Portable Charge Cable for 2018 LEAF?

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EVDRIVER said:
Do you have a link that references different adapters other than a 14-50 and 120V? I have not seen any other reference to other adapters for dryers, etc.
Nope, at the time of my comment I was just looking at what's available from the Nissan configure/build page. Nissan states that you use "the same plug as your home dryer", which led me to believe it's a 14-30p, but I since learned (from other posts in here / other social media) it's a 14-50p (which seems a bit disingenuous and even dangerous to suggest you should plug into a dryer outlet).

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I also learned that it comes with a 5-15p adapter that looks rather clunky, and may include some sort of temperature sensing circuitry. Presumably there's no adjustability at all, and the sticker on the unit says it pulls 30 amps. The 120V adapter may somehow signal to reduce the pilot to 12 amps, or maybe the unit just signals 12 amps when it internally detects a 120V supply. Or maybe the pilot always just signals 30 amps and it's expected that the Leaf (or whatever EV you're using it with) just won't pull more than 12 amps on 120V...

In short, lots of unanswered questions remain!
 
The charge cable that came with my SL is the one I was talking about. 14-50 connector and charges at 6.6Kw when plugged in to 240 volts. When you use the clunky adapter that came with it and plug into a 120 volt outlet, the charge rate is 1.4Kw.
 
LeaferSutherland said:
The charge cable that came with my SL is the one I was talking about. 14-50 connector and charges at 6.6Kw when plugged in to 240 volts. When you use the clunky adapter that came with it and plug into a 120 volt outlet, the charge rate is 1.4Kw.
I wonder what would happen if you put on the 120V adapter, then plug into a 240V supply using your own homemade adapter. Would you then charge at 240V/12a (2.88 kW) or would it revert to 240V/27.5A (6.6kw), or would it just get fried? (Don't blame me if you try this and it's the latter.) :lol:

Doing trickery like this is the only way to use a Tesla Mobile Connector (Gen 1) at 240V/12-16A, for example (aside from just varying the charge rate from the car, something that non-Tesla EVs mostly can't do).
 
You don’t want to do that. Bottom line is it has a 30A pilot signal on 240v and the LEAF draws 27a. The unit must be used on a 14-50 and Nissan should never state a dryer, just shows how misinformed they are as usual.
 
EVDRIVER said:
You don’t want to do that. Bottom line is it has a 30A pilot signal on 240v and the LEAF draws 27a. The unit must be used on a 14-50 and Nissan should never state a dryer, just shows how misinformed they are as usual.

A dryer in the US is 30 amp 240 volts with 10 gauge wire (usually). Yes technically, it should be a charge drawing no more than 24 amp continuous, but (I) would still do it at 27 amp. Apparently you have the blessing of the Nissan on this one.
 
Evoforce said:
EVDRIVER said:
You don’t want to do that. Bottom line is it has a 30A pilot signal on 240v and the LEAF draws 27a. The unit must be used on a 14-50 and Nissan should never state a dryer, just shows how misinformed they are as usual.

A dryer in the US is 30 amp 240 volts with 10 gauge wire (usually). Yes technically, it should be a charge drawing no more than 24 amp continuous, but (I) would still do it at 27 amp. You also have the blessing of the Nissan.
What do you mean by the bolded part? The plug is a NEMA 14-50.
 
cwerdna said:
Evoforce said:
EVDRIVER said:
You don’t want to do that. Bottom line is it has a 30A pilot signal on 240v and the LEAF draws 27a. The unit must be used on a 14-50 and Nissan should never state a dryer, just shows how misinformed they are as usual.

A dryer in the US is 30 amp 240 volts with 10 gauge wire (usually). Yes technically, it should be a charge drawing no more than 24 amp continuous, but (I) would still do it at 27 amp. You also have the blessing of the Nissan.
What do you mean by the bolded part? The plug is a NEMA 14-50.

Well, I build adapters similar to the dryer buddy but the inlet to the box and both outlets are 30 amp twist lock. The ON-OFF-ON switch is 30 amp also. Then you can make the pigtails for whatever 240 inlets and outlets that you want based on your dryer plug, your wall outlet, and your EVSE. The box itself is a great portable unit also.

