charging stations are my biggest prob

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bzipitidoo

New member
Joined
Dec 15, 2018
Messages
1
Greetings, this is my 1st post here. Bought a used 2011 Leaf last month in a bit of a hurry when my '94 Lumina engine developed a problem it's notorious for-- leaking antifreeze past the head gasket.

I was prepared for the limited range. Battery health is only 9 bars. What I wasn't expecting was so much trouble getting a charge. Stations aren't open 24/7, or they've been shut down, or they complain "waiting for car" and won't charge, or they're occupied.

Must close, being hammered on to get off the computer.
 
You need to set up a home charging "station" using the 120 volt charging cable (aka "EVSE") that should have been included with the car. It can add about 4 miles of range per hour. Do you have any outdoor or garage outlets on circuits that aren't presently being used?
 
Public charging can be hit or miss depending on your location. Even though I've been driving LEAF since 2011, I have to remind myself that we have really not even reached "early adopter" stage yet. Anyone whose EV purchase is contingent upon the effectiveness of their local public charging infrastructure needs to do a lot of homework before buying. Hopefully home charging will take care of most of your needs.

Hill-Slides-OTC-20150619-straddling.jpg
 
1. EV's tend to work best if you can charge them at home.
2. Check out PlugShare.com. They rate stations by how good they are. That way you can look for top rated stations.
3. Any outlet can be a charging station. Have you asked your boss/school if you can charge there?
 
Agree with Isaac's points.

I would never recommend a sub-100 mile EPA range pure EV to anyone unless you can reliably charge at home or work or some places that you often/always stop at for hours at a time. Being dependent on dealer or workplace charging is usually not a good idea.

As for "waiting for charge"/won't charge, make sure you have both charging timers turned off or press the timer override button on the left side of the dash. If you see the blue light 1 turn then off, then the same for 2 then the same for 3, and it repeats, it means it's charging it delayed until you reach the timer event or override it via the button I mentioned. You can also force it to charge now via the NissanConnect app.
 
Any outlet can be a charging station. Have you asked your boss/school if you can charge there?

Not "any" outlet! It has to be either a 15 amp circuit with nothing else bigger than a small light or two on it, or a 20 amp circuit with 15 amps free. The outlet and wiring also have to be in at least very good condition. The car draws 12 amps on 120 volt charging, and the circuit has to have 20% more free for continuous use like that.
 
You really need L2 charging. Even an original Leaf or a basic S is more than twice as fast as 120V. An enhanced leaf charges at 27.5A @ 240V or in an industrial environment 208V. Either way it is much faster. Personally I have never charged anywhere but home. It is much cheaper. Yes, there are still free EVSEs but they are often clogged up. Most EVSE's 'other than home run on 208V. This is what you get from a circuit that also supplies 120V. I know that the EVSE's at both of my Mercedes dealers are 30A @ 208V but they charge my car fine.
 
GlennD said:
You really need L2 charging. Even an original Leaf or a basic S is more than twice as fast as 120V. An enhanced leaf charges at 27.5A @ 240V or in an industrial environment 208V. Either way it is much faster. Personally I have never charged anywhere but home. It is much cheaper. Yes, there are still free EVSEs but they are often clogged up. Most EVSE's 'other than home run on 208V. This is what you get from a circuit that also supplies 120V. I know that the EVSE's at both of my Mercedes dealers are 30A @ 208V but they charge my car fine.

Absolutely ! The only other semi-practical option (depending on if your employer allows it) would be to use an available 120V outlet at work which one does for a friend of mine with their used Leaf -- 3 seasons of the year they have just enough range for their round trip work commute but during the winter they MUST charge at work ALL DAY on the 120V to be able to make it back home. They wouldn't have bought the car without working it out that they could charge at work; and they also have L2 charging at home. As charging at work on a 120V is a bit unusual its of course not an option for most considering a used Leaf (or any other < 100 mile range EV).

Our 2nd EV is a new leased smart ED with a cold weather range of about 80 miles but is only used for very short commutes -- 95% of the time we charge it at home on L2; there are a few convenient Volta L2 chargers around (usually in pairs) that have been free to use but charge at about the same rate at home so not really viable enough for regular use (unless you happen to work at either of the malls these are located at; plus get there early enough so you have access, etc -- really hit or miss; and again some owners leave their cars on the charger all day well after they're full but that's any topic (charging etiquette) that should be part of any new EV owners walk through of charging which is sorely missed with perhaps Tesla being the exception).
 
Being that you have a 3.3kw on board charge and not the larger 6.6kw one from later model cars, and assuming you have the aptitude and want to save $200, I would advocate for upgrading the factory Nissan leaf charging cord or eletric vehicle service equipment (EVSE) so that it can level 1 charge and level 2 charge automatically, then get a bunch of variously ill-advised electrical adaptors to plug into a variety of outlets, including dryer and range plugs. the cost for this upgrade is as little as $6 as opposed to $190-$450 for a purpose-built L2 EVSE. you need two parts to do the upgrade. A very small size universal input transformer 110-250v AC in, 15-19 VDC out (yes...VDC), and some large 275VAC metal oxide varistors (MOVs.) this is a do at your own risk kind of a thing.

https://www.instructables.com/id/CONVERTING-A-LEAF-LEVEL-1-12AMP-CHARGER-TO-A-LEVEL/

I choose to use the L14-30 as the common size, because that's on my generator and I have lots of cord for it. I have a L14-30P to 5R-15 and a 10-50P to 5r-15 (the potentially dangerous ones that need labeled "for EV use only"), 10-50P to L14-30R, TT-30P to 5R-15, 14-50P to L14-30R. this will allow you to charge from just about any outlet you will find. The last step for this series of cord adaptors is to buy a $2xx "tesla-tap" destination charger adaptor, but feelings seem mixed on this last part. Some tesla drivers feel destination chargers are only for use by teslas as a tesla-birth-right privilege, even though the business contribute at least some money for their installation, and other tesla drivers feel that any EV should be able to plug in. lots of hotels in my area have tesla destination chragers.

Good luck!
 
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