Wall Charger hell

[ChrisMPK]

You definitely went a bit overkill, which in my opinion is the correct amount of kill. I didn't buy a Tesla because it was the second or third most awesome electric car, and I didn't put in a HPWC because it was the second or third best charging option. There is a lot of great technical advise on this forum but there is also a lot of advise about doing the minimum or trying to save $25 on materials or installation.

In my not so humble opinion, do the most badass installation you can within the limits of your budget and technical constraints. Leave the bare minimum for the Honda Civic forum.

 

[SMAlset]

View attachment 445668 Yep, Model 3 LR performance.

Thanks guys! Tearing out what little hair I have. Convinced I screwed up. It's a beautiful install. Hopefully someday they crank it up to a higher Amperage.

I feel really dumb not knowing it would only charge at 48A. I seriously thought it would draw 80A off the 100A circuit. New to Tesla, so a NEMA connector would have worked just as well for less $$$.

An example of another time when reading about the installation ahead of time might have paid off. Looks really nice installed however, very clean work! Only thing I noticed is kind of close to the door hinge. If your family gets another Tesla like an MS/X at some point, and your charging two cars at the same time, you'll be further ahead of the game at that point. It's easy to start out with one family car a Tesla and if you're a two car family, easy to make the decision for another one. I know we did a year later.

 

[groovidad]

View attachment 445668 Yep, Model 3 LR performance.

Thanks guys! Tearing out what little hair I have. Convinced I screwed up. It's a beautiful install. Hopefully someday they crank it up to a higher Amperage.

I feel really dumb not knowing it would only charge at 48A. I seriously thought it would draw 80A off the 100A circuit. New to Tesla, so a NEMA connector would have worked just as well for less $$$.

Congrats on your charger installation! Envious! I have the same setup but, my max is 38 amps. Aluminum wire placed when house was built with a future dedicated EV outlet forbade me going big!
EDIT: Sorry! Make that 40 amps.

 

[darth_vad3r]

I have had a wall connector for a year now and it has come in handy multiple times when I got back from road trips and needed fast turn around.

Isn’t hitting up one last supercharger before you get home going to give you a way faster turnaround by just arriving home at a high SoC instead of low? ... I mean if you need a “fast” turnaround. If you don’t need a fast one you just skip the last SC and charge overnight anyways.

 

[Dmagyar]

i intend to put in a 220 line or whatever the correct one is...just hesitating on the Tesla wall charger

It’s been and continues to be 240 volts...just sayin

 

[Dmagyar]

You definitely went a bit overkill, which in my opinion is the correct amount of kill. I didn't buy a Tesla because it was the second or third most awesome electric car, and I didn't put in a HPWC because it was the second or third best charging option. There is a lot of great technical advise on this forum but there is also a lot of advise about doing the minimum or trying to save $25 on materials or installation.

In my not so humble opinion, do the most badass installation you can within the limits of your budget and technical constraints. Leave the bare minimum for the Honda Civic forum.

Except you’d get the same effect rolling down the window, tossing your wallet out that same window...senseless spending on useless over capacity. Just donate to any charity if you want to get rid of some extra funds, use a big check if you feel the need to be recognized...

 

[cwerdna]

Onboard Charger lists the OBCs that come on currently sold in the US Teslas and why it's 48 amps at max. OP didn't install a "charger", he installed an EVSE which Tesla calls a wall connector (Silver Wall Connector).

OP can look at Three Things Determine EV Charge Time and the diagram I pointed to at Please tell me about my charging setup.

 

[Watts_Up]

I feel really dumb not knowing it would only charge at 48A.
I seriously thought it would draw 80A off the 100A circuit.
New to Tesla, so a NEMA connector would have worked just as well for less $$$.

No, smart choice. In the future you will be able to install up to 4 chargers using load balancing.

 

[jerseygirl18]

Faster recovery after a road trip is a good option to have.
Redundant charging solutions are good to have, your UMC can stay in the car as a backup.
If the future brings a second EV in the garage you are 2/3rds of the way to load sharing.

The hard push for bare minimum around here is irrational.
I have had a wall connector for a year now and it has come in handy multiple times when I got back from road trips and needed fast turn around.

thanks, good point! Appreciate

 

[VT_EE]

View attachment 445668 Yep, Model 3 LR performance.

Thanks guys! Tearing out what little hair I have. Convinced I screwed up. It's a beautiful install. Hopefully someday they crank it up to a higher Amperage.

I feel really dumb not knowing it would only charge at 48A. I seriously thought it would draw 80A off the 100A circuit. New to Tesla, so a NEMA connector would have worked just as well for less $$$.

Where are you coiling the cord? It looks like you mounted the HPWC right next to the door which doesn't leave any room for wrapping the excess cord around the charger like it's designed to do.

 

[SSedan]

Isn’t hitting up one last supercharger before you get home going to give you a way faster turnaround by just arriving home at a high SoC instead of low? ... I mean if you need a “fast” turnaround. If you don’t need a fast one you just skip the last SC and charge overnight anyways.

Sometimes it is great to hit a supercharger on the way home, especially since the two closest are at grocery stores. Other times you just want to get home. The incident that caused me to upgrade from. 14-30 outlet was while out of town on vacation I got a call that Dad was getting a couple hour ambulance ride to the cardiac unit. Rushed home to drop the wife and kids unload the car. Round trip to hospital was going to have me low single digits, 14-30 gave me almost nothing in the 15minutes I was home so I had to detour to supercharger for just a couple minutes but it was a detour probably cost me 20 minutes and then had to hit it again in the morning since I was home such a short time over night. Within weeks I ordered the HCWC and despite my just 15mile daily commute have no regrets on going with such overkill.