There are also single molded cords that have the female 14-50 end, with male various dryer style ends available. It seem as though Nissan (at least at this point) expects us to use 3rd party adapters because they don't seem to offer one yet.
 
There is no adapter from a 14-50 that is going to be useful, on the Nissan cord except to a another 50A outlet. You can't go from a 14-50 to a lower amp outlet unless you are a irresponsible hack. Since the unit is rated at 30A it requires a 50 A outlet based on code and what is available after 40A. The unit will be at 120V when on the 120V side regardless of the adapter since the cord has no detection mode other than voltage. People that make adapters from 240V to 120V 5-15 plugs have should not be near anything electrical. The 5-15 plug is also not rated for 30A regardless although that is moot.
 
Evoforce said:
EVDRIVER said:
You don’t want to do that. Bottom line is it has a 30A pilot signal on 240v and the LEAF draws 27a. The unit must be used on a 14-50 and Nissan should never state a dryer, just shows how misinformed they are as usual.

A dryer in the US is 30 amp 240 volts with 10 gauge wire (usually). Yes technically, it should be a charge drawing no more than 24 amp continuous, but (I) would still do it at 27 amp. Apparently you have the blessing of the Nissan on this one.


This is an irresponsible stance for the record, the 24A rating is the continuous load rating of the outlet and the dryer outlets are often old and worn. In addition I can assure you that someone will plug the unit into a car that can draw the full 30A as well. Any adapter from a 50A to a 30A is also a complete hazard as someone will plug a 50A load into one of them at some point. Because Nissan marketing has the wrong wording on the site is no reason to imply this is acceptable or safe. There are so many reasons this is a bad idea and so many instances of history of this that it's really a poor position to suggest this. There are so many instances of people creating hazards making screw on type adapters that fail and using them to do things like this and the last thing we need is endorsing that type of behavior. You can do as you choose of course but please don't suggest this is safe or acceptable because there are large numbers of people that will do this and cobble together an adapter that will fail or use an outlet or device that can't safely handle the inappropriate load.
 
EVDRIVER said:
Evoforce said:
EVDRIVER said:
You don’t want to do that. Bottom line is it has a 30A pilot signal on 240v and the LEAF draws 27a. The unit must be used on a 14-50 and Nissan should never state a dryer, just shows how misinformed they are as usual.

A dryer in the US is 30 amp 240 volts with 10 gauge wire (usually). Yes technically, it should be a charge drawing no more than 24 amp continuous, but (I) would still do it at 27 amp. Apparently you have the blessing of the Nissan on this one.


This is an irresponsible stance for the record, the 24A rating is the continuous load rating of the outlet and the dryer outlets are often old and worn. In addition I can assure you that someone will plug the unit into a car that can draw the full 30A as well. Any adapter from a 50A to a 30A is also a complete hazard as someone will plug a 50A load into one of them at some point. Because Nissan marketing has the wrong wording on the site is no reason to imply this is acceptable or safe. There are so many reasons this is a bad idea and so many instances of history of this that it's really a poor position to suggest this. There are so many instances of people creating hazards making screw on type adapters that fail and using them to do things like this and the last thing we need is endorsing that type of behavior. You can do as you choose of course but please don't suggest this is safe or acceptable because there are large numbers of people that will do this and cobble together an adapter that will fail or use an outlet or device that can't safely handle the inappropriate load.

The circuit is over designed to allow headroom and the 30 amp breaker is the built-in fail-safe. Changing the wall permanent outlet was not suggested on my part. If the EVSE is in fact 27 amps, this is a mere 3 amps over. It is not ideal and generally not recommended but it is very close to parameters.

We are going to leave it because it appears... however, the car manufacturer is instructing to do so.
 
Evoforce said:
however, the car manufacturer is instructing to do so.
Where is Nissan telling people to plug a 240 volt 30 amp EVSE with NEMA 14-50 plug which could have up to a 30 amp continuous load into a 30 amp circuit via adapters, in violation of NEC?
 
cwerdna said:
Evoforce said:
however, the car manufacturer is instructing to do so.
Where is Nissan telling people to plug a 240 volt 30 amp EVSE with NEMA 14-50 plug into a 30 amp circuit via adapters, in violation of NEC?

