timesinks
Well-Known Member
Looks great!Update!
I landed on the Wallbox Pulsar Plus 48A units. I purchased two of them directly from Wallbox. They were not cheap, but at least I was able to skip sales tax by buying directly. My electrician was booked up for a few weeks, and I delayed scheduling until after my R1T was delivered.
Today was install day, and it couldn't have come too soon. We were getting by the past two weeks with 110v charging overnight, but it was painfully slow, at times adding 1 mile or less per hour. I suspect the heat is playing a role here as the fans were running consistently to manage battery temp. Thankfully we have a very short commute to my daughter's daycare and work from home otherwise, but I am so glad to have a more viable option now.
I did go the load-sharing route with 48 amps of total power available to both units. My house is roughly 3500 sq ft with 200A total service, so I tried to find a balance that could support 2 EVs effectively without overloading the panel and be managed smartly and remotely. We had to move some existing circuits around to make room for a new 60A circuit which feeds a sub-panel with two additional 60A breakers, one for each individual Wallbox. We also ran a CAT6 cable between the two Wallboxes to manage communication for load-sharing.
Installation took around 2.5 hours. This included cutting drywall to run the cables and recess the sub-panel. Wallbox oddly does not include load-sharing instructions in the box, and the instructions on their website are broadly applicable to a wide range of their products. I found this YouTube video incredibly helpful in configuring and wiring the CAT6 between the two units. Basically you set the primary unit's charging speed setting to "8", the secondary to "0", run one wire from slot 1 on the primary to slot 1 on the secondary and another wire from slot 4 on the primary to slot 3 on the secondary. Once the units are powered install the latest software updates, then after restart configure the load sharing through the app on the primary unit.
I plugged in the primary first and watched the truck ramp to 48A in a matter of seconds, adding ~24 miles of range per hour. I then did the same with the secondary and saw the same behavior. I don't have two EVs to test the sharing capabilities fully, but I was happy to see both delivering the peak 48A independently.
Quick review of the Wallboxes: I like them overall, but there are a few concerns. Appearance-wise they are very sleek and small compared to other units like Juicebox, Tesla, or even Rivian. The cable is flexible and plenty long at 25 ft. The charging handle feels solid, although it immediately showed wear from brief and light contact with my garage floor. The installation guide was straightforward and easy to follow aside from the missing load-sharing details. I do wish they used wifi rather than CAT6 for load-sharing communication, something the Tesla units do for nearly half the price, though once installed this isn't really a concern. The app is not bad, allowing for monitoring and adjustment of the amperage for each unit on-the-fly, but I do wish the scheduling feature was more robust. You can set schedules for charging, but it's a binary system: on or off. I'd like to be able to schedule amperage limits for certain times of the day when I know I'll be using higher amperage appliances such as the oven or dryer to prevent overloading.
Overall I'm very happy with this setup and look forward to having two EVs to take full advantage. I would recommend this option to anyone who wants flexibility and load-sharing capability.
Sponsored