Which home charging point?

[Greenmantle]

Frimley111R said:

Greenmantle said:

Just about to pull the trigger and buy direct from Myenergi.

"Zappi type 2 tethered in white". £799.00 (already got a quote from an electrician to supply and install). All in all total under £1200. Not interested in nickel and diming this since the EV will be the daily drive and must not let me down.

Just spoke to the sales person:
(1) 6 weeks lead time
(2) this is a updated version which allows connection directly to your wifi (I assumed that all SMART chargers did that anyway so a little worrying).

So is this a Yes or No?

Seems ok. Lead time seems lengthy.

It could connect you your wifi before but needed a separate hub to go with it, now it is integrated (like every other charger).

It's a nice unit but quite large, otherwise there's no reason to 'No'.

thanks for the response - yep it is large but I am tucking it away round the side of the garage so not an eyesore.

[mikeiow]

Greenmantle said:

thanks for the response - yep it is large but I am tucking it away round the side of the garage so not an eyesore.

We love our Zappi-2 - installed for over 2½ years. Had an early teething issue with some RCD trips: they replaced the entire unit, & no issues since.
We do have the hub, which also works fine.

It is round the side of ours too, & the tethered cabled wrapped around it looks find to us.
Do you have any solar panels? It works a treat with them!

[RichardM5]

mikeiow said:

Greenmantle said:

thanks for the response - yep it is large but I am tucking it away round the side of the garage so not an eyesore.

We love our Zappi-2 - installed for over 2½ years. Had an early teething issue with some RCD trips: they replaced the entire unit, & no issues since.
We do have the hub, which also works fine.

It is round the side of ours too, & the tethered cabled wrapped around it looks find to us.
Do you have any solar panels? It works a treat with them!

We’ve had our Zappi-2 for about 2 years, it’s worked very well. It’s real strength is the integration with solar (or any other generation) and energy diverted. We have an Immersun (old version of the Eddi) which uses excess solar up to 1.4kw when the Zappi then takes over until the car is charged.

So even with devices that it can’t integrate directly, it still works remarkably well. Apart from exceptional circumstances, charging the car is generally free between April and October.

Bering quite a geek, it also has an API so I wrote an app that shows exactly where the power is being used, the current car charge and weather forecast, which runs on an old tablet in the kitchen so we can easily see when is the best time to put on the washing etc.

[Indecision]

I'm interested in others' experiences of home charging points, and their reliability.

I've had an Andersen A2 for 2 years, and have had numerous issues with RCM faults, clock skew errors, and today an overvoltage (>253v) that caused the unit to fault, but not notify. I've had a number of occasions waking up to a car that hasn't charged overnight.

The Andersen is a premium product, but seems overly flaky. I've spoken with others using Zappi and EO chargers who have never had issues; keen to learn if I'm unlucky or this is par for the course?

[Frimley111R]

Indecision said:

I'm interested in others' experiences of home charging points, and their reliability.

I've had an Andersen A2 for 2 years, and have had numerous issues with RCM faults, clock skew errors, and today an overvoltage (>253v) that caused the unit to fault, but not notify. I've had a number of occasions waking up to a car that hasn't charged overnight.

The Andersen is a premium product, but seems overly flaky. I've spoken with others using Zappi and EO chargers who have never had issues; keen to learn if I'm unlucky or this is par for the course?

We've fitted hundreds now covering EO, SyncEV, Zappi, Andersen, Wallbox and ProjectEv.

In the main they are all very reliable however, with any of them, there will the ones that just have a few issues due to a range of location specific factors or user error, data connectivity etc. None seem any worse than others. The software in each charger is different and has to cope with managing the power supply and connection to the differing software in EVs. It seems simple to most users but its quite complex behind the scenes.

The overvoltage is a property issue, not a charger issue and chargers seem to be the only thing in a house that picks up this issue. It should be a one-off and fixed by the DNO as an emergency. Most other chargers react the same way as your charger did tbh.

You'll always find people who have not had any issues because, mostly they don't, but you will also find plenty who have.

The Andersen is a lovely unit but the premium pricing comes from the case and tethered connection, there's nothing particularly special about the rest of it.

