Trying to contact Rob43

What Rob was offering was a simple pigtail. He used it to plug the original equipment Prime charge cord into a 240 volt outlet. All you need is a standard NEMA 5-15 120 volt connector (that's the female end of an extension cord). You need a short length of 12-3 extension cord type electrical cord. You need a 240 volt plug in the same configuration as the 240 volt receptacle you or your electrician wires into place for the charge cord. Because the 120 volt connector will actually be carrying 240 volt juice, I'd tape it to the plug on the original charge cord so it would not look like a convenient 120 volt source, and something plugged into it would go...boom.

Rob was sure that the original Prime charge cord was suitable for 240 volts even though the label on the back says 120 volts.

Are there any Level 2 charging stations that are problematic? I haven't heard of any. For the Prime you can use any amperage from 20 amps and up. The charger in the car communicates with the smart power supply on the charge station to tell how much amperage to send. You can have the electrician wire the charge station directly to the new cable (hard wired) or install a 240 volt receptacle and you get a matching plug on your new charge station. If there is a 240 volt laundry dryer nearby, you can plug into that receptacle. The Level 2 charge stations start at about $200 and go up in price. Add the cost of installing the new circuit. The only advantage is that your Prime will fully recharge in a little over 2 hours rather than more than 5 hours. For most of us it's not worth the cost.

 

all you need is a 240v outlet, and plug adapter

if you want an L2 unit, get the cheapest one possible, unless connectivity is desired

 

His profile information shows that Rob43 was last on here about a year ago.

 

Plug adapters are sold on eBay etc.

 

If you're looking for a pigtail, @burnout8488 made one that I bought several years ago.

Here's what it looks like installed:



50 amp line run to the junction box and 20 amp to the outlet.

Ready for an upgrade .

 

The easiest way is to make one yourself. All you need are a male 240 V plug, a female 120 V plug, a short piece of a three-conductor heavy-gauge wire, a screwdriver, a knife or such, and minimal electrical skills.

 

I used to have this mindset until I saw people having problems with these cheap EVSEs:

MUSTART CHARGERS DAMAGING CARS | Chevy Bolt EV Forum

Charger stuck--will not pull out of vehicle | 2017+ Chrysler Pacifica Minivan Forums

Charge port damage no warranty didn't use "Kia Factory Approved Charger" | Inside EVS Forum

 

You can easily make a cable adapter yourself by buying a couple of plugs and a piece of cable from a hardware store. Using a short piece of a three-conductor heavy-wire-gauge cable, connect the ground terminal of the male 240 V plug to the ground terminal of the female 120 V plug with the green/yellow wire, and connect the two live terminals on the male 240 V plug to the live (black wire) and neutral (white wire) terminals on the female 120 V plug, and you're set! (Leave the neutral terminal on the male 240 V plug not connected.) Of course, this adapter should not be used with anything except for the Toyota OEM charger, as it could fry most other things; so, make sure to tape a huge warning label on it saying that the voltage is 240 V despite the 120 V female plug!

 

Many 250 volt plugs do not have a neutral pole, both straight blade and twist lock. Those rated 125/250 volt do have the neutral.

250 volt wiring devices are designed for 240 volt power. 125 volt wiring devices are for 120 volt power. That's how they write the spec.

 

Such an adapter is definitely not made to the code. That's why you cannot buy one and you should make one yourself or have someone else (like @Rob43) make it for you.

 

The concept is right but the charger in the car communicates with the charge station to determine how much amperage is safe for the car to draw based on the charge station's wiring. This allows the car to load up at a high current charge station that may have heavy #6 awg wiring and reduce its load to a charge station that may have lighter #12 awg wiring. The in car charger is varying the current draw.

 

Rob43 built one for me last year ($49 shipped), but I sold my Prime. His description: "a dual 14-30 / 14-50 adapter. The bottom pin is redundant, so by removing it, it allows you to plug into both 14-30 and 14-50 outlets." PM me an offer

 

Amazon has a version with a 3 pin dryer plug that provides 240v on the output receptacle for $49. They also sell "evdoubler" which offers a group of similar cables with different 3 and 4 pin input plugs for $89. Just because they are available does not make them code compliant.

In every case, including rob43's versions, these are considered a misuse of the common 120v household receptacle by placing 240v on its output. Which may be why he is not promoting them now. They are a liability. Not necessarily from the ability of the household 120v connector to carry 240v but from the incorrect application that voids the UL label. If this cable or any cable like it caused a normal 120v appliance to ignite and cause a fire, an insurance company could deny the claim.

So spending $200 or so to buy an appropriate 240v charging station could be money well spent down the line.

 

There you go, OP. I didn't know they were sold on Amazon. This is an alternative to @Rob43. Here is the storefront:

EVDoctor (David R. Ahlgren in Carlsbad, California) storefront on Amazon

 

Using the factory EVSE on 240V is not exactly like a true 240V EVSE. The factory EVSE will only deliver up to 12A at whatever voltage, but if you use an EVSE with a higher rating, as most 240V Level 2 units are, the charger in the car will accept up to 16A, with the proportionately faster (16/12 = 4/3 times) charging.

Edit: some folks have reported that when they put their 2021 EVSE on 240V, they were getting 16A charging.
How Often are you doing a Prime Traction Battery 120v Recharge | Page 5 | PriusChat

 

Yes, it is 12 A max for the OEM charger for both 120 V and 240 V charging. You can also set it to 8 A using the vehicle settings if your circuit has a current limitation or you prefer slower charging.

However, using a ChargePoint Level 2 station, I have never seen anywhere close to 16 A—the typical current being about 13.5 A. Therefore, you see only a ~ 13.5/12 − 1 = 12.5% improvement, which is fairly insignificant.

 

charging time will tell you everything you need to know

 

Curious. On my Chargepoint Home charger, I normally get a 3.6kW charging rate, which is 15A at 240V. I measured the voltage. The charging rate is as reported by the Chargepoint app. Are you actually measuring 13.5A, or are you measuring kW and assuming 240V to get the amps? Just wondering where the discrepancy could come from. A lot of commercial charging sites use 208V, which is what you get between two legs of a 3-phase circuit. When I charge at commercial Chargepoint stations, I often see 3.2kW. 3.2kW at 208V is 15.4A. I am assuming a power factor of 1, which I think is appropriate for chargers, so watts = volts times amps.