ChargePoint Home Flex - Hardwired or Plug In?

[PunkRockDoc]

Is it better to have the level 2 charger hardwired in or just plug into a 240V outlet? Have to install whichever one, trying to decide which is better. Per the ChargePoint website, the hardwired version can support 50A vs 40A for the plug in.

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[Rae11]

Hardwired is preferred. Safer and more juice. We have the Chargepoint hardwired. The power you will pull depends on how much is coming to your breaker box. The electrician will tell you. The chargepoint also will lock-in below amperage below what the breaker can handle for safety. So 40 will lock in at 32 max.

 

[superfly_snook]

Always hardwire is my advice. Our e-tron burned up one plug in our garage and that’s when I decided to hardwire that charger and the one in the driveway I use mostly for the Rivian.

 

[Riviot]

Hardwire, less points of failure. Less is always more.

 

[Rividiculous]

Literally had a Chargepoint HomeFlex hardwired yesterday.

 

[Bullwinkle]

Is it better to have the level 2 charger hardwired in or just plug into a 240V outlet? Have to install whichever one, trying to decide which is better. Per the ChargePoint website, the hardwired version can support 50A vs 40A for the plug in.

Most are saying hardwired, but if you plan to stay in your house for less than 5 years, I would put in a NEMA 14/50 plug. Yes charge is slightly slower, but still easy to charge fully overnight. You have to leave a hardwired charger when you sell your house.
I bought from Amazon: Autel MaxiCharger Home Electric Vehicle (EV) Charger, up to 40 Amp, 240V, Level 2 WiFi and Bluetooth Enabled EVSE, NEMA 14-50 Plug
$450 Prime Day price is a good deal.

 

[racekarl]

Definitely hardwire. It's safer, faster, and more reliable (a receptacle requires a GFCI breaker which may cause nuisance trips).

The idea of being able to take the EVSE with you when you move is way overblown. An EVSE costs about $500. The industrial receptacle and more expensive breaker you need probably add $250 over the cost of a hard-wired install. So you might save $250 in a few years by being able to move your EVSE (and that's only if your new place has a receptacle already, if you need to add one, the extra cost will eat up all your "savings"). Hardly seems worthwhile when weighed against the benefits of hardwiring.

 

[SparkyR1t]

Plug in devices that pull continuous high current are subject to overheating and failure at the plug contact points. Always choose hardwired as your primary install method especially with EV wall connectors if that is an option.

 

[Rae11]

Most are saying hardwired, but if you plan to stay in your house for less than 5 years, I would put in a NEMA 14/50 plug. Yes charge is slightly slower, but still easy to charge fully overnight. You have to leave a hardwired charger when you sell your house.
I bought from Amazon: Autel MaxiCharger Home Electric Vehicle (EV) Charger, up to 40 Amp, 240V, Level 2 WiFi and Bluetooth Enabled EVSE, NEMA 14-50 Plug
$450 Prime Day price is a good deal.

This isn't a justification to use a nema 14-50.
The flexibility to remove it doesn't out weight the safety to hardwire.
Plus, having a hardwired level 2 is value added when selling the home. If you wanted, you could remove the hardwired install and take it with you. But not worth the expense. Better off leaving it and using it as an additional selling point.

 

[Bullwinkle]

expense

This isn't a justification to use a nema 14-50.
The flexibility to remove it doesn't out weight the safety to hardwire.
Plus, having a hardwired level 2 is value added when selling the home. If you wanted, you could remove the hardwired install and take it with you. But not worth the expense. Better off leaving it and using it as an additional selling point.

A Nema 14-50 plug seems perfectly safe to me, but I understand that everybody has different tolerances for risk. I have it on a 50 amp circuit--right next to my main box. I check the plug and outlet for heat occasionally. It is barely warm after running for 6 hours.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

A benefit of using an outlet (N14-50 or N6-50) is it allows you to quickly swap to a backup charger (EVSE). If you have a complete "primary" EVSE failure, you can get back to full power charging in a minute.

Had this happen once, and it was nice to go from the 40a, to a 32a backup and have nearly the same charging at home. A second time, I was able to cross check an adapter that wasn't working on the main EVSE (we have a 50a Grizzl-E), against another EVSE.

Anyway, I get it, maybe not a common scenario, I get it, you've got a close DCFC for "backup", just tossing it out there as a plus for an outlet install.

FWIW, we've had our Grizzl-E up and running on a N6-50 for like 40-ish months or so, it's been fine. After a few months, I did swap out the original N6-50 used by the installer to a Bryant just for some additional peace of mind.

That being said, we may wind up with a hardwired install since I wouldn't mind going to 48a since the new ride supports it and it's got a chonky battery (~107kWh)

 

[Mathme]

I've actually had to use the travel charger on the 14-50 outlet before as. backup. The issue was with the Wallbox charger that died under warranty. Wallbox was great in this instance as I was on the phone with them for a total of about 10 minutes and they immediately issued a warranty replacement for the dead charger. They did apologize as the charger died on a weekend and didn't ship until the following Monday...when they sent it overnight.

In the end it wasn't a huge issue as I just unplugged the dead charger and used my travel one for a few days.

This however, is the definition of a corner case.

 

[ndmiller]

With a competent electrician with the work don't correctly safety is equal. It's up to you.

I chose the plug for more modularity and options to charge and upgrade the charger down the road. My Charge Point flex died. CP sent me a new one, I installed in about 15 minutes and was back in business after boxing up the old one and sending it back.

In the meantime I used the mobile charger so no real downtime.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

I'm joining the hard wired chorus. ? ?

 

[runbuh]

Hard wired is my recommendation, but this is not an either/or decision. If you want complete flexibility, just have the electrician wire a NEMA 14/50 to the same circuit as your hardwired EVSE (will likely require a junction box or a small sub panel - I am not an electrician). You could enjoy the best of both worlds. Hard wired safety, and plug-in EVSE should your hard wired unit go kaput. I say all of this given the fact that my hard wired unit is an easy 3 feet from my electrical panel. It didn’t take much work for a professional to install it,

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