best home chargers

I just bought a 2016 Leaf s and am researching the best home chargers before I buy one. Any suggestios?

Do you want a good basic unit, or one with more features? Clipper Creek makes good basic units in the US, with a 3 year warranty. There are a couple of cheap Chinese units that seem reliable. There are several good choices if you want more 'Bells & Whistles'.

It comes down to the common criteria for many purchases - good, fast, and cheap - pick any two

Very rare, and therefore exceptional, products deliver all three. For me, that's the Zencar 32A EVSE I own - a "portable" unit - yet it's my one and only "home" EVSE. I haven't had a single issue with it, almost three years since buying it - just works!

I bought a Nissan L2 OEM EVSE on eBay for $225 delivered. I installed a 50 amp 14-50R outlet in the shed in my vacation cabin an just plugged it in. It’s well built and reliable. It’s a 32 amp EVSE so it puts out max charge that my 2019 Leaf Plus can take.

Look at posting above. The seller has another one for sale now. https://www.ebay.com/sch/scionseven/m.html?item=264454936240

The best one for the money as of now is probably going to be a newer Nissan evse.

Don't buy the Nissan portable unit if you need to charge at 208 volts. It is a good unit if you only need it to work on 120 volts (with the included adapter for 5-15 receptacle or 240 volts for 14-50 receptacle). Clipper Creek units work well on either 208 or 240 volts.

GerryAZ said:

Don't buy the Nissan portable unit if you need to charge at 208 volts. It is a good unit if you only need it to work on 120 volts (with the included adapter for 5-15 receptacle or 240 volts for 14-50 receptacle). Clipper Creek units work well on either 208 or 240 volts.

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True but most residential power is 120/240 volts rather than 120/208 volts found in industrial applications.

Flyct said:

GerryAZ said:

Don't buy the Nissan portable unit if you need to charge at 208 volts. It is a good unit if you only need it to work on 120 volts (with the included adapter for 5-15 receptacle or 240 volts for 14-50 receptacle). Clipper Creek units work well on either 208 or 240 volts.

Click to expand...

True but most residential power is 120/240 volts rather than 120/208 volts found in industrial applications.

Click to expand...

The other issue with the Nissan OEM dual voltage unit is that it requires a 40 amp or greater circuit at 240 volts, so the typical 30A dryer circuit isn't adequate. IOW, unless you are using it at 120 volts only, or have a 40+ amp circuit available, the Nissan EVSE isn't a good choice.

Yeah it can potentially over heat a standard 30 amp circuit dryer circuit.

Oilpan4 said:

Yeah it can potentially over heat a standard 30 amp circuit dryer circuit.

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It won’t plug into a 30 amp dryer circuit. It requires a 14-50R 40 or 50 amp receptacle.

The Nissan 120/240v EVSE draws 32 amps. A 30 amp circuit is only certified for 24 amp continuous amp draw so you would need an EVSE that maxes at 24 amps.

Too late anyway. The one I pointed to on eBay link is gone now.

I had a Clipper Creek LCS-30 24amp EVSE at the cabin initially and it failed within a week. I then installed a 14-50R with a 40 amp breaker and used my Nissan 120/240 EVSE. It does a great job and it’s very well built. I then purchased another from the eBay seller and keep it in the car and the otter permanently connected at my cabin. At home I have a Eaton that I’ve used since 2015.

I am thankfully capable of doing my own electrical wiring so the cost is minimal to run a 50 amp receptacle or hard wired an EVSE.


This is the hard wired Clipper Creek LCS-30 that failed within a week.





Here is the portable Nissan 120/240v that is now permanently in the cabin shed that replaced the Clipper Creek





Here is the hard wired Eaton that I have in my garage at my primary home since 2015. I’ve been using this for my 2015, 2018 and current 2019 Leaf Plus.

