[James Alfred]

I have a no frills 40amp Juice Box. I have the plug in and it’s been flawless for 4.5 years. No need to get all the WiFi stuff, your bolt application will talk to your phone.

I have the clipper creek and it works perfectly but don’t know anything about the price difference.

 

[James Alfred]

I'm picking up my 2020 LT in a couple of weeks and I'm waiting for the quote from the electrician to wire a 240 outlet.
I'm thinking of a Mustart 40 amp charger.
Does anyone have any experience with these?
Is it worth getting a 40 amp if the Bolt handles 32?

Either will be fine in my opinion. I have had my clipper creek installed for a few months now and it works perfectly. You’ll save a few bucks going with e America it looks. Probably worth the savings

 

[roseberry]

In talking to my local electric co-op, they were happy that I'd be running more kilowatts through their lines but said they do have a concern about multiple households on the same transformer putting in these loads, They asked me nicely to please charge as much as I can only between 10pm and 5am. They suggested my EVSE to be no bigger than what I needed to charge almost all the time during that 7 hour period so I installed a 30 amp circuit for a 24 amp EVSE. Even if they're not paying anything for the installation, which I know many do, it's probably a good idea to talk it over with your utility since these are a significant new load for them. Of course if your utility is an evil giant corporation, then you might not want to call.

 

[Tree's Bolt]

I joined Costco so I could get their Siemens VersiCharge LVL 2 Universal Electric Vehicle Charger for $400. Installation at my house here in Eugene, OR cost $1220. I got an $500 rebate from our electrical utility. I just got from the Feds a tax break of $366 on the charger and of course the $1750 for the car itself. I figured the car and charger thus cost a total of $26195, a fact for anyone out there who is still looking into the cost of an electric vehicle. Purchase was in fall of 2019.

A friend in Belgium recently indicated the cost there is more like $40K.





TE="CJIMI, post: 543568, member: 33353"]
I am getting ready to install a level 2 home charger in my garage, so that I can charge my new 2020 Bolt EV Premier overnight.
I was thinking of ordering a Clipper Creek HCS - 40, as soon as I confirm with the electrician that the line from the house to the garage can handle 40 Amps. However, I see that Electrify America sells a home charging unit for $449 ( the HCS - 40 is $565 )

Does anyone have any experience with either of these 2 units ? Anyone know why the Clipper Creek unit is so much more expensive ? Thanks to all. Jim
[/QUOTE]

 

[brokepost]

Interesting. Didn't know EA sold home units.

I have the Clippers Creek, I really like it and They have amazing customer support. That said I'm not familiar with the Electrify America one. I'm sure it's fine and that seems like a great price.
Good luck

 

[devans2020]

I have exactly that CC HCS-40 model, hardwired. I use it 2-3 days each week for over a year with zero problems. I chose it because of numerous comments from owners of fancier wifi units that sometimes a hiccup in wifi results in no-charge overnight. I never wanted that experience, so I went with a real robust basic evse. My wifi coverage in the garage is decent, but you'd want to really confirm how solid you get signal if you choose a smart evse. Several other commenters note that the Bolt and Chevy app give lots of control if you want to do more charge management. I like to just plug in and charge. No worries. Also, few people know that Clipper Creek makes the circuit board inside most of the GM OEM evse units that comes with your Bolt or Volt. Need I say more? Ok, I will -- Clipper Creek evse's are USA designed & built, UL certified, and you can talk to real people with any questions.

 

[XJ12]

Also, few people know that Clipper Creek makes the circuit board inside most of the GM OEM evse units that comes with your Bolt or Volt.

Yep. Opened mine up and the board has Clipper Creek on it.

 

[ElectricSlide]

I am getting ready to install a level 2 home charger in my garage, so that I can charge my new 2020 Bolt EV Premier overnight.
I was thinking of ordering a Clipper Creek HCS - 40, as soon as I confirm with the electrician that the line from the house to the garage can handle 40 Amps. However, I see that Electrify America sells a home charging unit for $449 ( the HCS - 40 is $565 )

Does anyone have any experience with either of these 2 units ? Anyone know why the Clipper Creek unit is so much more expensive ? Thanks to all. Jim