[Indecision]

Frimley111R said:

The Andersen is a lovely unit but the premium pricing comes from the case and tethered connection, there's nothing particularly special about the rest of it.

It’s definitely form over function compared to some other units - looks nicer than the house it’s attached to…!

Of interest, how do other units handle over-voltage faults? Do any self-reset or do all require manual intervention?

Edited by Indecision on Thursday 28th April 16:34

[Frimley111R]

Indecision said:

Frimley111R said:

The Andersen is a lovely unit but the premium pricing comes from the case and tethered connection, there's nothing particularly special about the rest of it.

It’s definitely form over function compared to some other units - looks nicer than the house it’s attached to…!

Of interest, how do other units handle over-voltage faults? Do any self-reset or do all require manual intervention?

Edited by Indecision on Thursday 28th April 16:34

I believe they will stop and then after something like 30 seconds they will check again so sometimes you may find the car has stopped charging but everything seems fine. Out of the ones we fit I have most experience of the SyncEV doing this and that's how it works for those. We can tell from the logs what has happened. It's amazing how some customers think we should sort out their overvoltage too! Fortunately, a quick call to the DNO and it's sorted within an hour or so. It might explain why your car has sometimes not charged overnight. Worst case scenario we just reboot them and they've all been fine after that.

[5s Alive]

Indecision said:

It’s definitely form over function compared to some other units - looks nicer than the house it’s attached to…!

Of interest, how do other units handle over-voltage faults? Do any self-reset or do all require manual intervention?

Edited by Indecision on Thursday 28th April 16:34

Had the red ring of death with our SyncEv however it does clear the OV fault itself when the voltage drops under 253v for more than (IRC) 4 mins. Contacted the DNO who sent an engineer the following day and discovered an imbalance between the 3 phases at the substation. Ours was at 254+ after 23:30 when demand was low. This would trip the fault and presumably prevent a scheduled charge however if you initiate a charge earlier in the evening the current draw causes the voltage to sag (4v+) preventing the fault occurring. Eventually the DNO seem to have tapped down the supply or have corrected the imbalance. SyncEv were very helpful and monitored our charge point remotely while the issue was occurring.

[jimmytheone]

Indecision said:

I'm interested in others' experiences of home charging points, and their reliability.

I've had an Andersen A2 for 2 years, and have had numerous issues with RCM faults, clock skew errors, and today an overvoltage (>253v) that caused the unit to fault, but not notify. I've had a number of occasions waking up to a car that hasn't charged overnight.

The Andersen is a premium product, but seems overly flaky. I've spoken with others using Zappi and EO chargers who have never had issues; keen to learn if I'm unlucky or this is par for the course?

We've recently installed a ZAPPI, it failed within 36 hours, error RCD BOARD TEST, local sparks who'd installed it fixed it within 24 hrs.
Something to do with a bad batch of some part or other, small pcb?
Absolutely fine since.

[Sheepshanks]

Interesting points on over-voltage - our supply seems to sit around 250V and I had to up the over voltage trip of the UPS I have for my home office IT kit as it was frequently being hit. I’ve not heard of any charging problems locally though.

Edited by Sheepshanks on Friday 29th April 05:24

[Indecision]

Frimley111R said:

I believe they will stop and then after something like 30 seconds they will check again so sometimes you may find the car has stopped charging but everything seems fine. Out of the ones we fit I have most experience of the SyncEV doing this and that's how it works for those. We can tell from the logs what has happened. It's amazing how some customers think we should sort out their overvoltage too! Fortunately, a quick call to the DNO and it's sorted within an hour or so. It might explain why your car has sometimes not charged overnight. Worst case scenario we just reboot them and they've all been fine after that.

Thanks, useful to note. In this case the overvoltage was only temporary, however the unit doesn’t self-reset and requires manual intervention, same as the previous RCM faults (thankfully had none of those for the last year - they needed a full power cycle of the A2 to reset). Not a problem if the unit sent a notification, but I only found out the next day while trying to figure out why the car hadn’t charged. A neighbour works for UKPN so we tend to get any supply issues resolved pretty promptly!

