[Dayle Frame]

I'm looking at getting a Bolt in the next few months. I live in MI and have talked to my local energy company (Consumers Energy). They can put another meter at my house so I can get a break on the power for my car. As I'm just starting this, I had a question for the forum.

What brand of charging station do I need? I see a wide variety of brands and features......what makes sense for a car like the Bolt?

I assume that they have the same connection fitting and, therefore, that any 240V would work. Does it come down to convenience features? What made you purchase the one you have?

Thanks in advance......

Dayle

 

[bro1999]

I'm looking at getting a Bolt in the next few months. I live in MI and have talked to my local energy company (Consumers Energy). They can put another meter at my house so I can get a break on the power for my car. As I'm just starting this, I had a question for the forum.

What brand of charging station do I need? I see a wide variety of brands and features......what makes sense for a car like the Bolt?

I assume that they have the same connection fitting and, therefore, that any 240V would work. Does it come down to convenience features? What made you purchase the one you have?

Thanks in advance......

Dayle

I would recommend a Clipper Creek LCS-40. 32 amp unit, so it will max out the Bolt's max L2 charge rate (7.2 kW). Made in America, 3 year warranty no matter who installs it, and bullet-proof reliability. Can't really go wrong.
https://store.clippercreek.com/hcs-40-hcs-40p-ev-charging-station?search=40

I have a Clipper Creek LCS-25 personally, and while it can only charge up to ~4.5 kW, it has served me flawlessly for the last 3 years.

 

[leocal11]

personally, after some reading here (can't recall the thread, but i know its here somewhere) i went with this one:
ClipperCreek HCS-40P, 240V, 32A, EV Charging Station, with 14-50 plug, 25 ft cable.

there is a hard wired version also, but i choose to get the one with the 14-50 plug head.

 

[Kraven]

personally, after some reading here (can't recall the thread, but i know its here somewhere) i went with this one:
ClipperCreek HCS-40P, 240V, 32A, EV Charging Station, with 14-50 plug, 25 ft cable.

there is a hard wired version also, but i choose to get the one with the 14-50 plug head.

This is what I got as well, very solid unit. There are many reviews on Amazon, and it's well rated for good reason. Customer service (for me used during the ordering process) was responsive and excellent. Made in USA a plus also.

 

[HighVoltage]

This was a good thread to check out. Tons of responses and information to sift through

http://www.chevybolt.org/forum/82-charging-batteries/5353-aerovironment-official-charger-chevy-bolt.html

 

[Dayle Frame]

Perfect.......that's exactly the data I'm looking for.

Do these have timers to utilize the cheap rates overnight? Or is that built into the car?

Dayle

 

[EldRick]

It's built-in to the car, and can be accessed by browser or phone app. There is little justification for the extra cost of connected EVSEs with a Bolt.
Also, consider portability. If you want to use the EVSE for a backup while traveling, portable units are available that work just as well.

 

[Sean Nelson]

It's built-in to the car, and can be accessed by browser or phone app. There is little justification for the extra cost of connected EVSEs with a Bolt.

Don't you have to pay for OnStar service in order to access the car with your phone app? Not a big deal during the free OnStar trial period, but afterward having the EVSE functionality might save you money if you didn't want any of the other OnStar features.

 

[Dayle Frame]

I looked at the Clipper Creek and they look like solid products....but the JuiceBox version also has wifi connectivity and is rated well. These are roughly the same price and both are made here in the USA. Anyone have feedback about the JuiceBox 40 Pro? I have an electrician scheduled to come to the house and look at the job on Monday. I'll get his feedback too.

Dayle

 

[masters]

I looked at the Clipper Creek and they look like solid products....but the JuiceBox version also has wifi connectivity and is rated well. These are roughly the same price and both are made here in the USA. Anyone have feedback about the JuiceBox 40 Pro? I have an electrician scheduled to come to the house and look at the job on Monday. I'll get his feedback too.

Dayle

I have the Juicebox and works as it should. I also bought the bundle of conversion cords because at first I had it plugged into my dryer outlet at 24A (on a 30A circuit).

Now I installed a plug where an old Hottub used to be on a 40A circuit and have it set at 33A even though the car can only pull 32A.

The app looks like this:
https://emotorwerks.com/products/juicebox

You get graphs of the charging that looks like those on this page:
http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3546

I get more information from the Juicebox than I do from the car.

 

[phil0909]

Anyone have feedback about the JuiceBox 40 Pro?

Installation instructions for the wifi are bad, I had to call them for support. Also, the wall mount hardware is inexplicably designed for horizontal, rather than vertical, wall studs. Once I got it installed, it has worked perfectly. I have not gotten around to playing with the wifi features yet.

 

[Dayle Frame]

I ordered this thing on 2/10 and I've not heard anything from emotorwerks yet. I'm not married to this critter and other models will work just fine. Anyone else have trouble getting the EVSE shipped?

