EV chargers - good & bad

[73henny]

Now that I have an M3P on order its time to start looking at getting an EV charger fitted.
Are there any that should be avoided or that are wholly recommended? I realise its a bit of a minefield with earth rods, connected vs not connected, cost etc, but interested in this good and bad experiences of those much more experienced than me.
Will have to get some quotes organised tomorrow but not sure what charger I want.

 

[Xdama]

Maybe this will help, I have a Charged EV untethered. Only thing I’d say is get tethered it’s easier. Also look at the apps they can make or break the system, a good app is worth it’s weight in gold. Charged Ev use Project EV app, it can be glitchy, there’s better out there, Zappi get good reviews.

Best home EV chargers 2023 | Auto Express

We test the top ways to charge your electric or plug-in hybrid car at home

www.autoexpress.co.uk

 

[Lord Farquad]

I’ve got a tethered podpoint and it’s good. If you need it to do specific things around off peak charging or drawing off solar panels etc I can’t comment. But as a decent home charger, it’s great.

 

[Jason71]

Maybe this will help, I have a Charged EV untethered. Only thing I’d say is get tethered it’s easier. Also look at the apps they can make or break the system, a good app is worth it’s weight in gold. Charged Ev use Project EV app, it can be glitchy, there’s better out there, Zappi get good reviews.

Best home EV chargers 2023 | Auto Express

We test the top ways to charge your electric or plug-in hybrid car at home

www.autoexpress.co.uk

Plus 1 on the tethering.
I never use the app

 

[Kansalis]

I’ve got a tethered podpoint and it’s good. If you need it to do specific things around off peak charging or drawing off solar panels etc I can’t comment. But as a decent home charger, it’s great.

I have an untethered PodPoint & it's been 100% reliable. Never had any issues & use the built-in scheduling to charge during GoFaster hours. It works fine in "dumb" mode without schedules if you have no wi-fi connection, but a word of caution; if you want to use the scheduling it needs a decent wi-fi connection. I've read from some that if the connection isn't very good there can be issues with scheduling as it's server-controlled not locally set.

 

[73henny]

Maybe this will help, I have a Charged EV untethered. Only thing I’d say is get tethered it’s easier. Also look at the apps they can make or break the system, a good app is worth it’s weight in gold. Charged Ev use Project EV app, it can be glitchy, there’s better out there, Zappi get good reviews.

Best home EV chargers 2023 | Auto Express

We test the top ways to charge your electric or plug-in hybrid car at home

www.autoexpress.co.uk

Thanks for this. Will have a read, and interesting you mention the App experience. Hadn't really considered that as I'd half expected the Tesla App to control charging times?

I’ve got a tethered podpoint and it’s good. If you need it to do specific things around off peak charging or drawing off solar panels etc I can’t comment. But as a decent home charger, it’s great.

So you don't need or want to take advantage of off-peak rates? From reading various posts on here I was under the impression everyone did that?

Plus 1 on the tethering.
I never use the app

Do you use the car to set charge times or not care about off peak rates?

 

[Chanser]

Tethered Zappi here, I charge mine during off peak. During summer time I use solar to charge.

 

[94jdh]

Tethered wallbox pulsar - mounted in the garage and no problems encountered

 

[Lord Farquad]

Thanks for this. Will have a read, and interesting you mention the App experience. Hadn't really considered that as I'd half expected the Tesla App to control charging times?

So you don't need or want to take advantage of off-peak rates? From reading various posts on here I was under the impression everyone did that?

Do you use the car to set charge times or not care about off peak rates?

The podpoint and Tesla apps both allow schedule charging. I don’t as my current meter won’t allow an off peak rate
And Octopus won’t/can’t upgrade my meter
So I can’t comment on how easy it is. But it’s certainly possible.
If you’re banking on off peak rates, check you can get them with your meter/supplier combo.

 

[Andy Wag]

I have the Andersen. Looks as good as the car, works perfectly and a great simple app. Also had a choice of tethered cable lengths. Costs a bit but if you have spent 60k on the car it’s worth spending the extra money to get a charger that doesn’t look like an ice cream on the wall of your house.

 

[s7gpt]

also got an MY on order, after a little research I just decided to get the Tesla Gen 3, having it fitted with extras needed for £456 next week which seems reasonable !

 

[Chris CG]

Anderson A2 here! Looks great and can be had with an 8m cable which was a big selling point so I could charge without having to move cars around on the drive. App is really easy to use and works perfectly with Octopus Go and scheduling charging. Costs a lot but IMHO is one of the only ones that actually looks good on your house.