I tried to sort through the myriad EVSE options and settled on a ClipperCreek HCS-50P to hopefully get a little overkill (40A charge possible for a little future-proofing and maybe some slightly “heavier” build quality). The “P” model comes with a NEMA 14-50 plug on a short cable out of the bottom of the unit, so I mounted it sideways to accommodate mounting the receptacle right-side-up for other EVSE or appliances, rather than an upside-down receptacle mounting for the Clipper Creek. I could take the HCS-50P on the road, if appropriate (local electrical supply house owner reminded me that the NEMA 14-50 receptacle is ubiquitous at campgrounds, trailer parks, and such). The ClipperCreek is US designed and mostly US built, they’ve been building EV charging equip probably as long as anyone, their boards are in a lot of other company’s equipment, their equip is safety certified or listed, and these units have a 3yr warranty...some of the reasons for the higher price. The ClipperCreek will auto restart charge in case of most power outages or minor faults. It doesn’t have the WiFi bells & whistles, but all I wanted was a solid, reliable, safe option. The car can start/stop, and delay/program start a charge. I don’t want anything else (and I have no financial interest in any of these companies).
I also bought (you might consider) a Tesla Gen 2 Mobile Connector Bundle (around $275), a few different plug-in adapters (about $35ea, or a whole set is around $220), and a TeslaTap (around $200), all of which allows 120V through 240V charging up to 32A and adapts the Tesla proprietary plug to a J1772. Additionally, the TeslaTap allows use of (level 2) Tesla destination chargers if a J1772 charger isn’t available. All-in-all, a pretty comprehensive charging option when traveling. I leave the Chevy OEM charger at home. I hope to recoup some of the extra costs by submitting the appropriate tax form to take advantage of tax incentives for EVSE purchase/installation.
Finally, many EVSE units have GFCI circuitry built-in. I was concerned about having a GFCI/AFCI on the supply receptacle or breaker because of the possibility of nuisance “tripping,” So I installed a EPD-type (Equipment Protection Device) breaker which has a higher trigger threshold (30ma trigger vs 5ma trigger for GFCI) to provide a level of protection (for personnel and equipment) and still minimize conflicts and headaches due to interaction with the built-in GFCI circuit. Always defer any equipment and installation decisions to a qualified electrician and applicable building codes. Good Luck.

 

[neutrondrip]

I'm picking up my 2020 LT in a couple of weeks and I'm waiting for the quote from the electrician to wire a 240 outlet.
I'm thinking of a Mustart 40 amp charger.
Does anyone have any experience with these?
Is it worth getting a 40 amp if the Bolt handles 32?

I have a JuiceBox 40 amp unit and I love it. I didn't mind going bigger because I see it as a little bit of future-proofing as I will probably be sticking with EVs from now on out.

I went with the JuiceBox over cheaper options because it is UL listed and made in the USA.

 

[Mhoffa]

In case you haven't come across it yet, I'll point out that the OEM charging set that comes with the Bolt can be run at 240V. It will only charge the car at 12A, but it doubles the charging speed over 120V - so it's kind of a half-way step between 120V charging and a full 32A/240V charger.

I've been charging my 2017 Bolt on 240V with the OEM charger for 2-1/2 years now - I find that I very rarely arrive home in the evening with the battery below around 50% state of charge, and 240V/12A is more than enough to get the car charged back up to the 87% "Hilltop Reserve" charge level overnight.

The OEM charger comes with a 120V plug, but you can connect it to a 240V socket using an adapter, or you can wire a 120V socket to 240V service from your panel (which violates electrical codes and gives some folks the heebie jeebies!).

So I've been pondering this for a while...If the OEM L1 charger is used on 240V instead of 120V does that make it a L2 charger? The efficiency of L2 is more than 2% better than L1 according to this report and as much as 15.8% in some conditions:

https://www.veic.org/documents/default-source/resources/reports/an-assessment-of-level-1-and-level-2-electric-vehicle-charging-efficiency.pdf

This is a report from 2013 and I'd be curious if things have changed but it certainly gives some credence to L2 having value in efficiency not just less time.

 

[lmacnit]

I bought a Duosida 30amp on eBay for $165 and have had great luck with it. An Electrical Engineer I know told me not to overspend for a basic device. You can pay as much as you like, but they all do pretty much the same task. I charge my 2020 Bolt overnight from 40 miles up to 90% of max with no problems.

 

[mnbolter]

I am getting ready to install a level 2 home charger in my garage, so that I can charge my new 2020 Bolt EV Premier overnight.
I was thinking of ordering a Clipper Creek HCS - 40, as soon as I confirm with the electrician that the line from the house to the garage can handle 40 Amps. However, I see that Electrify America sells a home charging unit for $449 ( the HCS - 40 is $565 )

Does anyone have any experience with either of these 2 units ? Anyone know why the Clipper Creek unit is so much more expensive ? Thanks to all. Jim

New juicebox in my garage. Excellent evse.
$599 currently: Next Gen JuiceBox 40 Amp Car Charger with WiFi | Enel X

 

[djvollmer]

I am getting ready to install a level 2 home charger in my garage, so that I can charge my new 2020 Bolt EV Premier overnight.
I was thinking of ordering a Clipper Creek HCS - 40, as soon as I confirm with the electrician that the line from the house to the garage can handle 40 Amps. However, I see that Electrify America sells a home charging unit for $449 ( the HCS - 40 is $565 )

Does anyone have any experience with either of these 2 units ? Anyone know why the Clipper Creek unit is so much more expensive ? Thanks to all. Jim

I've had an HCS-40 since 2016 (2013 Volt), with only one glitch, had it replaced under warranty with overnight shipping, have had no problems before or after, now with 2018 Bolt. Don't forget to check with your local power provider. Mine (Wisconsin Alliant) had a $500 rebate, and another $95 green energy rebate, and the federal tax rebate of 30% on the entire package including installation, so it ended up costing me $5.00. Yup, $5 bucks.