Dayle

 

[David M O'Rourke]

recommend you buy an EV charger only once - therefore buy a bigger charger than you need - hopefully the Bolt isn't your last EV

I would heartily recommend clipper creek products

I went with and I'm happy with the 60 AMP clipper creek model - it's slightly more expensive and will require some bigger wire - but you can charge at up to 48 amps for future EV's which is quite a bit more than 32 AMP's - the Bolt will _NOT_ use 48 amps - it will only use 32 AMP's - but the install and charger cost will last you through this and any future higher capacity EV.

if you don't get the bigger charger, at least consider running lower-gauge/high-AMP wire (pulling wire is labor costly and the wire itself) - future "upgrades" to a higher AMP charger will then be easier with a simple breaker upgrade and new charger - no costly labor to re-pull wire.

 

[Bazinga]

Clipper Creek is one of the better units currently out there and they're pretty affordable for what you're getting.
They're pretty sturdy as well, not that you'll be doing any of what the CC employees tried:

 

[eops]

recommend you buy an EV charger only once - therefore buy a bigger charger than you need - hopefully the Bolt isn't your last EV

I would heartily recommend clipper creek products

I went with and I'm happy with the 60 AMP clipper creek model - it's slightly more expensive and will require some bigger wire - but you can charge at up to 48 amps for future EV's which is quite a bit more than 32 AMP's - the Bolt will _NOT_ use 48 amps - it will only use 32 AMP's - but the install and charger cost will last you through this and any future higher capacity EV.

if you don't get the bigger charger, at least consider running lower-gauge/high-AMP wire (pulling wire is labor costly and the wire itself) - future "upgrades" to a higher AMP charger will then be easier with a simple breaker upgrade and new charger - no costly labor to re-pull wire.

If Cadillac is smart enough to get in on the boom of premium compact EV's then odds are we'll see some people here upgrade to those. Just look at what's going on over at tesla and now Jaguar.

 

[calpolyarc]

recommend you buy an EV charger only once - therefore buy a bigger charger than you need - hopefully the Bolt isn't your last EV

I would heartily recommend clipper creek products

I went with and I'm happy with the 60 AMP clipper creek model.

Hi David, why did you go with the clipper HCS-60 instead of the Tesla Home Charger that you discussed in another thread? Just curious because we are buying a bolt now, but who knows in the future we may get a Tesla. Is there an adapter to make the clipper work with a Tesla?

Thanks, Todd

 

[Dimitrij]

Has any one tried a 32-amp, 240 "portable" charger?

something like this:

https://picclick.com/EV-EVSE-32-Amp-Level-2-Electric-Car-252884338614.html

 

[David M O'Rourke]

Hi David, why did you go with the clipper HCS-60 instead of the Tesla Home Charger that you discussed in another thread? Just curious because we are buying a bolt now, but who knows in the future we may get a Tesla. Is there an adapter to make the clipper work with a Tesla?

Thanks, Todd

All Tesla ship with an adapter to use public J-1772 chargers like the clipper creek to public chargers. I went with the clipper creek two years ago because it predates the sharing feature Tesla chargers now have and I wanted my non Tesla friends to be able to use my ev charger when they were visiting.

Today I would just go with the Tesla chargers and have the Tesla to J-1772 adapter on hand for non Tesla cars.

This adapter lets non-Tesla cars use a Tesla charger http://shop.quickchargepower.com/JDapter-Stub-Tesla-Charge-Station-Adaptor-JDPTRSTB.htm

All Tesla s ship with a j-1772 adapter that lets Tesla use a normal ev charger plug - https://shop.teslamotors.com/collections/model-s-charging-adapters/products/sae-j1772

 

[David M O'Rourke]

Has any one tried a 32-amp, 240 "portable" charger?

something like this:

https://picclick.com/EV-EVSE-32-Amp-Level-2-Electric-Car-252884338614.html

Recommend a jesla for maximum flexibility - great portable EVSE and has adapters for just about any plug - can charge at up to 40 amps - and as low as 120volt 12 amp...have one in the back of my bolt it works great!

It's pricey but think of it in terms of keeping it and using it across multiple EVs in the future not just the Bolt.

http://shop.quickchargepower.com/JESLA-is-THE-40-amp-J1772-portable-charging-solution-JESLA.htm

 

[ChiBolt]

Recommend a jesla for maximum flexibility - great portable EVSE and has adapters for just about any plug - can charge at up to 40 amps - and as low as 120volt 12 amp...have one in the back of my bolt it works great!

It's pricey but think of it in terms of keeping it and using it across multiple EVs in the future not just the Bolt.

After reading your previous posts about portability, I chose the Juice Box 40 Pro. It is a plug-in version and I also chose several adapters that juice Box offered. It is fairly compact and very easy to grab off of the wall and throw into the back of my Bolt for road trips. It is also very competitively priced. It consistently and confidently charges my car at 7700 watts or the full 32A allowed by the Bolt. The Pro version also allows sharing multiple Juice Box Pro's on one circuit similar to the Tesla Wall Connector.