I haven't seen it myself, but what I gather from this thread, Nissan somewhere in the instructions is telling people that they can plug their 2018 EVSE into a dryer outlet. Usually, the only way that can be accomplished is with an adapter. Also, since I haven't see the paperwork, I have read in this post that the draw is 27 amps using said 2018 EVSE. If those are the facts, that is what I responded to. And yep, it is 3 amps over the recommended 24 amp continuous load rating. It would be great if the charge cord were adjustable (Tesla) but it sounds like it is not. I personally prefer a dedicated circuit for an EVSE instead of sharing with a dryer.
 
Evoforce said:
cwerdna said:
Evoforce said:
however, the car manufacturer is instructing to do so.
Where is Nissan telling people to plug a 240 volt 30 amp EVSE with NEMA 14-50 plug into a 30 amp circuit via adapters, in violation of NEC?

I haven't seen it myself, but what I gather from this thread, Nissan somewhere in the instructions is telling people that they can plug their 2018 EVSE into a dryer outlet. Usually, the only way that can be accomplished is with an adapter. Also, since I haven't see the paperwork, I have read in this post that the draw is 27 amps using said 2018 EVSE. If those are the facts, that is what I responded to. And yep, it is 3 amps over the recommended 24 amp continuous load rating. It would be great if the charge cord were adjustable (Tesla) but it sounds like it is not. I personally prefer a dedicated circuit for an EVSE instead of sharing with a dryer.
From the '18 Leaf PDF manual I downloaded while ago from https://owners.nissanusa.com/nowners/navigation/manualsGuide, I see this on pages CH-24 and CH-25
• The NISSAN Genuine L1 &L2 EVSE
draws 30 amps continuously while
charging the Li-ion battery with AC
220–240 volt outlet.Do not plug in to
any electrical circuit unless it is inspected
by a qualified electrician to
confirm that the electrical circuit can
accept a 30 amp draw.
...
Only charge using a standard AC 220
- 240 volt, 50A dedicated electrical
outlet (for example, do not use an
electric generator). Failure to do so
maycause charging to fail and could
cause damage to the vehicle or the
EVSE due to power surges.
...
Normal charge (AC 220-240 volt) by L1 &
L2 EVSE is performed using an AC 220 -
240 volt, 50A dedicated electrical outlet
using the L1 & L2 EVSE provided with the
vehicle.
(Sorry about the spacing wonkiness. This is what I get when I copy from Adobe Reader.)
The only occurrences of the dryer in the manual are about using a hair dryer to melt a frozen chart part.

I also posted a picture of the label of the L1/L2 EVSE I saw at a Leaf EVent at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=520123#p520123.
 
On page three the first poster it looks like pasted a passage from what I interpreted as an instruction manual. Thanks for being helpful an providing information to the thread,
 
Evoforce said:
On page three the first poster it looks like pasted a passage from what I interpreted as an instruction manual.
Apparently not, but I found a place that has such a passage:
https://www.nissanusa.com/buildyour...rtable-charge-cable-(120-V-240-V)/Performance

Also archived at https://web.archive.org/web/2018022...rtable-charge-cable-(120-V-240-V)/Performance. (Folks should do their duty by submitting pages to http://archive.org/web/ as I've asked for at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=9553.)
 
cwerdna said:
Evoforce said:
On page three the first poster it looks like pasted a passage from what I interpreted as an instruction manual.
Apparently not, but I found a place that has such a passage:
https://www.nissanusa.com/buildyour...rtable-charge-cable-(120-V-240-V)/Performance

Also archived via at https://web.archive.org/web/2018022...rtable-charge-cable-(120-V-240-V)/Performance. (Folks should do their duty by submitting pages to http://archive.org/web/ as I've asked for at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=9553.)

That is very informative and helpful. Thank you!
 
Portable charge cable (120 V/240 V)

Plug in for a Level 2 charge at home, no charger box installation required, with the new 240 V cable. Using the same plug as your home dryer, you can charge the all-new Nissan LEAF. Or, in a pinch, plug directly in to a regular electrical outlet for a 120 V trickle charge.

Someone is going to sue them about this eventually when they plug into a low amperage dryer circuit and a fire starts.
 
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