How To Choose The Right EV Charger?
2023-03-23
First you need to judge whether you need a EV charger of your own.
Every electric car comes standard with a portable charger. (This thick cable that plugs into a wall outlet and the car counts as a charger.) However, every manufacturer provides a different unit, with varying levels of charging capabilities.If EV are your only car. A rule of thumb to follow in determining if the standard charger is enough for your daily charging needs is: Can it fully recharge your EV’s battery overnight? If it can, you probably don’t need to buy another charger.
If you’ve determined that the supplied charger isn’t adequate for your daily charging needs, you’ll need to consider a number of factors to determine which EV charger is right for you.
*Plug-in or Hardwired: EV chargers are available in plug-in or hardwired options. Plug-in units offer the flexibility of easily removing the charger to use in another location, or perhaps return it for a replacement if there’s ever a problem. Hardwired chargers are permanently affixed to the wall and require an electrician to disconnect and remove them.
*Cable Length: EV chargers come with cables that can be as short as 12-feet and as long as 25-feet. Choose one that has a cable long enough to reach the charge port of your car in any position you park it. Get a cable at least 20-feet long.
*Smart or Dumb: Smart EV chargers come with apps and allow the owner to do things like review charging sessions, monitor real-time charging, start/stop a charging session, schedule charging, set up reminders to plug in, and more. Dumb chargers don’t have the ability to do anything but charge your EV, which is all that some EV owners want from their charger. Dumb chargers do stop when the battery if full.
*Power Delivery: You want your EV charger to be able to deliver at least 32-amps (7.7 kW) and ideally 40-amps (9.6 kW) to the vehicle.
*Safety-Certified with 3-Year Warranty: There is a wide array of EV charging equipment available today on the internet. Many of these products are low-quality, inexpensive units that are not safety-certified and have very short warranties. Make sure the EV charger you get has been safety certified by established entities like UL and ETL and has at least a 3-year warranty.
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