Charging from 120v wall outlet

[Kacey3]

This all tracks with my experience. We are still saving up for a dedicated charger (the charger is within our budget, but the new electrical panel was a surprise) and have been using a standard 120 outlet to charge for the last month. Thankfully I have a 4 mile commute, so charging back 8 miles a day is a piece of cake.

But yes, you should expect about 1-2 miles of range for every hour of charge of of a 120. It's not fast, but it still works if you have the time.

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[Joe schmoe]

This all tracks with my experience. We are still saving up for a dedicated charger (the charger is within our budget, but the new electrical panel was a surprise) and have been using a standard 120 outlet to charge for the last month. Thankfully I have a 4 mile commute, so charging back 8 miles a day is a piece of cake.

But yes, you should expect about 1-2 miles of range for every hour of charge of of a 120. It's not fast, but it still works if you have the time.

One more data point.

I let the truck sit on the 120V outlet for 12 hours last night again. Similar mild temps, gear guard off but no other special steps.

Again seeing about 2mi/hour over 12 hours, which seems to track with what others are seeing.

Everyone will have a different use pattern, but with my Tesla over 8 years I've averaged (mean) just under 14 miles/day. Most common (mode) is about six miles, followed by zero on days I walk to work, then some days I'll put between 40 and 500 miles on it. I'll plug the Tesla into my NEMA 14-50 outlet when it gets down to 30% or so and charge it back up to 70-80%. in practice this is maybe 2-3 times a week.

The Tesla supercharger network is so robust that I no longer even worry about road trips, since there are convenient superchargers everywhere I've needed to go (and I live in "flyover country")

In planning a trip to the Florida gulf coast I've noticed that the Level 2 charging seems -worse- than it was for the Tesla in the early days. There are many more chargers installed, but looking on plugshare most of them are either broken or "guests only" enforced at hotels. Years ago, hotels were generally happy to let you use their level 2 or Tesla destination chargers even if you didn't rent a room.

 

[Kacey3]

FWIW, I recently purchased some cables and adapters to charger off our our 220 dryer outlet. It was only about 10' from the truck "as the crow flies" if the crow could fly through the wall between the two.

After hooking up all of the extensions and adapters, and putting a hole in the wall with some RV cable ports, I am now charging on a 30A outlet and gaining about 13-18 miles back per hour of charge. It's a temporary solution until we can get the breaker box upgrade and get the dedicated charger, but it's a good enough solution for the next 3-6 months.

• 10-30P splitter: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B097M8ZSL9
• 10-30P extension: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08XBK355T
• 10-30P to 14-50R adapter w/ Ground: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083BFHHKN
• 2x Wall Hatch" https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JW6CBXH

 

[NY_Rob]

^ have you checked the temps of the adapter ends after charging at 32amps for a few hours? The connections are usually the weak point in the system.

 

[p3ck]

In extreme temps it can actually end up draining the battery instead of putting energy in since fighting against the heat loss is a losing battle.

I was able to gain range even in -18f. see my post here: https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/rivian-road-trip-in-the-cold.13046/

 

[Dark-Fx]

I was able to gain range even in -18f. see my post here: https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/rivian-road-trip-in-the-cold.13046/

You probably had the advantage of having enough latent heat in the battery from doing a fast charge in the middle of the trip that it wasn't spending energy warming up the pack.

 

[p3ck]

You probably had the advantage of having enough latent heat in the battery from doing a fast charge in the middle of the trip that it wasn't spending energy warming up the pack.

Could be. I did plug in right away since I figured it made sense to take advantage of the already warm truck. I stayed two nights though and I was able to gain both nights.

 

[twieland]

This is a solution we've considered as the location of our breaker box and a finished basement will require either cutting the ceiling and having work done to repair, or running conduit outside and around the house into the garage. For the 30A dryer circuit, are you setting the Rivian charge limit to 24A?

 

[Kacey3]

^ have you checked the temps of the adapter ends after charging at 32amps for a few hours? The connections are usually the weak point in the system.

If this in in reference to my adapter post, I actually reduce the charging level to ~24A just to be safe. Nothing has been hot (or even really warm) to the touch during my charging sessions.

 

[Tony R1S]

Ok, so I know it’s not recommended, and even Rivian’s official guidance seems to discourage it, but I haven’t seen it reported on the forums, except in the context of freezing temps and unable to keep up with vampire drain.

last night, with my R1S at about 66%, I set the charge limit to 85% and plugged into a 120v/20 amp wall outlet, on a circuit shared with a refrigerator and a couple of surveillance cameras but nothing else turned on.

the car hadn’t been driven in a few hours, I have gear guard off at home, and the temps in the garage average low to mid 60s over night. I did ‘t try to put the truck to sleep or do anything special.

I just updated to the latest software as of 3/7/2023 (2023.6.2)

i checked after almost 10 hours, and it had added 19 miles. I think that’s useful in a pinch, as we have a vacation home that is 133 miles from the nearest DCFC.

Oh my, 1mi / hr But I agree, better than nothing if desparate.

 

[foxerson]

Just a reminder that all you *need* is a wired plug for the R1, as the “charger” is built into the truck. The “wall chargers” are just EV Supply Equipment (EVSE) devices.

A 30A 110v (Travel Trailer plug) or a 50A 220v (NEMA 14-50) is fairly trivial to add to a nearby breaker box and is better & light-years better (respectively) than 110v household plug.

I may be going this route as a temporary solution. I received my charger in January but my electrician has been consistently non-committal about the install. I got in touch with another electrician but am anticipating that I will be have to make due without the charger for the first couple of weeks after I get the truck.

Our electric panel is in the garage just a few feet from where the truck will be parked. And there is a 40-amp breaker that I can temporarily re-purpose for a 220v outlet.

 

[jlstan]

I had to get three different adapters before I found one that would work on the ancient dryer plug at our cabin, but now I get to take the R1T offroad through the woods and around the back to charge through the bathroom window when I go so... Win-win.

 

[R1z]

Sweet! Save some money *and* have reasonable charge speeds.

I grabbed a beefy 20’ NEMA 14-50 extension cable for when I parked just outside the garage. Here’s the one I have. Handy!

https://www.evseadapters.com/products/heavy-duty-nema-14-50-extension-cord-for-tesla-20-ft/

 

[Kacey3]

I had to get three different adapters before I found one that would work on the ancient dryer plug at our cabin, but now I get to take the R1T offroad through the woods and around the back to charge through the bathroom window when I go so... Win-win.

The main issue we had (aside from having to cut a hole in the wall) was to deal with the fact that the portable charger requires a ground, and our 1960s built house has only a couple of grounded outlets - the 30A dryer outlet not being one of them. So I had to get the 10-30P to 10-50R adapter that adds a ground cable that I was able to plug into a nearby 120V outlet that actually was grounded.

I will admit that I did a lot of research and testing to come up with a workable solution until we can get the dedicated charger installed.

 

[Joe schmoe]

Followup:

In Florida, 133 miles from the first DCFC on my route home. I had to try two different circuits (first one didn't work with the wall charger although it works fine with my golf cart).

Charging now on 120v, and have added 52 miles in the last 24 hours. Should be good to go for my departure home in the AM.

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