EV general discussion

Buffman said:
Trying to decide if I want a "decorative" untethered EV charger or a less nice looking tethered one. It's between these 3 I think ;


Simpson and Partner EV Chargers | The benchmark in EV charging

Ultimate performance, intelligence and timeless craftsmanship. Built to last a lifetime and Octopus Intelligent GO compatibility.
simpson-partners.com simpson-partners.com

https://www.hypervolt.co.uk/

https://andersen-ev.com/pages/andersen-quartz
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I reckon the best charger is one that has software that integrates seamlessly with your energy provider. So far for me (early days yet) octopus/ohme home pro has worked perfectly with the variable charging schedule.

You just want to be able to plug it it, click charge and not worry about anything.
 
esmozz said:
I reckon the best charger is one that has software that integrates seamlessly with your energy provider. So far for me (early days yet) octopus/ohme home pro has worked perfectly with the variable charging schedule.

You just want to be able to plug it it, click charge and not worry about anything.
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Something I wish I’d known about before I got my charger installed - never mind, hopefully Octopus will get round to working with pod-point at some point in the future!
 
Demon said:
Tethered every time, much more convenient, the problem is getting one that looks neat with the cable wound up.. this is primarily why I went with Hypervolt, much more compact/neat looking over a Zappi, much cheaper than an Anderson and can almost full hide it's cable (just the socket end showing) quite well..

Hypervolt have been very active developing all the main integrations with the energy companies, but they are slow upgrading us older hardware people to the latest software and no one knows what the future will bring.. A lot of installers like Hypervolt as well, although that can be a fad and things can change.
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Can you turn off the ridiculous RGB lighting on the hypervolt? My neighbours had one installed a couple of weeks ago, and it looks like a teenage PC gaming nerd's wet dream (I guess this is the wrong place to main about that huh? :p)

TBH I don't mind, except it screams to any passing scumbag "come nick my cable"
 
Haggisman said:
Can you turn off the ridiculous RGB lighting on the hypervolt? My neighbours had one installed a couple of weeks ago, and it looks like a teenage PC gaming nerd's wet dream (I guess this is the wrong place to main about that huh? :p)

TBH I don't mind, except it screams to any passing scumbag "come nick my cable"
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Yep, turned mine off as soon as it was installed. There's even options in the app to have it flashing themes like Christmas/Union flag/Halloween/some other guff.
 
Out of those 3 I’d say the hypervolt because it’s the only one that is tethered and doesn’t cost £1000 of the Anderson.

It also supports octopus intelligent go and Ovo any time.

The Simpson looks nice but dealing with the cable will get old and almost all non-tethered chargers I see out in the wild have the cable plugged in Ona semi permanent basis after a few weeks.

TDLT buy one with the cable attached.
 
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tom_e said:
Personally I went tethered because I think having to unroll/roll up/pack away/store somewhere my charging cable every time I got home or left the house would get old really quickly.
Then again if you're only going to need to charge once a week or if you're not crawling out of the car after a two hour drive home from work after getting up at 4am it's less of an issue :D
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Ah seems like the majority think tethered! Id probably only need to charge once a week or so though

jpaul said:
Makes sense now to consider one of the chargers octopus promoting in the posted V2G publicity, that will allow firmware upgrade to support that.
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I think it invalidates tesla warranty if you use vehicle to grid so I want to avoid that.

b0rn2sk8 said:
Out of those 3 I’d say the hypervolt because it’s the only one that is tethered and doesn’t cost £1000 of the Anderson.

It also supports octopus intelligent go and Ovo any time.

The Simpson looks nice but dealing with the cable will get old and almost all non-tethered chargers I see out in the wild have the cable plugged in Ona semi permanent basis after a few weeks.

TDLT buy one with the cable attached.
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TDLT?

seems like majority are pushing tethered!
 
I like the idea and design of the Anderson unit that is tethered but you wrap it inside the box. Shouldn't get as dirty or as exposed like the usual wrap around cables but not sure it's worth premium.
 
Mysterae_ said:
I like the idea and design of the Anderson unit that is tethered but you wrap it inside the box. Shouldn't get as dirty or as exposed like the usual wrap around cables but not sure it's worth premium.
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what are you planning to do with the cable? ;)

my tethered zappi is 18 months old i think and the cable is still clean. even if not its 10 seconds with a wet cloth to sort.
that said i can see the attraction of tetherless if you only charge once a week. we have 2 EVs one we charge 2 - 3 times a week weather depending and one i charge 2 or 3 times a month so we need tethered. Both have their use cases.
 
