Review of Lectron's NEMA 14-50 splitter (not compensated)

[carsly]

I suspect I'm not alone in expanding my EV fleet. That's the exciting part. Figuring out the charging situation at home? That's a little more complicated so I thought I'd share how I'm using a single NEMA 14-50 outlet to charge 2 EV's every evening without mastering the Olympic sports of Plug Juggling and Adapter Toss across the worlds of J1772 and NACS without breaking a sweat.



If you're just interested in the Lectron NEMA 14-50 splitter and don't want to watch the video I purchased it from Amazon here: https://amzn.to/4iZZbCU

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[portdirect]

Nice video: I find a pair of wallbox pulsars to be fantastic for this - they support being clamped to a maximum aggregate current draw - one less box and hard wiring FTW.

 

[mudito]

Please please please fix your cable management on your Teslas wall chargers... My OCD-meter went off-scale watching your video

 

[carsly]

Please please please fix your cable management on your Teslas wall chargers... My OCD-meter went off-scale watching your video

some days are neater than others. I should have looped them nicely for the video

 

[bigsky]

Even though Tesla-certified install of my 14-50 outlet in my previous home in addition to my Tesla wall charger, I got alerts two or three times indicating charging derated because outlet/charger cable connector getting very warm. Decided no, thanks.

I also see that this device is at 50 A, just 10 A less than a Tesla wall charger.

Have 2 Teslas and my R1S with a single Tesla wall charger also Tesla-certified install in my new place. No problems charging either of my 3 EVs, my R1S with a Lectron adapter. Leery of outlets. My electrical service is plenty big to accommodate even 3 Tesla wall chargers each to a dedicated 60 A breaker, but sharing one only does the job quite well.

 

[carsly]

Even though Tesla-certified install of my 14-50 outlet in my previous home in addition to my Tesla wall charger, I got alerts two or three times indicating charging derated because outlet/charger cable connector getting very warm. Decided no, thanks.

I also see that this device is at 50 A, just 10 A less than a Tesla wall charger.

Have 2 Teslas and my R1S with a single Tesla wall charger also Tesla-certified install in my new place. No problems charging either of my 3 EVs, my R1S with a Lectron adapter. Leery of outlets. My electrical service is plenty big to accommodate even 3 Tesla wall chargers each to a dedicated 60 A breaker, but sharing one only does the job quite well.

Thanks for sharing your setup!

It gets cold in NJ in the winters so I like keeping each EV on a plug if I can manage it. I have a hardwired Tesla universal wall connector, not shown in the video, behind the Model Y attached to the house. My challenge was my garage is on a sub-panel, 50 or 60 amps I forget which, so I'm limited to putting only one charger/outlet in the garage - ideally I'd hardwire two of them.

Yes, with today's EV's juggling one charger across three vehicles isn't really a big deal unless everyone has long daily commutes, it's just more convenience to have one charger per vehicle. If I had to replace the outlet with a hardwired connection I'd just attach one Tesla Universal Wall Connector and call it a day. But keeping the two online, sharing the one outlet, makes life a bit easier and I've got the vehicles set to only draw 32 amps from that NEMA 14-50 to keep heat down. My electrical inspector even suggested dropping the draw on the hardwired charger to 32 amps to keep heat down in the panel so that's what I've done - no issues so far and the vehicles charge in plenty of time off-peak.

 

[bigsky]

I did not watch your video yet. Thank you for posting it. I think this looks like a better solution because it seems to eliminate the plugging and unplugging with two outlets on it. Any utility rebates on it?

Funny, my Tesla-certified installer first started off wanting to install my Tesla okay wall connector derated to a 40 A breaker. I thought why bother buying something rated up to 48 A running at 32 A instead. Electrician changed it to a 60 A breaker (and stiffed me $200 for it), and whenever I checked it, breaker is never warm. Had my previous wall connector on a 60 A also. It never got warm, either. Whenever I checked, that is.

You do make a good point for having this when having long commutes and at least two EVs to charge!

 

[carsly]

I did not watch your video yet. Thank you for posting it. I think this looks like a better solution because it seems to eliminate the plugging and unplugging with two outlets on it. Any utility rebates on it?

Funny, my Tesla-certified installer first started off wanting to install my Tesla okay wall connector derated to a 40 A breaker. I thought why bother buying something rated up to 48 A running at 32 A instead. Electrician changed it to a 60 A breaker (and stiffed me $200 for it), and whenever I checked it, breaker is never warm. Had my previous wall connector on a 60 A also. It never got warm, either. Whenever I checked, that is.

