Existing Rolec Wallpod:EV or New Tesla Gen 3

[chazman88]

Hi,

So I've just placed an order for a MY and it should (fingers crossed) be delivered July/August!

I live in a new build house that's about 5 years old and it came with a Rolec Wallpod:EV already installed. Im guessing that 5 years ago there wasn't a need for PEN devices as im fairly sure that I don't have one!

So my question is this, would I gain anything from having a Tesla Get 3 installed (which im assuming would need a PEN device also) or stick with what I've got?

Thanks

 

[Kansalis]

If the existing charger works, there's probably no need to replace it. Have you ever tested it? If not, it's likely worth asking someone you know with an EV to try it out.

 

[chazman88]

If the existing charger works, there's probably no need to replace it. Have you ever tested it? If not, it's likely worth asking someone you know with an EV to try it out.

Ive never used it, not sure I've ever even turned it on since buying the house.....

 

[Jason71]

Ive never used it, not sure I've ever even turned it on since buying the house.....

The first question is what is the output of your current charger? if it is less than 7kw ( which it could be if 5 years old) then it might be worth upgrading. Otherwise I would say not.
If you do replace then does not have to be a Tesla charger. Plenty of other chargers and they all work the same way.
I am guessing yours does not have a cable attached i.e. is not tethered. If it is it may be the wrong cable.
If not then I personally would find having to get my cable in and out of the boot all the time, putting a wet cable in the car etc a PitA. So that is another thing to consider. You could just buy a spare cable to leave plugged into the charger but that is going to cost £100+ and someone could steal it.
the Tesla charger gives you a button to open the charge flap, which is convenient, but you have to decide how much it is worth to you.

Also if it is a 5 year old Rolec they used to have a terrible reputation for reliability. Much better now. I have one and its fine but the older ones were a bit dodgy by some accounts

 

[Kansalis]

the Tesla charger gives you a button to open the charge flap, which is convenient, but you have to decide how much it is worth to you.

100% not worth basing a purchase on though. You can just press on the flap with a finger to open it.

My PodPoint is untethered, but I do leave a cable permanently attached. It's out of sight and nowhere near the street though. Some chargers do have locks or the option to add a lock if you want to leave a cable plugged in.

There are quite a few different chargers to choose from & plenty of threads on here with the options listed. It's worth a browse around to check them out but the first thing would be to test your existing one first (after confirming it's Type 2 as @Jason71 alluded to).

 

[roadcred]

If the Rolec works use it. If it breaks get rid they are sh*t! I had one nearly burnt the house down!

 

[Fursty Ferret]

I replaced a PodPoint one with a Tesla Gen 3 from eBay, mainly because the Podpoint charger looked bloody awful on the side of the house. The house already had a type B RCD and PEN fault detection installed so it was a 15 minute job. I like having the button and I just use the scheduling in the car (via my phone) to handle overnight charging.

 

[Nujec]

The Tesla wall connector didn't seem to offer that much apart from integrating with the Tesla app and have a button to unlock the chargepoint.

I got a Zappi v2 for my Tesla which has a great app for scheduling and viewing house and chargepoint energy usage and is future proof if we add a storage battery or solar. Very happy with it.

Older Rolec's can be unreliable. If you use a National Trust charger they're quite often Rolec and some of those are flaky in my experience. There's a video on YouTube where someone takes a failed Rolec apart and find out the power relay's can fail due to a design flaw though I don't think there was any implication that this was a shock or fire hazard.

If you have any reason to suspect your Rolec wasn't installed properly get it checked or reinstalled. Car chargepoints are a potentially lethal shock and fire hazard strapped to the side of your house.

 

[WannabeOwner]

The Tesla wall connector didn't seem to offer that much

Mine (not a recent model) has a long, and very beefy, cable. I'm sure that's not essential, now limited to Tesla (might not even be a feature of current ones) but its put up with a lot of abuse. The charger at work has a skinny cable, and its now like a slinky from where various people have coiled it up / twisted it etc. Can't help thinking that is going to shorten its life ...

