Understanding the Included charger

I have been through that thread and posted there as well, I am guessing my best bet is to go to Lowes or Home Depot and see if they have the adapter that will work for my situation. Thanks for your help.

 

@Teez, no company is going to sell you an adapter that lets you plug in a 120V device to a 240V outlet, especially not Lowe's or Home Depot. You'd have to buy the parts and make it yourself. Not the best idea since you say that you're 'not very knowledgable about this sort of electrical stuff'.

I'd recommend just buying a cheap Level 2 charger. I searched amazon and I found some for < $85, not much more than the price of the parts for the DIY adapter.

 

With the Nema 10-30 outlet i have (older 3 prong) it seems difficult to find a charger below $500 in Canada that uses that plug and the selection is small. Would getting an adapter to go 3 prong to 4 prong make sense in my particular case in order to have more selection when buying a level 2 charger? Once again not knowing the electrical specifications is it safe to use a 3 prong to 4 prong adapter in this case for ev charging?

 

Not at lowes or home depot, but you can find an adapter that will do exactly what you need on ebay. Here you go:
https://ebay.us/m/ukjeVU

And using an adapter like this with a 240v outlet will halve your typical charging time.

 

Thanks for this, unfortunately does not ship to Canada.

 

The reason why you don’t see chargers or adaptors with 10-30 plugs is because the 3rd wire in 10-30 is neutral, not ground. The correct plug to use is 6-30.

However, 30 amps is an in between size, so you normally see 6-20 for lower power chargers, or 6-50 or 14-50 or higher powered ones.

You have several options.

1. Change to a 14-50 receptacle. You will need to run a ground line to the panel if there isn’t one already.

2. Change to a 6-20 receptacle. You will need to change the 30A breaker to a 20A. You also need to make sure that the 3rd wire is actually connected to ground (ground and neutral is normally connected together unless it’s a sub-panel).

3. Change to a 6-50 receptacle. Make sure the 3rd wire is connected to ground in the panel. This is less common than the 6-20 connector above, but you don’t have to change the breaker, and can potentially charge at up to 30A if your car and charger supports it.

4. install a hardwired charger and skip the outlet altogether. Again, you need to make sure the 3rd wire is connected to ground. This would be my recommendation since you are in Canada. Grizzl-E makes one of the best chargers and they are made right in Toronto, so you get local support if you need help or have any issues. A little pricier at CAD $499, but out well below the other name brand chargers.

5. Keep your current setup. Do you really need to charge in 4 instead of 9 hours? I usually just charge overnight, so it doesn’t make a difference. If I run out during the day, well, that’s why I got a Prius instead of a full electric car.

 

That is too bad.

I gotta say, if you are at all handy, making such an adapter yourself is quite easy. And it is cheaper than buying one. And it is safer because then you can select all of the components that you will use on the adapter.

 

If I recall correctly, the old 30 amp electric dryer and cooktop/oven ranges were allowed to use the ground wire as a current return path for 120v lighting in the dryer or range.
Seems odd to me that there would be be a circuit and wiring to an electrical device that did not include a ground wire to safely trip an over current device (circuit breaker) if there was a line to ground fault short in the device. Maybe in recent years this third wire has been referred to as a neutral, because it does allow current to flow back to a neutral buss when a 120v light is illuminated in the device, but I'll bet it also serves as a ground for the device.

 

There is no safety ground in 10-30. Old equipment often used neutral as ground, assuming that neutral is at 0v, but that is not safe under certain conditions. That is why it is not code complaint in new installations. If you make any changes to the circuit, you would need to upgrade to 14-30 or 6-30 to pass inspection.

For a garage outlet, you would also need to upgrade to GFCI. That is why I prefer a hardwired installation, as a good quality outlet (recommended for the continuous load of an EV charger) adds another $50, and a GFCI breaker another $100.