You do make a good point for having this when having long commutes and at least two EVs to charge!

I should have noted eliminating the need to plug/unplug and outlet wear creating a risk factor.

I'll try to remember to take my IR thermometer to my panel where I have the hardwired charger and see if it's recording different temps when charging at 32 or 48 amps.

 

[beatle]

Thanks for sharing your setup!

It gets cold in NJ in the winters so I like keeping each EV on a plug if I can manage it. I have a hardwired Tesla universal wall connector, not shown in the video, behind the Model Y attached to the house. My challenge was my garage is on a sub-panel, 50 or 60 amps I forget which, so I'm limited to putting only one charger/outlet in the garage - ideally I'd hardwire two of them.

Yes, with today's EV's juggling one charger across three vehicles isn't really a big deal unless everyone has long daily commutes, it's just more convenience to have one charger per vehicle. If I had to replace the outlet with a hardwired connection I'd just attach one Tesla Universal Wall Connector and call it a day. But keeping the two online, sharing the one outlet, makes life a bit easier and I've got the vehicles set to only draw 32 amps from that NEMA 14-50 to keep heat down. My electrical inspector even suggested dropping the draw on the hardwired charger to 32 amps to keep heat down in the panel so that's what I've done - no issues so far and the vehicles charge in plenty of time off-peak.

You could have daisy chained another UWC off the existing one, or two. I replaced the 14-50R in my garage with a UWC and then ran a bit of wire to a second one for the outside. These share the same circuit so either one will charge at 40A, or split the current if two vehicles are charging.

When I ran my Tesla UMC on the 14-50, I never unplugged it, but the receptacle still melted after a little more than 2 years. This was a cheap Leviton receptacle and I charged at 40A, so that was a contributing factor. Reducing to 32A does help with heat, but should not be needed. Ambient temperature didn't really matter in my case as my receptacle's meltdown happened in the winter.

 

[carsly]

You could have daisy chained another UWC off the existing one, or two. I replaced the 14-50R in my garage with a UWC and then ran a bit of wire to a second one for the outside. These share the same circuit so either one will charge at 40A, or split the current if two vehicles are charging.

When I ran my Tesla UMC on the 14-50, I never unplugged it, but the receptacle still melted after a little more than 2 years. This was a cheap Leviton receptacle and I charged at 40A, so that was a contributing factor. Reducing to 32A does help with heat, but should not be needed. Ambient temperature didn't really matter in my case as my receptacle's meltdown happened in the winter.

I didn't know you could daisy chain them. Is that a supported approach re: electrical codes/inspections? I like the idea...but also don't mind having an extra breaker in the loop. The outlet, as you noted, will always be the weak point in the chain.

 

[beatle]

Yes, you can daisy chain Tesla UWCs. The installation is code compliant. The earlier gen2 HPWCs could be daisy chained as well, but there was additional wiring needed. The UWCs use wifi to coordinate sharing. There are a handful of other EVSEs out there that also allow for daisy chained installations, but it's not a common feature.

 

[carsly]

Yes, you can daisy chain Tesla UWCs. The installation is code compliant. The earlier gen2 HPWCs could be daisy chained as well, but there was additional wiring needed. The UWCs use wifi to coordinate sharing. There are a handful of other EVSEs out there that also allow for daisy chained installations, but it's not a common feature.

Thanks for the tip, will look this up.

 

[Anguyenmp]

On Amazon it says that it isn't compatible with Tesla chargers, any idea why that is? Your video shows they work

 

[carsly]

On Amazon it says that it isn't compatible with Tesla chargers, any idea why that is? Your video shows they work

Some Tesla chargers are hyper sensitive about voltage and amperage minimums. I've found the universal wall connectors are fine. Occasionally get a red light on one, just reset it and good to go.

 

[csharp]

Yes, you can daisy chain Tesla UWCs. The installation is code compliant. The earlier gen2 HPWCs could be daisy chained as well, but there was additional wiring needed. The UWCs use wifi to coordinate sharing. There are a handful of other EVSEs out there that also allow for daisy chained installations, but it's not a common feature.

I was about to bring this up. One of the reasons I went with the tesla J1772 outlet... to future proof it. When we inevitably get another EV, I wanted to be able to charge all of them off of one breaker, without having to unplug and plug in a different one. Great feature for sure.

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