I agree with Phil and Bill regarding the versatility of using the 14-50. As an electrician, I have performed both styles of installations. As a consumer, I have opted for the outlet option. Personally, I have only used quality receptacles made by Leviton, Hubble or Legrande. Expect to spend a bit more for the industrial quality. You usually get what you pay for. Typically, the industrial units are physically heavier, indicating the larger (thicker) metallic components within the assembly. Every time that you remove or insert the corded connector, a small amount of contact surface material is removed (usually building up within the internal gaps). Inferior assemblies are often made with cheaper alloys and thinner metallic parts, making them cheaper to build and prone to rapid wear. If you are putting the outlet outdoors this is less of a concern vs inside your home or garage. Another consideration is using the proper circuit breaker size for the intended load. If you are connecting a 30A charger, it would be wise to choose a 30A circuit breaker, rather than a 50A. The circuit breaker protects the wire, the wire protects the receptacle, the receptacle protects the device connected to it. However if the outlet sacrifices itself and the circuit breaker is not sized properly, the heat will spread in a rather spectacular fashion. The proceeding are observations gained by over 30 years in the electrical and EV industries.
-Tom True Remember, it is not that the glass is half empty, in reality, the glass is merely twice the size that it needs to be! -TNT'82 On Wed, Feb 11, 2026, 9:32 AM (-Phil-) via EV <[email protected]> wrote: > The problem is giving advice and then being responsible for it. If you > tell someone to install a 14-50 and it later causes a fire? The fires are > relatively rare, but far from unheard of. There's also a lot of cheap > Chinese 14-50 outlets for sale. The proper Hubbell 14-50 I trust is about > $50, but most electricians will just install the $9 Chinese one, and these > are not the quality ones which were the ONLY only ones you could buy 25 > years ago! > > If you know what you are doing, as most people on this list, you are > probably safe to do a plug-connected EVSE. I'm definitely not comfortable > recommending people take shortcuts when the outcome could be so bad. > > On Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 9:04 AM Tom Mandera via EV <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > On Tue, 2026-02-10 at 09:50 -0800, (-Phil-) via EV wrote: > > > Personally I always advise people get a permanently installed EVSE > > > now. > > > I do not like recommending a 14-50 (or other outlet) connected unit, > > > there > > > have been too many melted outlets and fires, yes it CAN work, but it > > > also > > > adds another point of failure. > > > > I think in some locales you have permitting differences between > > "installing an EVSE" and an "RV outlet" or even a "drier outlet" > > > > There's also the evolving standards at play - my Leaf uses a J1772 to > > charge. My Tesla uses the NACS. > > > > If I had hard wired the J1772 unit, it would have been more difficult > > to change it out to the NACS. > > > > (In actual practice, I use the Tesla J1772 adapter rather than swap out > > EVSEs) > > > > > > Having the outlet gives me the flexibility to move on with the times. > > > > It also allows me to quickly - and permitlessly - replace a failed EVSE > > with another at any time. > > > > If you hard wire your EVSE and someone runs over the cord and breaks > > it, wouldn't you need a new permit and electrician to replace it? > > > > I do think if you want the 48A charge rate, you're stuck hard wiring, > > but I haven't found a need for it. The Leaf uses a 32A charger so it > > can recharge to full in ~2 hours typically, and the Tesla actually uses > > a 16A L2 most of the time. Since it can make multiple trips to town on > > one charge, I can afford to charge at the slower rate over night. > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Address messages to [email protected] > > No other addresses in TO and CC fields > > HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/ > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: < > http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20260211/62940872/attachment.htm > > > _______________________________________________ > Address messages to [email protected] > No other addresses in TO and CC fields > HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/ > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20260212/53be66b8/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ Address messages to [email protected] No other addresses in TO and CC fields HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/
