Recommendations for Level2 charger

I bought the cheapest charger I could from amazon for about $200 but they're going for even less now. The more you spend on a charger, the less money you save with EV driving. All the charging circuitry is inside the car, so the charger is really just a fancy cord with some extra protection and temperature sensing. I bought mine before the trick of adapting the Toyota included charger to work at 240v was known, but if you're not comfortable with that method, a cheap charger works fine. The only common issue with many of the the cheap chargers is the plug fits too tight and is hard to disconnect from the car.

 

cheaper the better, unless you want connectivity

@Rob43

 

If your aim is to save money while having an ability to charge PRIME faster, then you can' beat using OEM EVSE at 240v with an adapter. But if you want connectivity and future proofing for eventual BEV charging, then going for larger amp fancy L2 EVSE may make sense.

I have read many reviews that rated Jucebox Pro40 as the best option. Example of such review is found here. The Ultimate Buyer's Guide To Home EV Chargers: Plus Top 5 Picks

I don'y have it yet, but recently I got an offer from our utility company to buy the second generation of Enel-X Juicebox 40 for $360 after rebate, which usually sells for $599. I am very tempted. You should check your state rebate program before you click on the any EVSE. There are some very good deals out there.

 

Just what I think.
1. Do you HAVE to have it charged faster than the stock charger will do. For many of us, overnight charging on 110 is simple cheap and easy.
2. If must have level 2 and you are going cheap as others have suggested. The adapter much discussed on this forum can't be beat. I use mine on those occasions I want to recharge fast.
3. Is the 220 in place or do you have to run a new circuit? Doing a new circuit according to code is going to be expense.

 

I purchased the ChargePoint Home Flex. It was a tossup between that and the Juicebox 40. I went with the ChargePoint because it has a slightly smaller footprint and it has the most future capabilities with power up to 50A. I know the Prime can on,y take advantage of a small portion of its power but my husband might be in the market for a full EV and I can see purchasing a Tesla as my next vehicle as they become more affordable and gain farther ranges. Chargepoint also has a great network of charging stations around the country. I don’t think you can go wrong with either one.

 

One of the things I like about the ChargePoint Home charging station is that it is integrated into the Chargepoint network. It appears on the ChargePoint web site or smartphone app along with public ChargePoint stations, and usage at your private station shows up along with usage at their public stations. You don't see other private stations, only your own. The home station is essentially the same as their public station, only with hardware and software related to billing stripped out.

 

Do you know how to set the charging load for the Prius Prime? I have the Flex installed into a 50A circuit which future proofs it for the inevitable Tesla purchase in a few years. The Prime can only charge at 16A. Is there a setting I the ChargePoint app to set it for the lower ability of the Prime? I may have missed it. Does it matter what I set it at if it’s just going to charge at 16A regardless. Does any of this make sense? Thanks.

 

My charger automatically goes to 14amp, then stays there during the charge. I think it can only pull as much as the internal charger can handle and that is what shows up on the monitoring screen of charger.

 

The charger is in the car. The charger controls the charge rate. The Flex you installed supplies whatever the car demands as long as it's capable of feeding that much current. The car will pull 16A at 240V even if the EVSE can supply 100A. Just like a 1/2A lamp plugged into a 15A outlet pulls 1/2A, not 15A.

By the way, you can change the charge setting in the car to limit current to 8A, but according to the manual, the only reason would be if you've plugged into a circuit that has other loads on it and the charger is tripping the circuit breaker in your distribution panel. Page 123 in my manual.

 

Thanks. I saw this in the Prius Prime manual but with the Home Flex I wasn’t sure if there was supposed to be a setting within the ChargePoint Appto set to the charging capability of the vehicle (in this case 16A for the Prime). The EVSE is connected to a dedicated 50A breaker which means it can actually charge up to 40A which future proofs it for future all electric EV’s with bigger long range batteries. I guess the Flex part of the EVSE is the ability to change the settings to reflect the current amperage it is connected to in the breaker box. It was just a little confusing. Thanks for explaining it and helping out.

 

You're welcome. Lots of people seem to confuse what determines current. That's a function of the load, not the source assuming the load is something within the source's capabilities. So when you see a 50A breaker or a 40A EVSE, that's how much current it can carry. If you connect a load bigger than those limits, say plugging two 10A vacuum cleaners into a 15A wall outlet and running them at the same time, the breaker will trip because it's protecting wires that can't supply 20A to those machines.

When an electrician installs a new branch circuit in a house, the first question is, what are you going to use it to power and what's the maximum current will it pull. Then you choose the wire that will safely carry that much current. Then you choose the circuit breaker needed to protect that wire from overheating and catching fire.

So, with the oversized (for now, anyway) EVSE and electrical circuit you have, the Prius will be well within its capabilities and it will provide whatever the car asks for without you having to tell it to. It's just the laws of physics. Hope this helps. And I hope you like your Prime as much as I like mine. Amazing car!

 

The two-port public Chargepoint charging stations can be programmed to reduce how much they will offer to the car(s) based on whether one or both ports are in use. They do this when the power to the charging station is limited, so it will offer X amps if only one port is in use, but only 1/2 X if both are in use. This is not relevant on the single-port home stations. It will offer whatever is the rating for the charging station. As far as I know, there is no way to "derate" a Chargepoint home station to tell it to offer some smaller amperage.