[GranpaB]

We are very much considering an EV and wondered if the HyperVault is still popular? I am reading stories of extra open(?) protection units needing to be installed as well as the charger and this bumps the cost up a lot. We do not have an earth spike for the earth and is connected to the main fuse in our meter cupboard. We do have a recent fuse box but someone said it is better to have a different box for the charger unit and not connect it in the house.

The install from our meter box would be about 25M so i think i would need a bigger cable (10mm?) for the run as it goes through some loft space.

TIA.

[Frimley111R]

GranpaB said:

We are very much considering an EV and wondered if the HyperVault is still popular? I am reading stories of extra open(?) protection units needing to be installed as well as the charger and this bumps the cost up a lot. We do not have an earth spike for the earth and is connected to the main fuse in our meter cupboard. We do have a recent fuse box but someone said it is better to have a different box for the charger unit and not connect it in the house.

The install from our meter box would be about 25M so i think i would need a bigger cable (10mm?) for the run as it goes through some loft space.

TIA.

It's a small manufacturer and fairly new but they seem ok. Regs are changing for EV chargers (tech specs that affect manufacturers but which consumers won't notice) and so its hard to comment on the chargers themselves. i think they don't need an earth spike but could be wrong.

Most EV chargers will be fitted to the main CU. Some, due to the location of a CU in the middle of a home, may use a secondary one fitted in the meter box but it's not 'better' to do so. The majority are connected directly to your main CU.

Even at 25m 6mm would be fine but 10mm is often fitted.

[donnie85]

blank said:

EO Mini Pro 2 installed today.

Impressed with how small it is.



If only I had something to plug into it!!

Im thinking of getting this one and like you prefer it untethered as dont want to see the big ugly wires (the wife certainly doesnt).

How much of a ballache is it to have a charger untethered?

Looking at it through Octopus energy. £1000 fitted. This seem a decent price?

[ajap1979]

donnie85 said:

How much of a ballache is it to have a charger untethered?

I have an untethered charger and I don't find it to be a ballache in the slightest. Looks neater and it's not exactly hard to open the frunk, grab the cable and plug in at both ends. Guess it depends where you're going to position the charger, in a garage I'd probably choose tethered, but mine is on the drystone wall down my drive, and it would look terrible with a cable hanging from it all the time.

[mikeiow]

Not sure I get why people would hate having a really easily accessed cable like we have with a tethered Zappi: I'm not convinced this looks "terrible" !



Much rather that than wasting more valuable time getting a cable out of the car, perhaps in the pouring rain - tethered is so easy to plug and run!
Then again, some people hate solar panels on a roof - I'm more about the practicality of these things!

[blank]

donnie85 said:

blank said:

EO Mini Pro 2 installed today.

Impressed with how small it is.



If only I had something to plug into it!!

Im thinking of getting this one and like you prefer it untethered as dont want to see the big ugly wires (the wife certainly doesnt).

How much of a ballache is it to have a charger untethered?

Looking at it through Octopus energy. £1000 fitted. This seem a decent price?

Now that I actually have a car I've been using the EO for a couple of weeks. No issues at all. App is pretty basic but shows usage. Has never not charged.

Untethered is fine for me but it's all I use as most of my charging is at work. I just the cable in the boot for ease, but if I'm not planning to charge for a few days or need the boot then I stow it away under the boot floor in its bag.

[Frimley111R]

There's no right or wrong answer, it's entirely personal preference.

Some chargers like the EO, SyncEv and Wallbox are so small that the cable can look a bit untidy. Larger chargers, like the Zappi, allow you to wrap the cable around the unit and it looks neater but then it is much larger.

Tethered is more convenient but with something like the EO/SyncEV, when they are not in use they are very discreet.

[ajap1979]

mikeiow said:

Much rather that than wasting more valuable time getting a cable out of the car...

Valuable time? How long do you think it actually takes to grab a cable out of the boot, and plug it in at two ends?

[ZesPak]

ajap1979 said:

Valuable time? How long do you think it actually takes to grab a cable out of the boot, and plug it in at two ends?

Pre Corona I was charging on a nearly daily basis. I was really happy with the convenience of having a tethered charger.