 

[djhodny]

In talking to my local electric co-op, they were happy that I'd be running more kilowatts through their lines but said they do have a concern about multiple households on the same transformer putting in these loads, They asked me nicely to please charge as much as I can only between 10pm and 5am. They suggested my EVSE to be no bigger than what I needed to charge almost all the time during that 7 hour period so I installed a 30 amp circuit for a 24 amp EVSE. Even if they're not paying anything for the installation, which I know many do, it's probably a good idea to talk it over with your utility since these are a significant new load for them. Of course if your utility is an evil giant corporation, then you might not want to call.

I agree with the electrical co-op. We all hope EV's become more popular but if every EV owner gets chargers installed that charges at the car's max, what will that do to the grid!? When I got my 2017 Bolt 3 years ago I installed a 20 amp 220V plug and got a Duosida 16 amp portable charger. Both my 2017 and now my 2020 Bolt easily get fully charged over night from whatever level it was at. I see no need for nor the large extra expense of a full 40 amp circuit. I plug in when needed (a few times a week) at night and in the morning when I need the Bolt it's fully charged. Whether it finished charging at 2 AM or 6 AM is irrelevant.

 

[Bolted On]

I am using the JuiceBox Pro with the WiFi. I really do like having the WiFi connection. The system keeps track of how many kWs are going into the Bolt when I charge at home from which I can then determine my electrical costs and savings, an encouraging statistic. As we all probably know, the Bolt software doesn't show how many kWs have been put into the battery.

 

[fitzie]

We love our ClipperCreek unit. We have both a Bolt and a Audi e-Trina. Ours is an HCS-60.
We looked at a couple of other manufacturers, and went with Clipper Creek for the following reasons:

• it’s only a charger. No WiFi nonsense. Our community does not support lower rates for off-hours charging, so, we kept it simple.
• Expandable. With two cars, we wanted to ability to add a second charger to the same circuit. The CC unit has an option to support that. If two are installed, they automatically share half of the available Amps. That being said, we have found that one unit is sufficient for our current driving.
• Option for a lockable add-on. Must have and use a key to turn it on.
• Incredible customer service. My electrician made a minor judgement call that eventually resulted in one of the unused low voltage control wires shorting out after a massive rainstorm. I figured it out on my own, but CC shipped me a replacement unit at no cost. It was never even needed.

We went with the 60A, which charges the 60kwh battery in about 8 hours. The Audi, which has a 95kwh battery, takes about 9 hours because the Audi supports a higher transfer rate. I don’t believe the HCS 40 would be much slower charging the Bolt.

Also, my understanding of the 110V portable charger supplied with the Bolt has CC guts.

 

[BPete81]

I have a Juicebox and it completely failed 10 days before warranty expiration. Enel was fair and gave me a refurbished unit which is operating normally. Warranty?
However, I cannot recommend Juicebox.

 

[The Other Tom]

We went with the 60A, which charges the 60kwh battery in about 8 hours. The Audi, which has a 95kwh battery, takes about 9 hours because the Audi supports a higher transfer rate. I don’t believe the HCS 40 would be much slower charging the Bolt.

Great review and reasoning. Since the Bolt takes 32 amps max, the HCS-40 will charge at the same rate as the HCS-60. FWIW, I purchased a HCS-40 for future proofing.

 

[Deant]

I am getting ready to install a level 2 home charger in my garage, so that I can charge my new 2020 Bolt EV Premier overnight.
I was thinking of ordering a Clipper Creek HCS - 40, as soon as I confirm with the electrician that the line from the house to the garage can handle 40 Amps. However, I see that Electrify America sells a home charging unit for $449 ( the HCS - 40 is $565 )

Does anyone have any experience with either of these 2 units ? Anyone know why the Clipper Creek unit is so much more expensive ? Thanks to all. Jim

I’ve installed dozens of the Clipper Creek units for my customers. I use one in my Bolt. I have no callbacks and no complaints. I recommend the Clipper Creek.

 

[Sean Nelson]

So I've been pondering this for a while...If the OEM L1 charger is used on 240V instead of 120V does that make it a L2 charger?

Yes, the definition of AC Level 2 is that it runs at 240V (or 208V when power comes from a 3 phase feed). The OEM charger only advertises 12A of current at 240V (or any other voltage), but when you plug it into a 240V outlet it is an L2 charger.