Recent Questions

12 votes
GWM Ora dealer's "free portable charger" is a mystery-brand 10A cord — take it or buy my own?
Signing the paperwork on the Ora this week, novated through work same as it sounds like a few people here have done. Trading in the Atto 3 as part of the dea...
jdubz jdubz_2
12
answers
11 votes
TT-30 at a state park in Utah saved my road trip — what's the etiquette on asking rangers?
Drove up from Texas for a long weekend loop through southern Utah in the F-150 Lightning — Arches, Canyonlands, the whole corridor along I-70. Hit Green Rive...
hollowticket hollowticket_2
9
answers
8 votes
Upgrading from our MG4 to a Model Y or BYD Sealion 7 — which actually copes better with the school holiday coast run?
We've had the MG4 for two years now and home charging at the Hills District house has honestly been a non-event — plug in overnight, never think about it. It...
hanny_b hanny_b_2
10
answers
10 votes
Moved out — landlord charged me $400 for "EV charger damage to outlet." Is this legit?
Just moved out of my place in Denver after two years running a wall-mount Level 2 charger on a NEMA 14-50 outlet in the garage. When I took the unit down bef...
maplebutton maplebutton_2
14
answers
13 votes
HOA won't approve any permanent EV install in our detached garage — options?
Our HOA president has made it pretty clear he's not a fan of EVs and he's been blocking anything he considers a "permanent modification" to detached garages,...
lemonwire_8 lemonwire_8_2
6
answers
6 votes
My 14-30 dryer outlet — how heavy of a charger can I actually hang off it safely?
Eight months ago I plugged my wall-mount Level 2 charger — one of the ones with just a NEMA 14-30 plug on the end instead of being hardwired — into the dryer...
kmoore79 kmoore79_2
19
answers
9 votes
14-50 vs 6-50 — I keep hearing the "weight and terminal wear" argument. Anyone actually seen a 6-50 fail from this?
Been going down a rabbit hole reading old electrical forum threads the last couple weeks trying to figure out what to actually install before I commit to a c...
randomkiwi27 randomkiwi27_2
19
answers
7 votes
Running my EV charger through the garage window — how do I keep water/pests out?
Old detached garage, only GFCI outlet is on the outside wall around back, nowhere close to a spot I could realistically run conduit to reach the Bolt where i...
fernclip fernclip_2
8
answers
9 votes
Atto 3 owner, first proper road trip next month — Canberra to Melbourne via the Hume, is the Barnawartha North Chargefox actually reliable?
Got the Atto 3 back in March mostly for the commute and never actually taken it past Goulburn. Doing the drive down to Melbourne for a wedding mid-August and...
jdubz jdubz_2
15
answers
8 votes
Renter in Boston — is a portable Level 2 actually enough for a Model 3 doing 40 mi/day?
My landlord's exact words when I asked about a wall charger: "no wall installs, full stop, not negotiable." I get it, it's an old triple-decker and he doesn'...
mossdrift mossdrift_2
9
answers
14 votes
Every 15A blue outlet fits my portable charger a bit differently at Big4 parks — is the AS/NZS 3123 spec actually consistent, or is it just worn plugs?
Six months a year on the road in the van, EV towing it, so I've plugged this same 15A portable charger into more caravan park outlets than I could count by n...
barry_nomates barry_nomates_2
7
answers
8 votes
Hotel/friends house portable use — what's your go-to setup that doesn't damage their outlet?
We drive up from Austin to see my in-laws in Dallas about once a month, sometimes more around holidays. They've got a NEMA 14-30 dryer outlet in the garage a...
meerakay meerakay_2
19
answers
9 votes
Window vs dryer outlet — I have both options for my rental. Which is actually safer long-term?
Rental duplex, landlord's actually been decent about it, said either option is fine as long as I can explain the safety side. Option A is a portable Level 1 ...
picklewindow picklewindow_2
6
answers
13 votes
Renting, no garage — running a 15m Arlec extension lead from the back GPO to the car out front. Is this actually a problem?
Renting a place in inner Melbourne, no garage, no driveway even. My only outdoor GPO is around the back near the laundry, and my park is basically street par...
kelso_j kelso_j_2
19
answers
13 votes
Portable vs installed wall unit — the 5-year cost math nobody talks about
I ran actual numbers before doing anything, which is apparently unusual around here. Wallbox Pulsar Plus hardware runs about $700, installation quotes I got ...
pixelmango19 pixelmango19_2
5
answers
5 votes
UL 2252 certified NACS adapters — is it worth the $80 premium over the AliExpress ones?
Got my F-150 Lightning back in the spring and my wife, who is way more safety-minded than I am about anything with a plug, has made it a whole thing that we ...
hollowticket hollowticket_2
8
answers
10 votes
Doing the Great Ocean Road in the Atto 3 — is there an actual list of EV-friendly caravan parks or am I ringing each one?
Booking a week down the Great Ocean Road for the school holidays, doing it in the Atto 3 towing a pop-top. Found a few caravan parks advertising as EV friend...
bennyboy21 bennyboy21_2
19
answers
9 votes
My tenant in the townhouse wants an EV plug installed — who's supposed to pay for this?
I own a townhouse up in NJ that I've rented out for about 8 years now — I'm down in North Carolina myself, so it's a long-distance landlord situation, but th...
dutch_b74 dutch_b74_2
11
answers
7 votes
Chevy Volt + Kia Niro PHEV on one 120V outlet — is this a fire waiting to happen?
We've got a 2017 Volt and a Kia Niro PHEV sharing one garage, and between the two of them our actual daily miles are low enough that a full overnight top-off...
ironveil ironveil_2
16
answers
11 votes
Ioniq 5 owner in Maine — is the NACS adapter for Superchargers actually working reliably yet?
Been driving my Ioniq 5 for a year and a half now, mostly around the Bangor area but I do the Route 1 coastal run and the occasional trip out to Presque Isle...
graniteforge graniteforge_2
16
answers
6 votes
800-mile road trip with a Mach-E — do I actually need a portable EVSE as backup or am I overpacking?
My wife and I are driving from Nashville to Denver to see her sister, three days, first trip anywhere close to this long since I got the Mach-E last year. Ro...
picklewindow picklewindow_2
10
answers
9 votes
Getting the Sealion 7 next month — sparky recommends a tethered wall charger, but is "carry the cable for road trips" actually a real use case here?
Ordering the BYD Sealion 7 for next month and trying to lock in the home charger install before it arrives so I'm not scrambling. Got a quote for an Ocular H...
fi_mac fi_mac_2
7
answers
15 votes
Brown scorch marks on my dryer outlet after 6 months of EV charging — how worried should I be?
Been using a portable Level 2 unit plugged into our dryer's 14-30 outlet every night for about six months now, no issues that I noticed day to day — charge s...
hazypilot hazypilot_2
21
answers
9 votes
NEMA 14-50 vs 6-50 for my new EV — my husband says one, the electrician says the other
Finally getting around to wiring up the workshop out back — pouring the slab was the easy part, apparently. Adding EV charging while I'm at it since the Mode...
fernquill fernquill_2
9
answers