[DaV8or]

I need to order my EVSE and I can't make up my mind on which of these two to buy. I want either the Clipper Creek HCS-40P, or the Juice box 40. They both have pros and cons.

Clipper Creek HCS-40P

Pros-

• Established company with good reputation.
• Slightly longer charge cord.
• Good customer support.

Cons-

• Bulky, takes up more wall space.
• $40 more expensive.
• 12" Power input cord.
• Non portable mounting.

Juice Box 40

Pros-

• Detachable Mount for portability.
• 6' Power input cord.
• $40 cheaper.
• Smaller box on the wall.

Cons-

• Lesser known company with less service history.
• 1' shorter charging cord.
• Lesser known reliability.

Both are made in USA, both have 3 year warranties, both have a holster and some sort of cable management and both have some sort of safety ratings. I will be mounting this indoors in my garage.

What do you all think?

 

[Ralph Fullerton]

I went with the JuiceBox 40. Since the car is smart and I was able to set up the EV rate plan from PGE on the car, I thought that all I needed was a dumb charger and I would be okay. I have had no issues so far, and having the longer input cable was a huge advantage for my set up.

 

[David M O'Rourke]

both are good and reliable - I'd recommend a "bigger" or "configurable" EV charger for your future EV purchasing needs - I have the clipper creek 60/48 amp charger and while the Bolt can only used 32 AMP's my other EV's can charger at the full 48 amp rate…

you'll do fine with either purchase - I'm partial to the Clipper Creek since I know they are basically bullet proof from a reliability point of view.

 

[z0ner]

You could do a heck of a lot better with OpenEVSE. Based on your handiness you could get their feature-rich 50A deluxe kit and J1772 40A cable for as low as $400 ($250 + $150). I built mine in an hour, and although I have mine wall-mounted you can make it portable. The enclosure is moisture-proof and can be installed outdoors.

I added their WiFi kit after the fact ($38) and now I monitor all the sensor info (voltage, amperage, temperature) as well as send email alerts, etc.

They're constantly adding new features and it's pretty easy to update.

I can't add the URL because of my post count, but search openevse. It's the first and second hit.

 

[DaV8or]

You could do a heck of a lot better with OpenEVSE. Based on your handiness you could get their feature-rich 50A deluxe kit and J1772 40A cable for as low as $400 ($250 + $150). I built mine in an hour, and although I have mine wall-mounted you can make it portable. The enclosure is moisture-proof and can be installed outdoors.

I added their WiFi kit after the fact ($38) and now I monitor all the sensor info (voltage, amperage, temperature) as well as send email alerts, etc.

They're constantly adding new features and it's pretty easy to update.

I can't add the URL because of my post count, but search openevse. It's the first and second hit.

Thanks for posting this. I did go check it out. It looks like all in, I'd save about $40-50. Basically I'm willing to pay an extra $50 to have them put it together, have them go to Home Depot to get the input cable and plug and get a 3 year warranty. Looks like an easy one hour job, but I have loads of projects going now and at some point I don't need anymore.

 

[RicksBolt]

As I've posted already, I have a JuiceBox 60A unit, bought several years ago based on the desire to be all-in if I'm going to go electric. Took three years to get there (240V feed), but the Bolt was a great motivator.
The JB folks have been amazingly supportive, feeding me firmware updates to keep my unit up to date, particularly when they changed their online monitoring code in an incompatible way. However, I'm a tech geek and very comfortable with this stuff. (There's a FEH out there with an Arduino driving indicator LEDs for the aftermarket heated seats that I coded and installed.) If you're not comfortable with pushing the update yourself, they'll let you ship the unit back for an upgrade. For me, being in control is important.

So, I'm a enthusiastic supporter of the JuiceBox. I'm looking with some interest at the OpenEVSE stuff, but no reason to change at the moment.

 

[DaV8or]

As I've posted already, I have a JuiceBox 60A unit, bought several years ago based on the desire to be all-in if I'm going to go electric. Took three years to get there (240V feed), but the Bolt was a great motivator.
The JB folks have been amazingly supportive, feeding me firmware updates to keep my unit up to date, particularly when they changed their online monitoring code in an incompatible way. However, I'm a tech geek and very comfortable with this stuff. (There's a FEH out there with an Arduino driving indicator LEDs for the aftermarket heated seats that I coded and installed.) If you're not comfortable with pushing the update yourself, they'll let you ship the unit back for an upgrade. For me, being in control is important.

So, I'm a enthusiastic supporter of the JuiceBox. I'm looking with some interest at the OpenEVSE stuff, but no reason to change at the moment.

I'm going the low tech Luddite route. Just the basics, no connectivity. I'll let the car sort it out.

 

[jagger]

I'm very happy with the juicebox pro 40. I know you said you don't want connectivity, but one thing that surprised me is how easy it is to adjust the amperage through the app. I try to go for a slow charge when I can as I assume this is more gentle on the battery. When I know I have a lot of battery to fill I will crank up the amperage to the max my wire can handle.

 

[lumpy12]

Bought the basic Juice Box 40 because I work close by their shop and I popped in one day a 6 months ago to check them out. Great bunch of guys and I could tell there would be great support if I ever needed it. It's been a great product.

 

[Sourdoughsteve]

All these new features!

I purchased a Bosch (30 amp) unit 4 years ago for my Volt, and it's worked beautifully on it, then on the ELR, and now on the Bolt. As far as "connectivity" features go, it has an on/off switch and a green charging light

Eventually, I'll be moving out of my current place and into something smaller and so I'll be wanting to get one of these new-fangled charging units installed there. So please keep up the discussion!

 

[krislayman]

I went with the ChargePoint CPH25. It is only 32A (7.7 kW), but it matches the Bolt's max charge rate. I was looking for a unit that could provide me with usage statistics and scheduling. I should mention that I am in Ontario and the government rebate isn't eligible on Clipper Creek or JuiceBox.

