More than one Charger?

[Flybuddy]

Picking up Y on Friday...I've got 2 spots at home to park, one with a Nema 10 30 and one with a 14-50. I got both adapters. I'll probably use the charger that comes with car and leave that at home. No real need to buy the expensive home charger and re-wire for minimal improvement. However, would like to carry a charger in the car at all times and not have to pull the one off the wall for every trip. Has anyone gotten a standard J1772 for home or car and used the adapter? Or is it better to get a 2nd mobile charger?

 

[Puma2020]

I have a 14-50 outlet in the garage and have used that a few times now. Works great. Takes a few hours to re-charge. I had to buy the 14-50 plug from Tesla. Now the 14-50 plug sits in the wall with the mobile charger attached. I do have a simple hook/cradle to hold the cables when not in use. Tesla also provides you with a J-1772 adapter. You plug that into the charging port and then plug the J-1772 cord into the adapter. I have not had any need to use that yet. However, I did go out to the car and plug the adapter into the charger port and was able to extract it without any issues. With all of the Superchargers available and the functionality of the J-1772 adapter, I am not planning to get a 2nd mobile charger.

 

[Flybuddy]

Yup, I get all that..Up until recently I had a 2nd gen Volt and had a charger and cradle set up. My question is more of, is it worth keeping a mobile charger in the car at all times? I did that with the Volt and prior to that I had a street legal Gem car. I found that there are 110 outlets everywhere and most people let you use them. Figured it's worthwhile as a back up.

 

[Tessaract]

Having a mobile charger in the car at all times is safer, of course. But unless you're on a road trip or non-routine longer drive, it's unlikely you'll need the mobile charger. Topping up anywhere, especially at 120V, is not worth the trouble... charge at home at 240V. If charging at home doesn't get you through a normal day, then you bought a BEV with an inadequate battery, in my opinion.

But on a road trip, it's essential to have your mobile charger. And relying on 120V charging on a road trip is futile, except if you need a few more electrons to make it the next, very close Supercharger.

 

[Johnny Vector]

Yeah, charging at 120 V on the road is only useful in very specific cases, like you've left the car at the marina for the week while you take the rented boat to your camp on the island. Assuming the marina is willing to let you plug in in exchange for a reasonable fee. Amusingly, that particular situation is exactly why I got a Y to complement my Bolt. I'm hoping that over the next few years my enthusiasm will encourage the marina in question to install destination chargers, but in the meantime I can pay them twice what they pay for electricity and still charge for less than the nearby Supercharger. Win-win!

I will admit that this is a fairly niche situation, tho'.

 

[destructure00]

FWIW we made a road trip to Denver a couple weeks ago, and my brother let me park my car in his garage and plug in to his 110 outlet. It took a full 48 hours to charge from 10% to 90%. Fine in this case since we were there for a week and didn't move the car the entire time. Trying to charge on 110 for daily use is worthless though.

 

[Rocky_H]

My question is more of, is it worth keeping a mobile charger in the car at all times?

No, really unnecessary. Driving around town, you're not going to use up 200+ miles. When you are going to go out of town traveling, then sure, it may be a good idea to bring it, but even for that, about half the time I don't bother if I am staying on main interstate highways and big cities. There are Superchargers and public J1772 charging stations, so no need to plug into an outlet.

 

[2020]

I would keep one in the car just in case. My wife went out of town, she would have about 50 miles of range by the time she got to the Supercharger. However there was an accident that shut down the highway and the 50 miles drained rapidly to about 8 miles till she could exit. She had to leave the car overnight to allow for traffic to dissipate since a destination charger was about 10 miles away. Anyways she got to it the next day with one mile left. If you run out- got to get it towed.

 

[ACAG]

Here is a you tube video showing how having your moble charger with you on a long trip can be helpful: