CharlesinGA
Well-known member
MikeD said:baustin: I notice from your link that GE's DuraStation is ETL listed, but not UL listed, whereas GE's Watt-Station is both UL listed and ETL listed, as are most commercial EVSEs that I am aware of. From a safety standpoint I wonder why.
One further observation is this Installation Guide does not specify the EVSE circuit be a dedicated one, which I suspect is an (unfortunate) oversight. Contrast this rather skimpy 6 page document with the generously detailed 33 page "Installation and Operations Manual" for the VersiCharge.
I just installed a DuraStation from Home Depot, for $399 plus sales tax, free shipping. There are several different listing labs, the fact that some dual listed them and GE did not simply indicates a marketing ploy or lack of it. One listing is just as good as the other. The general public is used to seeing the UL listing label and anything else confuses them, so many manufacturers go to the expense of the UL listing when another listing lab can do the same job for less money. Since the DuraStation resembles a high school shop project anyhow, I doubt GE cared about marketing needs that the UL listing be present.
An examination of the board inside shows that it was originally designed for use possibly in some of the public use charge stations that GE makes. There is a place for an Ethernet connector to be soldered (the connector is not there, but the board is labeled Ethernet, and the holes and circuit traces are there) and there are a couple of other places where "accessories" should be that are not.
The big case doubles as a handy hanging place for the cord, and also allows for lots of room inside for the incoming wires and also for heat dissipation.
Its almost like some GE manager told some engineer to make an inexpensive product as quickly as possible and they grabbed a bunch of off the shelf parts and put one together, drafted some vague instructions and put it out there. I'm actually impressed, it should sell like hotcakes. Only the weenies who grumble about it being too "ugly" to put on the wall of their garage will bypass it and spend more money on something that does the same thing.
Note the instructions don't even tell you what voltage to connect to, since it is to be professionally installed, they expect the installer to figure it out. Mine is in a large metal building in my back yard that I fully wired and equipped myself, with EMT conduit, and this DuraStation is mounted right next to the panel, which is located between a man door and a 12w x 14h glass garage door, so the install was easy. I ordered a J1772 "holster" from a Ebay seller and screwed it to the plywood the Durastation is mounted on and this makes the installation look a little more finished, and keeps the mud daubers out of the connector when it is not in use.
Forgot to mention, since the unit is intended to be hardwired only (anything else would violate the listing) and the ability to step down in output is controlled with a jumper on the motherboard, then GE has the ability to market it as being able to be placed on smaller circuits. Other units such as the Siemens allow you the user to select the step down, and with user controlled adjustments they have to specify the largest possible circuit and not allow anything smaller.
Charles