Level 2 charging for 5-7 hours outdoors in the rain

For those that are concerned and afraid of water, at least build a carport if you don't have a garage to install the charger in.

GlennD said:

Many of the Chinese EVSE's lack GFCI protection. As long as everything is OK they work fine but they lack the full J1772 specs.

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Then don't use a cheap Chinese EVSE if you have to charge in the rain...

lorenfb said:

That's your view! And you rely on Nissan's extensively testing that the car's system always just stops charging with no internal failures, right?

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I trust that the engineered systems that run the world will work properly when used in their intended conditions. If you can't, then why use any of it? Might as well live in a cabin.

I assembled my level 2 EVSE and understand how it works. If there's a ground fault, it will shut down.
I charge in rain that brings several inches and snow storms that have brought a foot and a half of snow. The only time I've ever had a problem was when I was trying to charge off the back of the house with a long extension cord and the 120V EVSE. It started raining really bad and the GFI on the house tripped because the EVSE and extension cord were laying in some really tall, wet grass.

I agree that it would suck to have the car stop charging when I needed it to be charged in the morning.

If you are really worried, park the car in your living room.....

I have never seen a bad seal on a working EVSE. I have purchased from eBay a cable with a bad seal. It was fixed before installing in a EVSE. It was just a matter of seating the seal.

Hi all, thank you for your comments in this thread. Very helpful for this newbie who just bought his first EV, 2016 S 24Kwh with 40,000 miles and 86% SOH. (Says LeafSpy Pro and Veepeak BLE)
We drove it 50 miles from the dealership in Connecticut up to western MA, lots of steep hills but also noticeable re-genning on the way down. Fun! I was driving somewhat conservatively and in ECO because I wanted to make sure we got home but still 50-60 mph most of the way.
Halfway home downpour complete with lighting bolts striking all around. Good omen. So half the trip in heavy rain..
We arrived with 14 miles left in the tank. GOM had said 78 when we left.

the granny charger that came with the vehicle is plugged into the outside 120 V outlet on our house. No garage. No carport. It’s plugged into a heavy duty extension cord. I’m going to wrap/tape that with plastic in case it rains.

Here at last, my questions:

First question, should I not plug the granny charger into an extension cord, even a heavy duty one like mine which I think is 14 GA?
Second question, is it a no no to lay the granny on the ground? (Sorry granny it’s nothing personal.)
Third question, is dear old granny waterproof? If I wrap her in plastic will that create some kind of off-gas problem?
Fourth question, should I really just avoid trying to charge this way or am I being over cautious?

Thanks for any advice, I will charge at the local level 2 whenever I can, but it’s a local food coop so not much help there. And it was full this morning. I live in the country but lots of NYC covid escapees moved up this summer so many EVs now in town.

I am going to install a lvl 2 here asap, but for the meantime it’s trickle charging.

You need, at a minimum, a 12 gauge extension cord, an outlet that is not in any way worn or marginal, and a circuit feeding that outlet that has 1500 watts free. Protect the "brick" with a plastic box, and waterproof the connections. I suggest a plastic rain cover for the outlet.

Agree on the 12G for the extension cord, of course 10G is the best but 12G is adequate too, 14G is too minimal for longterm charging.
In the rain I've covered my OEM EVSE with a plastic bag and put it on something to keep it off the ground. Anything would be OK as long as it's non-conductive(plastic box, Rubbermaid tote, etc.) and keeps it off the ground by 4?" If using an extension cord I also like to cover the plugs as well but as the cord to the EVSE is very short, the same piece of plastic could cover both. No out-gassing but the EVSE can get a little warm so best to not cover it with something like a blanket, same for the cord, best to not coil it up, especially when it's hot out.

Thank you both, that really helps.
I charged it today for the first time at my local food coop. About 3 hrs at home from a standard plug w/the granny, and 1.6 hrs lvl 2 local station.
The OBD says I went from 22% SOC to 88.5%. That surprised me, I was hoping for about 30%.
I have the charge package (6.6 kwh rate) but isn’t that only for CHademo?

The charge package includes the faster 6.6kw onboard charger. The S comes with a slow 3.3kw OBC otherwise.

LeftieBiker said:

The charge package includes the faster 6.6kw onboard charger. The S comes with a slow 3.3kw OBC otherwise.

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Thanks Leftie, was wondering if that meant that lvl 2 would charge the car faster...or is it only CHademo that pulls the 6.6kw?

The upgrade to 6.6kw affects ONLY L-2 charging speed. L-1 is slow enough to be the same speed with both on-board chargers, and DC Fast Charge bypasses the car's onboard charger.

Leafman7 said:

Thank you both, that really helps.
I charged it today for the first time at my local food coop. About 3 hrs at home from a standard plug w/the granny, and 1.6 hrs lvl 2 local station.
The OBD says I went from 22% SOC to 88.5%. That surprised me, I was hoping for about 30%.
I have the charge package (6.6 kwh rate) but isn’t that only for CHademo?

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With a 24kW Leaf and the upgraded charger yours has and plugged into a 30a EVSE you should be getting around 30%/hr. Now you said you were plugged in for about 1.5h on the L2, that should give you around 45% and 3h on your L1 might give you 15%? for a total of 60%. Now it sounds like you gained 66.5% so thats pretty close and if your battery is degraded a bit that will also give you slightly higher % gained/hr as your battery won't hold as much as new. All in all things sound about right.

Jjeff, thank you! When I looked at the car I didn’t pay much attention to the chg package. But I did notice on the dash during the test drive that it had the 6.6kw rate and remembered LeftieBiker saying that was a good thing to look for. That was in his Buying Used Leaf Guide (anybody shopping used should definitely study that guide!), so thanks again Leftie!

And with the free level 2 charging at our local food store 1.5 miles away, I’m really happy to have that pkg.

Leafman7 said:

Jjeff, thank you! When I looked at the car I didn’t pay much attention to the chg package. But I did notice on the dash during the test drive that it had the 6.6kw rate and remembered LeftieBiker saying that was a good thing to look for. That was in his Buying Used Leaf Guide (anybody shopping used should definitely study that guide!), so thanks again Leftie!

And with the free level 2 charging at our local food store 1.5 miles away, I’m really happy to have that pkg.

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Yes it's very nice to get twice the charge in the same amount of time, especially when it's free
It not critical when charging at home and your not in a hurry but it is nice to be able to hook up to your charger at home and 2hrs later go from 40% to almost full. My wife calls our 32a EVSE a "quick charger" even though of course it's not the traditional QC it is quite quick even compared to our other 16 or even 20a L2 chargers. Of course our 2012 Leaf maxes out at 16a @ 240v so it gains nothing on our "quick charge" charger.