It was over 65F today and I couldn't resist driving my EV, so this morning I hooked up my laptop and drove 12.9 miles and didn't get a single low battery warning! I have also found that the extension cable I use to charge can't handle anymore than 10 AMPs continuously, so the end that plugs into my EV kinda burned out. I usually charge at 12.5 AMPs when I am at home and the connections end has been warm and slowly cooking itself. I have been using a 50 ft 12/3 cable that has a rating of 15 AMPs, but clearly it can't handle it, so I got my Dad's heavy duty 10/3 50 ft cable and it stay cold giving out 12.5 AMPs!
Here is my EV with the huge cord plugged in. It barely fits into the socket on the EV, but does a nice job. However, I still needed to replace my bad cable, so I hopped into my EV this afternoon and drove down to the hardware store and got it exchanged. I usually refrain from going any where in my ICE because it cost me gas money, but with my EV fully functioning I didn't think twice. My only concern was what music to listen too. :)
I now have two power cables, the big yellow one that sits at home and my smaller red one that now lives in the EV. This actually works well for me because now I don't have to fish out the cable from the basement every time I want to drive the EV somewhere and charge it.
2 comments:
Hey Dave,
It sounds like the stock connector on that 12/3 cord is just crap. Take a trip to Home Depot or Lowes and get a high quality Cooper or Leviton cord end. You should be able to carry 20A easily through a 12/3 cord. I have pulled 17A through 250ft of 12/3 cord before without it getting hot....It all comes down to the resistance in the connectors.
-Adam
I looked at a few plugs, but none were water proof. I did get the cable exchanged, but I still might search for better connectors.
The connectors were a gel type that were clear and had a small light built in. When it got warm I could play with it like Jello, so it wasn't a very strong rubber/gel thing.
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