Posts tagged EVSE

Managing the charge cord

Jan 16th

Posted by Cev in Ownership

In my few days of charging the car at home I have noticed placement of the 110v Voltec charge can be a pain. The pigtail 3 prong plug is so short that I had it propped up on some crates precariously leaning on the wall to get it close enough to the outlet.

I kicked around a bunch of ideas on how to make it easy transport it to and from work. I settled on trying to use some hooks to hang the Voltec EVSE very near to the outlet. This way I should be able to just unplug the cord from the wall, loop up the J1772, toss it in the trunk and be on my way.
While I was at Target we stumbled on this pack of 6 red wall hooks. The original plan was to mount these directly to the garage wall but in a moment of clarity I realized I could use some existing bolts that hold a vent guard to the wall to secure a board to the wall that I can then hang the EVSE from.

I am not really Mr. Handyman but with the very limited amount of tools I have at my disposal I think it came out alright. At least till I move and can get a proper Level 2 charger installed :)


, , ,

Extension cords

Jan 15th

Posted by Cev in Ownership

I’ve been keeping my eye on the parking garage at work to see if there are any prime spots near an outlet and lucky for me there are about 3. After my experience with my first EVSE going bad I really hope it just works. I tested the outlets with the tester I already bought when we switched the wall plug out in the garage and they checked out ok.

I can’t find any good way to use the EVSE at work without an extension cord and while I know the manual suggests against it I figure a good high quality cable will be fine. I’ve read a bunch of posts from other owners who have been using 50 and 100 foot runs with no real issues.

I settled on the Coleman Cable 02587 12/3 Vinyl Outdoor Extension Cord with Lighted End, 25-Foot at Amazon.com. It arrived today and seems to be pretty high quality. I’ve always used cheap 16 gauge cords around the house so the density of the cable was a surprise. I’ll try it out on Tuesday when I get back to work.


, , ,

Charge gate Day 4

Jan 12th

Posted by Cev in Ownership

Dealership called to let me know the new charge cable came in and the car is charging fine. I left work early to pickup the car because I couldn’t stand to see it sit overnight at the lot again :) By the time I got there it had about a 27 mile charge on it.

With the new cable everything is charging at home fine. Tomorrow is the first official commute day.

, , ,

Charge gate Day 3

Jan 11th

Posted by Cev in Ownership

Latest update from the dealership is as expected: the EVSE is bad. They have ordered a new one from GM and it should be here tomorrow.

So far I have driven the Chevy Aveo loaner more than the Volt.

, , ,
12»