Standard Prius Prime Charger (G9060-47130) supporting 240V

It's not ideal, BUT.... you can minimize the possibility that someone will plug a 110v device into the 5-20 by labeling the cord on both end. Then use a lot of electrical tape to semi permanently attach that adapter to the EVSE's cord.

I picked up a L2 EVSE from amazon for around $150. The EVSE had a 220V plug on it. To make it usable with 110 it had a short cord that had a 110v plug and 220V outlet. This is a safe way to do it.

I really like the level 2 cord. It allows me to refresh the battery in about an hour after running a day's errands (15 miles).

 

So i'm curious, how is my 10-30 to 5-20 adapter any different from Rob's $20 charger setup (besides the splitter)? As far as I can tell they are pretty much the same thing aside from mine being made by a company that specializes in these things.

Yes thank you all for the suggestions, i'll be sure no one plugs in any 110v stuff into the 240 cord. Also thanks for the suggestion for changing the breaker to 20 amp. I dont think i will be using this much anyways. Only if i need a quick charge to go somewhere. For overnight charges I will continue to use the 120v outlets.

I'm probably going to get a L2 cord soon, once I see the splitter can handle this without issue. $150 doesn't seem bad at all, what brand did you get, if I may ask? Thanks.

Just bought the prius today from Maryland, price was really good right now with the $4500 toyota cash rebate.

 

The voltage rating on a wire is an indication of the wire's insulating capacity. As long as the cable is insulated for at least 250V, it ought to be safe, assuming good construction. The 125V on the end of the NEMA 5-20 part indicates to me that that standard is intended to fit 125V devices. Its purpose is to keep you from plugging in the wrong stuff. I doesn't mean that it'll burn down your house if you feed it 240V and plug in something that's dual voltage.

Happens all the time. Laptops, for example, are generally dual voltage. Lots of shops sell travel adapters so you can plug in your computer, battery charger, etc when traveling to the many countries that use 220-240V. Practially anyone who goes to Europe or Africa has plugged their NEMA 5-15 (125V) cord into 240 volts. I have several adapters and have used them scores of times. This is really no different.

The only real concern, as already discussed, is to ensure nothing that can't handle 240V gets plugged into it. Not a likely event given its planned location. Still, I'd put a big yellow warning tag on it.

 

I picked up the Megear on amazon. Pick the 16 amp model for the Prius Prime. The one I bought included a cloth carrying case, the 120V adapter pigtail and a few other gadgets. It's now selling for around $175 - $200.
Megear Level 1-2 EV Charger(100-240V,16A) Portable EVSE Home Electric Vehicle Charging Station(NEMA6-20 with Adapter for NEMA5-15)

I've been quite happy with mine.

 

Great, thank you! I see it's $200 now, maybe i will be a little patient and wait for a sale.

 

Yeh, travel adapters that have the two round pin Euro plug with a NEMA 5-15 receptacle are pretty much standard accessories for anyone traveling to Europe. They come with a big warning that they do NOT convert the voltage; the device plugged into it MUST be compatible with 240V 50Hz. Which pretty much means that your laptop or smartphone charger is fine, but your electric shaver or hair dryer isn't. There don't appear to be any warnings about whether the power cord itself can handle 240V.

 

NEMA was set up so there is no user error. A 120V normal outlet should only have 120V on it,
and not be a booby trap.

I've been thru this many times.
Go cheap. Buy/build this unsafe MacGyver adapter and don't spend a little more and get an actual L2 EVSE.

At least connect the EVSE with Red Ty-Raps and an warning tag on that 120V outlet, just so someone in you household doesn't do a "user error" and set something on fire.

 

Good news to report, the adapter looks really well built, thick rubber protection over 10awg cord, same with the splitter. The splitter looks very very heavy duty. The thing must have weighed 4-5lbs.

Connected to my prius and instantly recognized the 240v and showed charging rate of 1 hour and 40 minutes to charge from 30%.

So i think this is a good alternative for those who dont want to piece together an adapter from Rob's setup by themselves.

I checked all the connections, there was no overheat of any kind while it was charging. Also i'm going to unplug the adapter when i'm not using the charger so wont be user error issue.

I think for $50 on Amazon this beats me ordering the parts and building it myself.

 

Another 240v success story here. I built an adapter dirt cheap (about $18) using this:

and this:

I cut the dryer cord to less than a foot long, and labeled the 120V connector "240V!!!". Just in case.

I had already run a 20amp line from my garage sub-panel to a 120v outlet, so I just replaced the breaker with a double-pole 20A one, and replaced the outlet with a 10-30R.

 

So could I just use this cable from Harbor Freight with my dryer outlet and the stock toyota charger? 30 Amp Male to 15 Amp Female RV Pigtail Power Adapter

 

I always doubt electrical parts that have bad descriptions. For instance, this one says "Power a 15 amp generator from your RV with an pigtail adapter"

Umm. you don't power a generator from an RV. You power the RV from the generator.

But the answer to the question depends on how they wire that plug to that outlet. In general, the each flat blade must be wired to one flat slot. You want to verify that before you plug anything in. You can check it with a 'trouble light' style continuity tester or a cheap volt/ohm meter.

And it has to be labeled 220V very prominantly.

Dan

 

Yup. Bad description. I would check it with an ohmmeter and see if it's a direct pass through to make sure you'd be getting 240 volts at the receptacle end. It looks like it would just about have to be that way, but they fail to say so directly.

 

Luckyboy, The plug on the end of that Harbor Freight cord is a tt-30p rv plug for 110-120v. Your dryer receptacle is probably a 10-30r or 10-50r, at 220-240v. I wouldn’t think this cord would work at all. You would be much better off getting a short dryer cord and carefully wiring a 5-20r receptacle onto the end, like some others suggested before.

 

My question is, can the adapter, when connected to the EVSE, remain plugged into the 240v 10-30r receptacle continuously without damaging the EVSE?

 

Sure, as long as lightning doesn't hit your house.

 

So would the risk from lighting be the same for a hard wired EVSE?

 

I suppose so. But I would think, for as much as they charge for them, both the hard-wired and the factory EVSE would be pretty well protected, but I usually leave mine unplugged when not in use here in the lightning capital of America.

 

Yeah, I think the owner’s manual warns against charging during thunderstorms but doesn’t mention leaving the EVSE plugged in. But I’m like you and play it safe.

 

if you leave it plugged in, just be sure you're going 88mph if there is a lightning strike.

 

Just wanted to report in that I’ve been using my 240v adapted Toyota Prime charger on our Prius for about 2 1/2 years now without issue. Still works great. I built my adapter cable from a standard 10-30 dryer cable and added a 5-15 receptacle on the other end labeled as ‘240v only’, and then shrink wrapped to the Toyota EVSE’s 5-15 plug into it so that it can’t be easily removed. It’s a solid solution to faster charging with a quality EVSE. As always, YMMV.