your insurance 
adjuster a favor; spend the $500 or so on a decent permanently wired EVSE.

On Fri, Mar 26, 2021 at 12:01 PM Mark Hanson via EV <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi folks
> We were arguing about insertion cycles of various connectors at lunch 
> (something engineers do) so I asked the great god google:
> Since the Tesla Y came with a portable 32A 240Vac charge controller (ordered 
> the nema 14/50 plug), could just use it as others do for charging.  Looking 
> at Wikipedia UL498 insertion cycles for Nema flat blade connectors , they 
> show 250 cycles at 200% rated current.  The J1772 shows 10K cycles but turns 
> off so is disconnected no load.  I don’t see the 14/50 no load insertion 
> number, apparently UL 498 doesn’t test for that.  Do to the reduced insertion 
> rating of the Nema flat blade (in this case) 14/50 connectors, probably best 
> to put the portable EVSE under an enclosure to protect from the weather and 
> leave it plugged in.  My P3 Killowatt meter shows 2 watts of ghost load so 
> negligible.  
> Stay connected,
> Mark
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
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