Anyone used SimplyWork EVSE with a load controller?

Alarmingly cheap, indeed. Simplywork may have a prominent Canadian flag on their website, but it doesn’t appear that they’ve obtained a CSA certification, UL Canada listing, or any other safety agency approvals for the product you mentioned, for which—in all probability—they’re merely the importers.

They write, “All the key components are UL or CE certified,” but that really isn’t the same as having had the product, as a whole, evaluated to the tri-national Standard for Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment, published as UL 2594 in the U.S., CSA C22.2 No. 280-16 in Canada, and NMX-J-677-ANCE-2016 in Mexico. (You can view the entire standard at no charge, after registering, on UL’s website.)

 

Using a switch (contactor, timer, load controller, circuit breaker, etc.) is unlikely to damage the EVSE or the car—they have to be designed for power outages, after all—but you might prefer to use the car’s built-in scheduling feature instead. Search PriusChat for Prime timer to see previous discussions.

If you do use a switch, be sure it’s rated for the voltage and current, of course, and that it and the EVSE are installed in accordance with their manufacturers’ instructions.

 

It's easy if you consistently get home with no EV range left. You know it takes about two hours to charge from zero. You hopefully also know that charging slows as the battery gets close to 100% So, if you want to leave with, say 60%, set the timer to start one hour before departure time. Play with the timing to fine tune it. It'll be no more inaccurate than using a load controller and won't cost a dime.

Another more flexible free option is to use your own timer and get up and go out there and unplug it when the timer dings. Very few of us get enough steps as it is. I do that a LOT because sometimes I know I'm just going to run a local errand. The battery has some charge but not enough. If I figure to need about 20 minutes of charge, I plug in the car and then long press the crown on my watch and say, "Start a timer for 20 minutes." And in 20 minutes, my watch dings and I get up off my lazy keister and go unplug my car. (It really is a lazy keister, too, so it needs chores like that. LOL! )

However, if the battery is cold enough, the ICE will come on anyway if it can't take the regeneration from the slope fast enough.

 

Ah! Well, if you already have it and it'll handle water heater current, it should be fine with a Prime.