Should I wire a welder plug up to handle an EV?

[mike93lx]

I have always thought that these type of set ups would be smart. Not endorsing a brand.

I'd be a little concerned about the quality of the receptacle, but the setup is convenient and I believe the breaker is gfci already.

I feel that if you are doing the mid/higher charge rates (32-48a), that you should just go hardwire. Leave the plug for the more compact evse's that will actually get moved around or kept with the car

 

[mm08822]

I'd be a little concerned about the quality of the receptacle, but the setup is convenient and I believe the breaker is gfci already.

I feel that if you are doing the mid/higher charge rates (32-48a), that you should just go hardwire. Leave the plug for the more compact evse's that will actually get moved around or kept with the car

These are a typical rv panel. Only the 125v20a recept is gfci protected.

The 50a cb would at least need to changed to gfci. The 14-50r may need to be replaced w/ev rated if you were charging at 40a.

The TT-30 would need to be removed or change cb to gfci.
If the product was offered with these tweaks it would be a decent sub-panel offering with the evse crowd.

 

[mike93lx]

These are a typical rv panel. Only the 125v20a recept is gfci protected.

The 50a cb would at least need to changed to gfci. The 14-50r may need to be replaced w/ev rated if you were charging at 40a.

The TT-30 would need to be removed or change cb to gfci.
If the product was offered with these tweaks it would be a decent sub-panel offering with the evse crowd.

Ah, my bad. Was thinking the whole thing had gfci protection for some reason

 

[wyliesdiesels]

the one experience i had was at a friends home, they had an electrician do a panel replacement and run a circuit for an EV charger, tesla in this case, they then installed a wall mount charger and just added a cord to plug it in, since its in a garage the outlet was protected with a GFCI breaker, the tesla charger has built in ground fault protection and will run a self test, when it does that it would constantly trip the GFCI breaker.

those are supposed to be hardwired to prevent that issue

 

[75gmck25]

I hardwired my Chargepoint EV charger (mounted on wall next to driveway) because then it used the EV charger's built-in GFCI protection. If I had used a plug-in EV charger I would have needed a 240 volt GFCI breaker.

 

[BroncoAZ]

I would run a 60 amp capable circuit, EVSE’s are better hardwired and draw 48 amps. With the 125% rule you need a 60 amp circuit to support it. I would future proof it if the cost was reasonable.

We have two EV’s that share one 48 amp charger, works great for us.

 

[mike93lx]

I would run a 60 amp capable circuit, EVSE’s are better hardwired and draw 48 amps. With the 125% rule you need a 60 amp circuit to support it. I would future proof it if the cost was reasonable.

We have two EV’s that share one 48 amp charger, works great for us.

Ev's can draw 48a but do not need to.

 

[AA/FC]

As for the original topic of this thread.... Both of the 6-50r welding outlets in my shop were installed with #6 THHN on 50 amp breakers. I did the work myself 20+ years ago. I know you can legally run smaller wire on welding circuits but I figured true 50amp outlets would be good to have... (not sure why. lol) Now here we are, 20 years later and I can easily install an EV charger in my shop without having to modify anything. I future proofed myself for EVs and I didn't even know it. Wire was much cheaper and EV's weren't even a thought back then. lol.

 

[BroncoAZ]

Ev's can draw 48a but do not need to.

Correct, but I noticed a major difference in charging speed trying to use the 30 amp charger included with my Lightning at my buddy’s place in VT, I ended up leaving the truck there overnight to actually get a full charge. I would recommend those installing give themselves the additional capacity even if charging at less than 48a, seems better to have the wires running at a lower percentage of capacity to reduce heat. If I were doing it again I’d have gone #4 THNN instead of #6. My electrician didn’t want to run the #4 and already had #6 in the truck, so that’s what I got. I had him drop and additional 50 amp with the same #6 for my welder that I could turn into a second EVSE hardwire if needed, just remove the GFCI breaker.

I have the Tesla set to charge at 32 amps at home since we typically charge it 30-70% a couple times a week, usually done in ~5 hours. My Ford Lightning doesn’t have such a setting and eats the max amp setting of the charger. If charging it 30-85% it will take about 8-9 hours, at 32 amps it would be 12-13 hours.

 

[mike93lx]

Correct, but I noticed a major difference in charging speed trying to use the 30 amp charger included with my Lightning at my buddy’s place in VT, I ended up leaving the truck there overnight to actually get a full charge. I would recommend those installing give themselves the additional capacity even if charging at less than 48a, seems better to have the wires running at a lower percentage of capacity to reduce heat. If I were doing it again I’d have gone #4 THNN instead of #6. My electrician didn’t want to run the #4 and already had #6 in the truck, so that’s what I got. I had him drop and additional 50 amp with the same #6 for my welder that I could turn into a second EVSE hardwire if needed, just remove the GFCI breaker.

I have the Tesla set to charge at 32 amps at home since we typically charge it 30-70% a couple times a week, usually done in ~5 hours. My Ford Lightning doesn’t have such a setting and eats the max amp setting of the charger. If charging it 30-85% it will take about 8-9 hours, at 32 amps it would be 12-13 hours.

To be fair, the frequency that most people will run down to the 30% level and need the full 70-85% the next day is probably quite low.

My father did 100ish mile daily commutes in a kona ev and didn't even plug in ever day with a charger that was running at either 16 or 24a (I think it was 16). We installed a 48a charger at his current house thinking that we might as well go all the way and I regret it. The cable is ridiculously heavy compared to his old setup and he drives even less now.

 

[BroncoAZ]

To be fair, the frequency that most people will run down to the 30% level and need the full 70-85% the next day is probably quite low.

My father did 100ish mile daily commutes in a kona ev and didn't even plug in ever day with a charger that was running at either 16 or 24a (I think it was 16). We installed a 48a charger at his current house thinking that we might as well go all the way and I regret it. The cable is ridiculously heavy compared to his old setup and he drives even less now.

I agree, but we choose to only plug in either vehicle 1-2x per week rather than every day. We only have the one charger for two cars. I understand about the heavy cable. The cable on my Gen 3 tesla charger is lighter than the one on my ChargePoint at the old house.

 

[75gmck25]

I have the Chargepoint 240 volt flex hardwired charger and in my opinion the charge cable is relatively lightweight. I have it on a 50 amp breaker and used 6 gauge wire, but its configured for 32 amps charging, which is the max for my Toyota RAV4 Prime.