Using 240V extension cord with mobile charger?

[Ricks Lightning]

Rick, what am I looking at (your digital display)?

Yes, it displays all the power parameters. including running time and total kwh. it can be reset every utility read to keep track of my business power charging from my home energy use.
$29.00 amazon. simple 2 wire plus 2 for the amp probe.

Rick

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[RickKeen]

Plugging it into 110v will help mitigate any possible cold issues, but won't necessarily charge the battery very much.

 

[Newton]

1. 50’ is way too long for any extension cord. If you insist, look for marine or rv grade stuff like Marinco and keep your amperage well under the cord’s rating. It isn’t just the cord, it is the outlet that is the issue. Good cords are about as expensive as a new outlet install.
2. If the breaker box is convenient to the truck, your electrician can install a NMEA 14-50 outlet quite easily. That is about 2/3 of the work of installing the EVSE itself so the work can be reused when they hardwire your EVSE.
3. I’m not recommending DIY for this but if you do, get it inspected and of course use good electricial safety practices which are well documented online.
4. I’m not experienced with the extreme cold but I think that you will be fine as far as battery health if you just plug into a 110V outlet. You might not get much charge but it will keep the battery happy.
5. When leaving the truck for a long time it is preferable to have the battery at 50%, so don’t stress about it being low.
6. Fast charging in cold weather is not as problematic as fast charging in hot weather (except that it is a lot slower because the battery has to be heated).
7. No matter what you do the truck will probably rust out from road salt before any of the “best practices” for the battery have any meaningful effect. We spend a lot of time talking about the absolute ideal thing to do for the batteries but that is like the debates over the benefits of synthetic motor oil. For most people it doesn’t matter.

 

[TaxmanHog]

It will be a few weeks before our charger is installed.

Is your electrician backed up with a lot of work and can't get to you until then?

 

[strahanjen]

Is your electrician backed up with a lot of work and can't get to you until then?

His work is done. We had to add new service to our detached garage and it’ll take 2-4 weeks for the electric company to connect the service up to the power line.

 

[Maquis]

Is your electrician backed up with a lot of work and can't get to you until then?

I think his electrician has completed his work. Waiting on the POCO.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Thanks everyone. Our electrician was here yesterday and installed a new 200 amp panel and the Charge point home flex hardwired charger in our detached garage. We’re waiting for the utility company to connect the new service to the power line.

Sorry, completely missed post 14

You're doing what I did with a second service line to our property powering our detached garage, it did take a couple weeks for all the bureaucrats from city hall to the engineering office at National Grid to sign off on the service connection, once that got done the field service manager scheduled a crew to get out quickly.

 

[potato]

It's fine. The cold doesn't hurt anything. It just slows everything down (speed of getting energy in and out of the battery). You'll be fine with fast charging. I park outside in northern BC, Canada for what it's worth. It does get chilly here.

 

[William Munny]

Plugging it into 110v will help mitigate any possible cold issues, but won't necessarily charge the battery very much.

I second this. I am on Long Island, so it is not nearly as cold here as it is by you, but I park my truck on the driveway and only plug into the regular outlet on very cold nights and it works for me. I don't plug in until 10 p.m. (super off peak) and unplug around 8 and get 25-30 miles per night. I don't know how much driving you do, but hopefully between that 25 miles a night and an occasional fast charge you should be ok.

 

[jeff_h]

I bought the below extension cord back in 2020 (found it in my Amazon history), it's only 25 feet but was all I needed and it was to reposition my L2 charger from one side of garage to the other... wow, I think it was $85-89 back then but now it's $123, quite a jump.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08211TMKM/

 

[srspring551]

Thanks everyone. Our electrician was here yesterday and installed a new 200 amp panel and the Charge point home flex hardwired charger in our detached garage. We’re waiting for the utility company to connect the new service to the power line. This can take 2-4 weeks. This truck doesn’t fit in the garage, so is parked on the driveway. I was worried about the alerts that I should keep the truck plugged in, because this is impossible for the time being and it will just get colder, with many nights in the single digits. It sounds like we can get by with just using the fast chargers until then? I work from home so don’t really have an easy way to park and leave the truck at a level 2 charger for long periods of time.

OK, we're back to this. If just keeping the truck plugged in (without doing Departure Times) does nothing, why does @Ford Motor Company display this alert? I mean, we assume the software engineers are pulling their hair out trying to make the UX and features better, but it is confusing...

 

[Runaway Tractor]

It keeps the truck ready to do karaoke.

 

[Grease Lightning]

So I will be that guy, get the extension cord if your future needs warrant it. Say, are you planning to use the Lightning as an emergency generator for when the utility is out? If so an extension cord may be in your future and a good purchase now.

While I am glad everyone learned basic electrical safety, yes you could technically replace the outlet to your dryer with an industrial plug and charge in the short term at 30 amps on a 30 amp circuit. The part you absolutely have to do is make sure you have your charge settings to never never ever let it charge up to the 3-hour threshold to be considered a continuous load and need the 120% over capacity for thermal protection to ensure your family and home stays safe that everyone is referring to.

In practice you would have to manually set your charge limit to about 10% higher than it is. Then let the system sit and return to ambient before allowing it to charge that long again. For your overnight cold weather protection, it generally will not run continuously, but rather cycles so that one would be harder to track.

All that comes with the huge caveat that you have to be responsible to make sure you don’t forget and turn your wiring into a fusible link.

For me, I would consider it if I needed it, but as others have said, 120v @ 12 amp and only use it in a pinch.

 

[TooManyToyz]

I live near luebri, and usually keep my Lightning plugged into a 120V outlet. However, at my shop I have been temporarily using a 75' 8/3 extension cord on a 30 amp breaker. My Grizzl-e is set to 24 amps. Nothing in the circuit ever exceeds 80f, which I consider acceptable.

 

[stickyfingers]

I purchased the following cord on sale from Amazon 2-years ago and use it at the cottage quite often. No issues. It's a heavy duty cable.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B085HNNQHD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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