 

[73henny]

The podpoint and Tesla apps both allow schedule charging. I don’t as my current meter won’t allow an off peak rate
And Octopus won’t/can’t upgrade my meter
So I can’t comment on how easy it is. But it’s certainly possible.
If you’re banking on off peak rates, check you can get them with your meter/supplier combo.

I have a legacy economy 7 type day/night meter and am currently on the variable tariff with Octopus.

I have the Andersen. Looks as good as the car, works perfectly and a great simple app. Also had a choice of tethered cable lengths. Costs a bit but if you have spent 60k on the car it’s worth spending the extra money to get a charger that doesn’t look like an ice cream on the wall of your house.

I have an integral double garage so plenty of room for the car and the charger so I'll get it fitted in there.

also got an MY on order, after a little research I just decided to get the Tesla Gen 3, having it fitted with extras needed for £456 next week which seems reasonable !

Thats very reasonable. I thought the charger alone was that sort of money?

Anderson A2 here! Looks great and can be had with an 8m cable which was a big selling point so I could charge without having to move cars around on the drive. App is really easy to use and works perfectly with Octopus Go and scheduling charging. Costs a lot but IMHO is one of the only ones that actually looks good on your house.

As above my car goes in the garage and that's where the charger will go but I hadn't given a lot of thought to the cable length. I drive in and reverse out (or have done for the decade we've owned the house) so the charge port in the car will be in the middle of the garage next to the garage door. Might have to start reversing in so the charge port is next to a wall.

 

[s7gpt]

Thats very reasonable. I thought the charger alone was that sort of money?

That’s on top of the £449 for the charger

 

[Mrklaw]

Tesla cannot fully schedule charging. You can schedule a start time and a target %, or a ‘finish by’ time and a target %. You *cannot* do a simple ‘start at midnight, finish at 4am’ which can be useful with off peak tariffs.

You can get around this with chargers that have scheduling built in like the zappi2, or you can use a separate app like teslafi which can control the car remotely and turn on/off the charging on the car by scheduled times.

 

[Jason71]

Do you use the car to set charge times or not care about off peak rates?

I use the car. Don't trust the apps.internet or server outage and your car does not charge. Scheduled charge+charge limit is adequate for me

 

[Js1977]

I use the car. Don't trust the apps.internet or server outage and your car does not charge. Scheduled charge+charge limit is adequate for me

Most if not all "chargers" are not dependant on the internet or servers to perform the scheduled/timer functions. These tasks are performed from within the unit.

 

[Js1977]

Finding a charger that fits your needs is not much of an issue at the moment. However and this might be dependant from where in the country you live, getting someone to actually come around and install one might be challenging. I suggest not sitting on the fence for long.

 

[Billbrown1982]

I've got an Eo Smart Home Mini 2 untethered. Its a tiny little box, so very discrete. Which was my main reason for getting it.

BUT, the app is pretty garbage. Once its setup you can usually forget about it but if you need to make changes, it can be very finicky. Although has behaved itself lately.

My major negative is their support. I've been chasing them for a month now as my charger is basically trying to kill me and although they have promised me they are arranging a call out, I'm still waiting.

Would avoid if given the choice again in the future tbh.

 

[Xdama]

I've got an Eo Smart Home Mini 2 untethered. Its a tiny little box, so very discrete. Which was my main reason for getting it.

BUT, the app is pretty garbage. Once its setup you can usually forget about it but if you need to make changes, it can be very finicky. Although has behaved itself lately.

My major negative is their support. I've been chasing them for a month now as my charger is basically trying to kill me and although they have promised me they are arranging a call out, I'm still waiting.

Would avoid if given the choice again in the future tbh.

Same issue with Charged EV ….support is terrible if you have any issues. We have 2 EV’s my M3 and the wife has a Kona E, just wasn’t very EV savvy when we got the charger tbf, hence untethered. We’re on Octopus Go so try to use the 5p charge rate between 0030-0430 as much as possible. Wife had her car for 10mths before I got the M3 so never had any issues at first, then found out we couldn’t connect my phone as well as hers so if she was at work I couldn’t charge using the app (she’s a nurse so works nights occasionally). Took a fair bit of harrassing Charged EV to get it set up correctly, works ok now with scheduled charging though. Aesthetically, it’s just a box on the wall in the drive but looks no worse than a gas meter box imo lol, satellite dishes on other houses look a lot worse lol.
I’ll be looking for another one soon myself as we’re moving and that one is staying here so tethered will be definitely on the list.