 

[Albemarle]

Another advantage with the Clipper Creek is that it is UL approved. I don't believe this is a legal requirement in most of the U. S. (Canada requires approval), but it can't hurt.

 

[dayone]

Any opinions on ClipperCreek vs. ChargePoint?

The ChargePoint seems more high tech but not as rugged as the ClipperCreek.

 

[DaV8or]

Thanks for all the replies! I bought my Clipper Creek HCS-40P today and it's on the way. I installed the receptacle for it yesterday. I hope to buy the car on Friday. I may have to charge level 1 for a a day or two.

I went with CC in the end because I tend to side with reliability and reputation. I also liked the fact that the CC unit has status indicators on the box telling you that the unit has power and what it's up to. The JB unit appears not to. Perhaps because they expect you to buy their fancy unit that talks to your phone.

All I need is basic service and a light that says it's working.

Thanks again for the input!

 

[jimmyspeed]

I was looking at Clipper Creek, but up here in Canada, it didn't seem to be a cost effective solution. The shipping and duty were just too expensive from what I could find. Same thing goes for Juicebox.
There are alternates, but for now, the search continues.

What have other Canadians been buying?

 

[David M O'Rourke]

I'm not a Canadian but I recommend either a Tesla 40 AMP Universal mobile charger or the Tesla Wall mounted charger - both can be modified to have a J-1772 connector and are reasonably priced - with a J-1772 connector retrofitted onto them they are an effective EV charger for the Bolt or any other EV likely in the future.

https://shop.teslamotors.com/collections/model-s-charging-adapters/products/model-s-mobile-connector-bundle - $550 US
http://shop.quickchargepower.com/Service-Conversion-of-Tesla-UMC-to-JESLA-w-50-amp-J1772-plug-UMC2JESLA.htm - J-1772 adapter modification - $179

The Tesla UMC is awesome because it's very portal and can be thrown into the car for occasional trips…I know a lot of people that just use this as their main EV charger - leaving it plugged into a NEMA 14-50 plug most of the time, and only packing it when they plan to travel.

I have a modified J-1772 Tesla UMC in the Bolt which is great for traveling - it's a rugged/portable EVSE charger that can charge at virtually any 120v/240v plug you may encounter in your travels - there is a robust set of adapters you can plug onto one end of it which will allow charging from a wide variety of plugs - and it also doubles as a 120v charger. With a UMC in the car you can charge at 40 amps (32 for the Bolt) at virtually any RV camp which has 30/40/50 AMP hook ups for RV's

The Tesla wall mount charger can also be modified to have a J-1772, and it's a configurable charger from 20-80 AMP's of charging based on the capacity of your wiring/circuit breaker - and it also can be daisy-chained with other Tesla wall mount chargers to "share" single circuit. This works well and I'm currently charging 3 EV's with one 60 AMP circuit (48 amp charge rate) - I plug all 3 EV's in at night, and the cars all charge sharing the single circuit, with load being ramped up/down based on the car's demands.

https://shop.teslamotors.com/collections/model-s-charging-adapters/products/wall-connector-with-24-cable - $550

One/Both of these chargers modified with a J-1772 connector will work well for the Bolt (they do for mine) and for any future EV's you may also purchase.

 

[krislayman]

jimmyspeed, I would go with a charger from the list of eligible chargers for the MTO rebate. I went the ChargePoint for the reasons mentioned in my previous post. I looked at a connected Siemens and FLO from the list, but they were both more expensive. Also, FLO uses a powerline Ethernet adapter for connectivity that I didn't want to worry about and the Siemens unit is ugly

 

[Cehjun]

jimmyspeed, I would go with a charger from the list of eligible chargers for the MTO rebate.

+1. And I went with Chargepoint because its slim body (7") will fit nicely in the 14" framed space between my garage door openings. And by placing it there the 18' cord is sufficient ($50 less) & doesn't create any obstacle laying across the garage floor. And will reach outside the garage if needed. The little bit of smart software on the Chargepoint is a bonus as well.

 

[jostafew]

I'm in Canada and I picked up the JuiceBox 40 Pro for my Bolt. I liked the portability of the JuiceBox and the higher capacity (40A vs 30 or 32 on most others in that range) and decided to drop the extra $100 on the Pro for more information and control over charging times and current. Upon installation it took a trip to their website to figure out why I couldn't configure the device from my phone (instructions glazed over a couple details), but I quickly got that sorted and it's worked perfectly for the short 3wks that it's been in service. If anybody cares the WiFi reception on the unit is good. The charge lead is a beefy cable, and the business end itself feels solid in hand. I have no reservations about recommending the JuiceBox unit, for $600US having 40A capacity, portability, and lots of control and feedback through the web interface is a smoking value. Fortunately between living close to the border and having Nexxus it takes me about 10min to hop across the border and pick up stuff that I order online so this was a no brainer, especially since the GM dealership didn't even offer the official Aerovironment unit at the time I took delivery (don't know if that's changed).

 

[Boltar]

A small but potentially important point, don't just think about the absolute distance from the charging unit to the car. Mine is mounted just inside the garage (passenger side of car), I park the Bolt in front of it, and the 25' cord is just long enough to come around the front of the car and plug in. Have to get that cord to the ground and run it out. If like many you have an electric garage door opener and plan to have the charger inside the garage, you can't stretch the cord off the ground to make it out to the car; the sensors on the garage door opener will make the garage door pop back open.

I have (and like the bulletproof simplicity of) the Clipper Creek. Have no need to ever look at an app to monkey with my car's charging. It does have an especially robust / thicker cord, sometimes it is enough to make my garage door sensor pop the door back up when it closes, but not usually.