Bolt EVSE Recommendations?

[roundpeg]

How would you rate the difficulty of assembling from a kit?

 

[fromport]

How would you rate the difficulty of assembling from a kit?

Not hard, there is a manual provided, and several people have provided their own manuals.
You just need to know a bit about electricity, 32 or 40 amps of power is serious amount of electrons through a cable/connector.

People have posted questions and pictures of their builds on
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!categories/openevse

If you normally don't frown when you install a wall outlet, you can also assemble an openevse kit imo

 

[roundpeg]

Not sure about the frowning part so much, as I'd be concerned about the amount of current flowing through this thing and the knowledge that small mistakes could lead to huge problems. One of those could make your smile turn upside down...

 

[fromport]

Not sure about the frowning part so much, as I'd be concerned about the amount of current flowing through this thing and the knowledge that small mistakes could lead to huge problems. One of those could make your smile turn upside down...

In which case you are prob better off with the assembled one, and if you want a longer cable, i bet you chris is more than happy to quote you for the extra cable length and have a plug&play unit delivered to your home.

 

[roundpeg]

Shorter is actually better for my situation. The place I am looking at for the installation is only a few feet away from the charging port on the car.

 

[fromport]

Shorter is actually better for my situation. The place I am looking at for the installation is only a few feet away from the charging port on the car.

My reason for a 30' long cable is I have sometimes people dropping by with an EV, while my car is still parked in the carport.
In that case my visitor can park in front of my EV and still get a charge.
The fact that the cable is way thinner and more flexible helps a lot.

 

[roundpeg]

Good point. Too bad I am not quite ready to buy, they have a Cyber Monday sale going, 15% off and free shipping. They do collect CA sales tax though.

 

[Pigwich]

I know this post is mostly dead, but I do want to point out that an EVSE is really nothing more than a glorified hairdryer plug that keeps you from getting zapped, only turns on the 220V once it's plugged in to the car, and as a bonus, also kindly ASKS the car to please not draw more than X amps, although the car will damn well do whatever it wants. An EVSE is just a big GFCI like the one over your bathroom sink. It trips if you drop it in a puddle and keeps you safe. The only things that limit how much power it's "capable" of is the size of the cable and the rating of the contactor (relay) on the inside, with the 40 amp Packards (which is what openEVSE AND Aerovironment use) goes $12 retail. Like, literally, that's it, and if you properly torque the connectors, that same $12 Packard contactor runs as cool as can be while charging a Bolt at 32 amps. The weak link is bad wiring and connectors. An EVSE is dead simple, almost dumb hardware, and NO EVSE will ever hurt your car, no matter how cheap it is - In fact, the only one I've seen fail is an Aerovironment one, where the break-away connectors to the cable corroded and smoked.

My recommendation? Get a pre-built OpenEVSE with the dumb LED, or get the most basic JuiceBox. Having all the data, and a web site and energy monitoring is super cool, but mostly useless.

And heed the advice of the previous poster and run FAT 220 service to your garage so you never have to do it again. You may never get that insane 80 amp Tesla, but you can totally get two 40 amp units in there.