 

[Phlier]

Lack of research on my part... At least it looks cool and has green lights to watch.

I think ya done good. I *did* do the research, and still went with a 100A circuit. I know for a fact that other than a tow vehicle, we won't ever be buying a non-Tesla vehicle again. Putting in the 100A line made it possible to add a second HPWC that can suck on that line at full power, without having to do the "intelligent load sharing" thing.

It's just a matter of time...

 

[mike123abc]

Remember that you are actually using a 60 amps worth of wiring when you are charging at 48 amps in the car. Even though you are only drawing 48 amps you should only run the circuit at 80%. If you had installed 50 amp wiring/breaker you would only be getting 40 amps in the car. If you had 2 LR Model 3s and had the circuit sharing with two wall connectors you would be limited to 40 amps at each car if they both wanted max power at the same time.

 

[Fossil Fool]

I agree the door clearance we did all sorts of measuring days beforehand and determined the door would clear the connector easily. I wanted to use the minimum space as close to the car charge port as possible and we did it. I realized the cable coiled over the connector would block the door, so I ordered a $14 cable organizer from Amazon. It works perfectly.

Supercharging is not an option for me. I live in Prescott, AZ. I'm about 1 hour roundtrip from a SC and most are returning up mountain steep mountain roads. There is one Tesla connector at a hotel in the town, but I pass by there frequently and it has never been open.

I didn't install the connector for recognition, it is an absolute necessity to use my car at all in Prescott. The trickle charge connector from a 100v wall outlet couldn't keep up with my needs. Out here in Arizona, unless you live close to an Interstate highway you are one your own.

 

[SMAlset]

I think ya done good. I *did* do the research, and still went with a 100A circuit. I know for a fact that other than a tow vehicle, we won't ever be buying a non-Tesla vehicle again. Putting in the 100A line made it possible to add a second HPWC that can suck on that line at full power, without having to do the "intelligent load sharing" thing.

It's just a matter of time...

@Phlier glad to see given your reservations about getting your car that you are enjoying it.

We went the 14-50 60A? circuit route when we got our MS back in early 2017. Since we had no previous experience with Tesla wasn't sure if we'd buy another so chose a "safe" route for future cars and one that gave us some flexibility for power tools. We did hook up a 14-50 corded mobile connector that is pretty much permanent on our wall and we actually are perfectly okay with a slower charge overnight and who knows maybe safer, not heating up things as much. My AWD LR Model 3 charges at 11pm at night and even when it's down to 20% it will be 90% charged by the early a.m. before I get up to drive. Lookswise I do think the HPWC is a thing of beauty as far as EVSEs go. Some are down right fugly. I'm one of those that feel that why design something and make it look ugly when it can look beautiful to the eye.

 

[Grump99]

Looks sharp!

 

[Phlier]

@Phlier glad to see given your reservations about getting your car that you are enjoying it.

OMG, we love the car so very much. Yes, the purchasing and registration process was... less than ideal. I ended up having to drive 150 miles down to the Las Vegas Tesla store to re-sign paperwork that they had lost, which prevented me from getting a temporary registration window sticker. I was on the very last day of my special "Drive Away Permit." They never called me to tell me that they had lost the paperwork, and in fact didn't even realize that they *had* lost the paperwork until I had called them three times. I'm always a very level headed, quiet kinda guy, but I have to admit, I did end up raising my voice after all other "cool headed" measures had failed. Apparently that worked, as I received a temporary registration from Utah state by FedEx yesterday.

And if I ever came across has having reservations about getting it, then I worded my posts poorly. I *never* had reservations about getting it at all. It was simply the purchasing process that was horrible. But I knew going into it that it would be. Just a matter of toughing it out til the end.

Oh yes, Tesla has some serious growing pains to get through, but the car is just such a superior product that it's worth putting up with inept, overworked, and under trained employees. And when I was expressing my frustration/anger to a Tesla employee, I always made sure that I told them I wasn't mad at them, and to please not take it personally, but that I was mad at the company... It's not the employee's fault that they are overworked and under trained.

I'm one of those that feel that why design something and make it look ugly when it can look beautiful to the eye.

My wife is lucky enough to have that same talent. In fact, I knew that Tesla had a winner of a product when she said that she "loves the design of the interior!"

 

[Watts_Up]

You should unroll the loop the loop that you made when charging. This creates too much induction.

 

[Fossil Fool]

Yep. I unwind the cord fully for charging, but made it look purdy for the photo.

 

[Baked76]

I agree the door clearance we did all sorts of measuring days beforehand and determined the door would clear the connector easily. I wanted to use the minimum space as close to the car charge port as possible and we did it. I realized the cable coiled over the connector would block the door, so I ordered a $14 cable organizer from Amazon. It works perfectly.

Supercharging is not an option for me. I live in Prescott, AZ. I'm about 1 hour roundtrip from a SC and most are returning up mountain steep mountain roads. There is one Tesla connector at a hotel in the town, but I pass by there frequently and it has never been open.

I didn't install the connector for recognition, it is an absolute necessity to use my car at all in Prescott. The trickle charge connector from a 100v wall outlet couldn't keep up with my needs. Out here in Arizona, unless you live close to an Interstate highway you are one your own.


View attachment 445852

Wow that's a tight coil.... And 8 inches on either side is more than enough clearance for the cable.