OEM charger actually supports 220V

[zuikiz]

Hi. By accident I found out that OEM charger supports 220V, despite marked only for 110V.

And it charges the car very fast. Full charge in 2.5 hr.

 

I found this out by accident. Our garage in on the same fuse as bathrooms and it always blew, when the car was charging and someone would switch on the hair dryer.

The only other mains on separate fuse was garage heater and I thought I will split the mains from the heater into a separate socket for charging. I was convinced it is 110V circuit and did that. Installed simple 115V socket.

Noticed immediately how the car started charging much faster.

 

Only a few weeks later, I realised that it was actually a 220V circuit! Now I been using the OEM charger on 220V circuit for couple of months without issues.

Spared me $400 from buying separate charger for 220V.

 

 

 

 

[bdginmo]

While it may work I highly recommend you not do this. The OEM EVSE has a NEMA 5-15 plug on it. That means it can only be used on 120v outlets with the grounding prong. That  would be NEMA 5-15 or 5-20 style outlets only.

 

If the outlet you added was a NEMA 5-15 or 5-20 and was connected on a 240v circuit then you need to remove it immediately and replace it with a NEMA 6-xx or 14-xx style outlet. This is a potential fire risk. Take it seriously. It's also a potential electrocution risk. The reason is because 5-XX outlets use a neutral wire that has a 0v potential difference between it and the ground. The neutral blade on the outlet is on the left. But, what you've done is put a hot wire (120v to ground) on that left side blade in addition to the other hot wire (120v to ground) on the right side blade (note that blade-to-blade is 240v). If you were to plug in an ordinary variety lamp into that outlet the light bulb socket will be energized and could possibly shock someone. Take this seriously. Remove the outlet and replace it immediately with a NEMA 6-xx or 14-xx style outlet made for 240v appliances. Yes, that means you'll need to get a 240v EVSE.

Edited April 9, 2018 at 08:47 PM by bdginmo

[jsamp]

Thanks, bdginmo. 

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but one could, theoretically change the plug on the EVSE to a 6-XX style, change the outlet to a 6-xx style and then get a 5-15 plug to 6-xx socket adapter and then could use the EVSE as an either-or 120/240 unit, correct?  This eliminates the possibility of mis-plugging a 120 into a 240 socket, and also doesn't violate the no-adapter rules about 240V use.  Is this correct?

[murphy]

Switching to a 6-20 plug and receptacle would solve the original worry.

 

Is the wire in the cable to the J1774 rated for 16 amps?  Make sure it is not coiled while in use so it has maximum heat dissipation.

Is the power supply inside of the EVSE designed such that it can handle 240 volts without burning out the coil in the contactor that turns on the power?

Are the LEDs at the same intensity on 240 volts as on 120 volts?

 

I was going to look at mine but it is plastic welded together.

[bdginmo]

Thanks, bdginmo. 

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but one could, theoretically change the plug on the EVSE to a 6-XX style, change the outlet to a 6-xx style and then get a 5-15 plug to 6-xx socket adapter and then could use the EVSE as an either-or 120/240 unit, correct?  This eliminates the possibility of mis-plugging a 120 into a 240 socket, and also doesn't violate the no-adapter rules about 240V use.  Is this correct?

 

Maybe. Ya know...the EVSE isn't actually the charger. It just communicates with the car and throws the relay that sends power to the car. The charger is actually in the vehicle. The EVSE is more like a smart power pass-through device that tells the car that it has voltage ready and available for use. It's possible that you discovered that the hot wire on the (typically) neutral blade of the outlet tricked the EVSE into let the car know that 240v was available. It's possible that the "brain" of the OEM EVSE is the same as what is used in the 240v EVSE and that's why it worked. However, I suspect the OEM EVSE is only spec'd for 120v and 12A flow and for that reason I wouldn't use it as a 240v charger even if you did cut the 5-15 plug off of it and put a 6-20 on it instead. It's better to be safe than sorry. It's important to note that at 240v charging the vehicle draws 14-15 amps. So not only are out of spec on the voltage, but on the amp draw as well. The EVSE might overheat if it were only engineered for 12A.

Edited April 9, 2018 at 08:45 PM by bdginmo

[bdginmo]

You've done the hard part already. You have a viable 240v circuit that you can use. Just change the outlet to a NEMA 6-xx or 14-xx style and get an EVSE with the matching plug type. Make sure you look at the breaker in the panel. If it's a 30A breaker you can do either a 6-20 or a 14-30 outlet. If it's a 50A breaker than you could do a  6-50 or 14-50 outlet. Clipper Creek has 14-30, 14-50, and 6-50 style EVSEs. I'm there are 6-20 style EVSEs out there as well.

 

By the way, I should mention that you'll have to check your local building codes to see if you can have a garage heater and an open 240v outlet on the same circuit. I wouldn't be surprised if this is against code. Even if it's allowed you'll still may have the problem of overloading that circuit if the heater is running and the car is charging at the same time.

 

FWIW I have the Clipper Creek LCS-20P EVSE. It has the 14-30 plug on it which is what electric dryers typically use so it's a really common plug type.

Edited April 9, 2018 at 08:44 PM by bdginmo

[zuikiz]

I am aware about the outlet limitations and I am replacing it with Nema L6-30 socket and plug. I have removed the heater altogether, as it was not used anyway.

This was not the point of the thread.

The charger works well on 220V circuit. I've done at least 60 charges since on it.