I have a socketed BP chargemaster, I went socketed because at the time there were still a few type-1 cars knocking around, but looking back I would have been better going tethered.

The socketed one looks tidier (although it's 7 years old now, so the plastic is yellowing and it generally looks a bit tatty :(), but it is a bit of a pain needing to get the cable out/put it away when I need to charge (although we're talking ~30 seconds here).

Go tethered, and don't get a white one!
 
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esmozz said:
I reckon the best charger is one that has software that integrates seamlessly with your energy provider. So far for me (early days yet) octopus/ohme home pro has worked perfectly with the variable charging schedule.

You just want to be able to plug it it, click charge and not worry about anything.
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You actually click Charge?
My Zappi is covered up, I just plug the cable in and iGo does everything.
I've never had to look at the Zappi or software since the day it was installed, we obviously look at the schedule for cheap washing/tumble dryer.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
You actually click Charge?
My Zappi is covered up, I just plug the cable in and iGo does everything.
I've never had to look at the Zappi or software since the day it was installed, we obviously look at the schedule for cheap washing/tumble dryer.
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As in on the Ohme app. I daresay it's possible to start an automatic charge to a set amount upon plugin. But clicking a button in the app is not particularly onerous.

I believe your referring to the capability between your car and your charger. Some chargers can talk to the cars from some manufacturers (to communicate the amount of charge needed) but not others. My car doesn't, so I tell it to charge, say 25%. The onus is on the manufacturer to provide the software to do this so I guess BYD will get round to it at some point.

I'd say it would be going a bit far to say pick a car based on the capability between the car and the charger.
 
Buffman said:
I think it invalidates tesla warranty if you use vehicle to grid so I want to avoid that.
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thought tesla were rumoured to have a firmware locked invertor in the car to support v2g, but anyway you don't have to use that capability,
future proofing of having support for the british standard that corresponds to that functionality is useful -
their chargers also seem to have 5 year warranty (but maybe they all do)
 
Mysterae_ said:
I like the idea and design of the Anderson unit that is tethered but you wrap it inside the box. Shouldn't get as dirty or as exposed like the usual wrap around cables but not sure it's worth premium.
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We have an Andersen and an Ohme Pro and we now always use the Ohme due to its integration with IOG. I don't even bother to change the cars on the Ohme app, just plug in either of them and the IOG scheduling just works, every time. The Andersen is great to hide the cable but to be perfectly honest I would go with integration over looks all day long.
 
gailjon said:
We have an Andersen and an Ohme Pro and we now always use the Ohme due to its integration with IOG. I don't even bother to change the cars on the Ohme app, just plug in either of them and the IOG scheduling just works, every time. The Andersen is great to hide the cable but to be perfectly honest I would go with integration over looks all day long.
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You could always stick the unit itself in a meter cupboard, or figure out some other 3rd party solution to store the cable :)
 
SexyGreyFox said:
You actually click Charge?
My Zappi is covered up, I just plug the cable in and iGo does everything.
I've never had to look at the Zappi or software since the day it was installed, we obviously look at the schedule for cheap washing/tumble dryer.
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Actually my bad - I have to approve the plug in as I've got it set up that way. The charger starts charging automatically when plugged in. Only had it a week so still getting used to it.

The only thing I do is set the amount of charge required based on what left in the battery but I suspect I don't even need to do this as it's an LFP battery so is normally charged to 100%. The car will stop accepting charge when its full.

I think that's right as it hasn't caught fire yet.
 
esmozz said:
The only thing I do is set the amount of charge required based on what left in the battery but I suspect I don't even need to do this as it's an LFP battery so is normally charged to 100%.
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I've only charged mine once to 100% since last September, mine is set to 80%.
Since 2010 I've only ever charged my eBike batteries to 90% and same with my phones.
Best get advice off other people who know better..
 
SexyGreyFox said:
I've only charged mine once to 100% since last September, mine is set to 80%.
Since 2010 I've only ever charged my eBike batteries to 90% and same with my phones.
Best get advice off other people who know better..
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Depend on the battery type. If it's NMC then 80%, occasionally 100%. If LFP it's designed to be charged to 100% each cycle and needs to be regularly charged to that for correct calibration.
 
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