Our Charging Station was installed today

That is excellent!

What exactly did you get for that price?

 

Has anyone heard of this brand? Also, anyone considering a non-toyota approved charging station?
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&productId=203013921&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&ci_sku=203013921&ci_kw={keyword}&cm_mmc=shopping-_-googleads-_-pla-_-203013921&ci_gpa=pla#specs

 

Home depot is offering free in-home consultation with the Leviton units they sell.

 

I also have the Leviton installed unit in my garage. The advantage of doing that is a ten year factory warranty. Whether this proves worth while remains to be seen. If you purchase from Home Depot, you need to hire a local electrician or trust yourself to do electrical work. If you hire a local electrician, you may not save much over the factory installation and you WILL pay for an electrical inspection no matter how simple the installation. There are several types of circuit breakers and you MUST get the correct type. And you MUST use the correct size of wire. Further, wiring 220v is not the same as wiring 110v.

But there is nothing wrong with local electricians.

 

Nope, I never heard of "Legrand".
I've been a principal design engineer doing electronic design for well over a dozen years. There are a ton of ways to reduce the cost of a product. Of course, that means some trade-offs.

So, ... my guess is that the "Legrand" charger cuts cost by:
1) Lower quailty "charging cord" wire. I'm also not a huge fan of coiled wire. It puts a stress on the strain reliefs on the charger body and the charger's handle.

2) Designed to operate in temps not much over 100F.

3) Less margin in the electronic components (run them closer to their max rating). This greatly increases the chance of a component failure. Heat is one of the main reasons why electronic components fail.


My take: For the PIP, since it doesn't take much charge anyways. So that charger may be fine.
My biggest concern would be if it was operated in a place were it was over 100F. Here in New England, we may get 1->3 100+F days once a year. And, it's often over 100F for less than 8 hours. In my younger days, some friends and I did a 100mile bike ride (with plenty of water stops ) in a 100+F degree day. Another challenge was to start and finish while it stayed over 100F.

 

If your panel can handle the load of a 40A breaker, the best deal currently is the Schnieder electric unit at $799, this unit can handle future EVs with up to 7.2KW on board chargers, both the Legrand and the Leviton are 16A units, which are capable for the current generation of EVs (and PHEVs) that use 3.3KW onboard chargers.. It's similar money for double that capacity, if your panel can handle a 40A breaker.

FYI, I have the Schnieder Electric EVSE installed.

 

Very interesting review. It does seem that we get what we pay for.

Notice the difference in the cable from my Leviton EVSE in this photograph (it is REALLY heavy):

 

Tell me the quality trade-offs between a 4-meter, $999 240 v, 16A cable and one costing $700. These EVSE cords are full of markup. They are 110/240V cables with a relay inside which supplies power after an 8-bit micro determines that it is safe to do so. Very simple circuit. Lots of margin. You know that 240V, 20A Romex is cheap, it does not cost hundreds of dollars. While they probably clad this cable in rubber, it's still fairly cheap.

 

Legrand is the parent company, they fill many niche electrical needs, I use Ortronics and On-Q in Networking, you may be most familiar with Wiremold raceway products used to retrofit electrical outlets on solid walls.

Pass & Seymour - Wiring Devices and Electrical Supplies

 

so the installation labor is included in the parts prices?

 

what made you decide you needed the quick charger?

 

The J-1772 connector with the attached 5 conductor cable, by itself costs between $250-300, that's the major cost of these EVSE's, it's not romex, it's a specialty cable with (3) 10AWG conductors (2 hots and a ground), plus (2) 22AWG wires for control. You can build your own EVSE, but still the major cost is the cable & wire harness.

 

But a manufacturer's cost on a little piece of plastic with 5 pins. You think like a military contractor
Its molded plastic. It doesn't cost $250 to build one.

This whole thing is a scam. Installing a 240V outlet in a consumer home wasn't invented yesterday. Everybody who's installed an electric stove or clothes dryer has done this, there's no magic involved.

Everybody paid $100 for HDMI cable until some guy realized that it's just a bunch of twisted pairs in a cable that can be built for $2.00.

 

Yes it's a highly machined piece of plastic, sold in very very low volumes, you go try to find it cheaply, it does not exist, and won't until there are hundreds of thousands of EVs and PHEVs, you can't compare it to an HDMI cable which is sold in the millions. There is no mass production happening with these J-1772 connectors yet.

You can't compare it to a 240V plug & outlet either, that might be designed for 50-100 insertion / removal cycles, that doesn't cut it with vehicle usage.

Yes of course it doesn't cost $250 to mfr, you can buy them from china for about $100, now add in the shipping charges, and the middleman, and you see why it's $250. It would help if there where ANY American manufacturers of these, but of course there aren't. And despite your opinion on J-1772, this is what we are stuck with, like it or not.

 

What you say makes sense, but I totally "get" what Rebound is saying too. I charged my ZENN EV with a heavy duty extension cord which cost me $35.00. I never had a problem with that cord in the two years I used it. I paid 42 times more for the thing which is now called a "charging dock". Granted it is 220v not 110v and it does a "handshake" which I guess is better. And it has the fancy J-1772 plug which, as you said, we are stuck with.

But 42 times more stings.

 

Friend, I wish no argument with you. Please accept my apology if you feel my tone has made you feel disrespected or upset. Not my intention.

I don't have a negative opinion about the technology. In another thread, someone pointed out that the California Tire Disposal Fee for this car should be $7.00 instead of $8.75, because it doesn't come with a spare tire. When someone objected to the waste of bothering over $1.75, I pointed out that it isn't the money, it's the simple fact that no-one likes to get ripped off. By the same token, I believe that merchants are unscrupulously using the newness of the EVSE to overcharge for both the hardware and its installation. "Site Survey?" No, you call any licensed electrician and you can get a free estimate for the cost to install a 240V outlet at the location of your choice. Get three bids if you want.

Yes, there was a tax credit (yesterday). But that shouldn't excuse the gouging for the hardware and installation.

"Installation" means having a licensed electrician install a dedicated, ground fault protected 240V, 20A circuit and outlet at the location of your choice. Better yet, install a 110V, 15A dedicated GFCI outlet next to it. The rest of "installation" is to bolt the EVSE on a wall and plug it into the outlet. No Prius Plug-in owner should be doing that now. Let prices fall, and buy the EVSE when the car arrives. Or wait another month or two, use the 110V EVSE that comes with the car, and then buy a 240V EVSE when they cost $300 or less, which will probably be this summer or fall.

Most PiP owners will drive home at night, plug the car in, and let it charge. There's no real need for 240V charging; it just drops charge time from 3 hours to 1.5 hours, which doesn't really matter at night.

 

i still see hdmi's for between 5 bucks and 50. i guess they are hoping for a sucker to come along. and there are some who just feel that the more you pay, the better it is. monster made a fortune on marketing for years.