That's good that it has a 50 amp plug, but some people out there who don't know any better may figure out that they can install a 50 amp receptacle.
Yeah I do my own wiring too.
I have a 2011 so 30 amp circuits are plenty for me, all I really need it 20 amp circuits.

Has anyone looked at the Amazon Basic EVSE L2 yet?

It seems to be sold out at the moment, but was just over $300 a couple days ago.

I have a JuiceBox pro 40 which I like, but we bought a 2nd EV and do not need anything fancy. The cars have timers and such, just want to charge faster than with the 110v cord that came with the car.

Convert the one that came with the car to 240v.

Don't forget Open EVSE. If you can run a screw driver they make a nice kit.

Hello. I have a 2018 Leaf. I have the charge cord that came with the vehicle and an identical one that I bought on Ebay. I keep one in the car and have the other in the garage for routine charging. To date I have done all of my home charging through an existing 110 receptacle and that has suited my driving habits fairly well.

I would like to have a 14-50R that I bought at Home Depot installed by an electrician in order to do 240V charging. I plan to use the same charge cord and just plug it into the new receptacle. I would then have the ability to charge with 110 as I have been or use the 220-240 if needed.

Is there any advantage in terms of battery life to continue using the 110 charging as the routine ?

Are commercial charging stations any different (aside from the bells and whistles) to this plan ?

Do commercial charging stations offer DC charging and is there any advantage to using DC charging vs AC ? i.e. Does using a DC charger save wear and tear on the on-board inverter ?

Thanks very much.

Are you using the Nissan EVSE cable with a 240V to 120V adapter? The 2018 S models only came with a 120V EVSE and it cannot be used at 240V without modification. I think that some SV and all SL cars came with the 240V EVSE but check yours to be sure.

Charging at 120V is less efficient than using 240V since there are losses due to running the charger for a longer period of time for the same amount of charge. I don't think it will affect the battery much since the battery charging voltage will be the same either way. The charge rate (current) will be lower for a 120V EVSE so that may make a difference but I don't think it is significant.

Charging on a DCQC will supply the highest charge rate (current) and will heat the battery the most. It's hard to tell from all the stories here how much using DCQC affects battery health although I'd say that higher battery temperatures increase degradation. Personally, I only DCQC when I need to (which is basically never) so I don't worry about it.

Commercial EVSE's operate the same way as the Nissan supplied 240V EVSE. The only difference is the amount of power supplied. The EVSE's adjust this by limiting the current coming though the cable. The Nissan 240V EVSE will supply 27.5A. Many commerical EVSE's will do the same although I've seen a lot that split that between 2 units so if both are in use, the car may only be receiving 13.25A.

Make sure the electrician installs a 35A or higher circuit for the EVSE. There is an 80% de-rating factor that must be applied to an EVSE circuit since it is a continuous load. So to supply 27.5A requires a 35A or larger circuit.

A 40 amp circuit is the smallest commonly installed size that will work. Most people go to 50 amps but 40 is fine for a Leaf. I think there would be trouble finding a 35A breaker and there might be an issue with wire gauge.

You just go up to the next size bigger wire.
The smallest wire you can use with standard uf or nm-b 60C rated wire on a 35 amp breaker is 8 gauge.
But if 10 gauge 75C thhn wire was used it would have to be ran in conduit and could be put on a 35 amp breaker.

I would just use the 8 gauge. Putting in nm-b goes about 10x faster than running conduit then pulling wire through it. Plus 8 gauge would give less voltage drop.

Assuming this is residential.

The 2018 S models only came with a 120V EVSE and it cannot be used at 240V without modification. I think that some SV and all SL cars came with the 240V EVSE but check yours to be sure.

My EVSE has the NEMA 14-50R plug attached to it and comes with an adapter to fit the standard 3 prong 120 receptacle. I keep the adapter on all the time. The 14-50R receptacle that I purchased at Home Depot is labeled as 50A 125/250V AC. It sounds like there are no major concern to going ahead with my plan so I will call the electrician. Thanks much.