 

[WannabeOwner]

takes a failed Rolec apart and find out the power relay's can fail due to a design flaw

Had one at home and work. Both failed (the fuse / breaker or somesuch, solved by Sparky replacing it with "a better one") ... the one at home burnt a hole through the side and is no longer weatherproof.

I reckon if the Rolec is old it may have / develop that fault. The Breaker is colour-coded, I don't remember the details, but that might be enough to establish if it is "old" or "upgraded". They used to trip a lot too ... was frustrating to come back to the car and discover that it had only charged for 10 minutes ... but can check that via Phone or an alert from something like TeslaFi.

 

[spon88]

My "dumb" Rolec is coming up 3 years old and never missed a beat. Not pretty but not too visible so I'm not worried. The older ones had a blue breaker and were a bit pants by all accounts. The newer ones (green breakers) seem to be fine and also have the required PEN fault detection on board I believe.

 

[Nujec]

My "dumb" Rolec is coming up 3 years old and never missed a beat. Not pretty but not too visible so I'm not worried. The older ones had a blue breaker and were a bit pants by all accounts. The newer ones (green breakers) seem to be fine and also have the required PEN fault detection on board I believe. View attachment 785636

I like that they made the breakers replaceable with standard components. Probably not so true of other charge points.

 

[Nujec]

Mine (not a recent model) has a long, and very beefy, cable. I'm sure that's not essential, now limited to Tesla (might not even be a feature of current ones) but its put up with a lot of abuse. The charger at work has a skinny cable, and its now like a slinky from where various people have coiled it up / twisted it etc. Can't help thinking that is going to shorten its life ...

Could be a beefy cable because it supports 3 phase and high current. Single phase 16A cables are quite a lot less chunky.

 

[Jason71]

My "dumb" Rolec is coming up 3 years old and never missed a beat. Not pretty but not too visible so I'm not worried. The older ones had a blue breaker and were a bit pants by all accounts. The newer ones (green breakers) seem to be fine and also have the required PEN fault detection on board I believe. View attachment 785636

I have the smart verson going on 2 1/2 years. Agree they seem fine these days

 

[Regulo]

My dumb Rolec is now 7 years old. Never missed a beat. I'm not sure but my Outlander seemed to charge straight off at 16 Amps, The model 3 seems to slowly build up the charge current. Perhaps that's a better way for the longevity of contractors?

 

[Adopado]

My "dumb" Rolec is coming up 3 years old and never missed a beat. Not pretty but not too visible so I'm not worried. The older ones had a blue breaker and were a bit pants by all accounts. The newer ones (green breakers) seem to be fine and also have the required PEN fault detection on board I believe. View attachment 785636

The installers used one of those green Rolec breakers on the circuit that supplies my Zappi (though it also has one inside). It's been fine ... mind you the Zappi itself needed to be replaced but the Rolec breaker has been OK (2.5 years).

 

[Tony Hoyle]

I replaced a PodPoint one with a Tesla Gen 3 from eBay, mainly because the Podpoint charger looked bloody awful on the side of the house. The house already had a type B RCD and PEN fault detection installed so it was a 15 minute job. I like having the button and I just use the scheduling in the car (via my phone) to handle overnight charging.

I did basically the same but a gen2 although my podpoint predated the requirement for good RCD or earth protection (I've subsequently upgraded the RCD and have have an eye on PEN device prices). The podpoint had gone an odd green colour in the sun.. looked awful.

The button is worth it.. no more fiddling with the app in the rain just to go somewhere. Tempted to upgrade to gen3 if it gets more features, but I'm waiting to see what happens after June.

 

[chazman88]

Thanks everybody. There’s some really useful info there.

I definitely agree that the Tesla Gen 3 charger is a lot more aesthetically pleasing than the Rolec one and the idea of having to coil up a potentially wet charging cable doesn’td sound like fun!

I’ll get a friend to drop round with his EV and see what happens when he plugs in!