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L**B
Nice thin cable, fits under my garage door
The thin cable on the GoPlug charger fits perfectly under my garage door.The door's rubber ground-seal makes good contact with the concrete, on both sides of the GoPlug cable.This was a problem with my old fat GE charger cable, it was too thick. It didn't seal.GoPlug is much better. It charges my car a little faster, too.
R**J
Be warned, this is a project, not a product.
I am writing this for people who may think this is a consumer level 2 charger. If you are a OpenSource hobbyist you will probably like it just fine. If you don't know what TAR, RAR, Linux, and Hex files are, you probably want to look elsewhere.This charger may, with enough time and effort do what other smart chargers do. It appears that there is a lot of software available to make this a powerful charger. However, there is ZERO documentation in the unit and the online stuff is haphazard and hard to find. This is an 'OpenSource' hobby kit that has been assembled for you.The box comes with version 1 of the OpenEVSE software which seems to have the ability to set max charge current and has a start and finish time. Setting the max current may be useful if you don't have wiring sufficient to handle your car's internal charger, but in general I think you should install a proper circuit and let the car deal with current so someone changing the settings doesn't blow the breaker or start a fire. The only other feature, available, if you figure out how to get the device webpage, is that you can set start and stop time. This can allow you to block out peak rate periods but it is a single setting and not up to snuff with modern smart chargers.I believe there is a lot available for the charger. The most recent firmware versions appear to be V5 not V1 as shipped. It is not clear what has been added with the subsequent releases. There appears to be monitoring software but I cannot tell if it works with V1, and what the instructions are asking for.There does not seem to be any explanation of features with the releases, but it appears that to update the software you need to buy a programming board, find the web location with the compiled files, download the proper hex and bat and other files, install the programming software and drivers for the programming HW, disassemble the charger, plug the programmer into the OpenEVSE controller board, run the programming software to flash the module, and reassemble the unit to see if it worked. Probably not a big deal for an OpenSource hobbyist but way more than what I signed up for. I may be missing something, but I made as much of an effort to go through the forums and support pages as I am going to. It is back in the box.If you are a hobbyist, or want a really basic smart charger, there are things to like. The display appears to be useful, there are probably a lot of features built into the later releases of the software, and being able to get replacement parts if it breaks could be nice. My question is, why not put current software on the box when you build it, and at least make a quick start guide?
C**E
Works well now as a fairly basic EV charger, but lacking features included w/other "smart" chargers
As a basic electric vehicle charger, there isn't much to say about the GoPlug except that it works well and is more configurable than either the sub-$500 Chinese OEM chargers or ClipperCreek's products: you can set the voltage (120 or 240 volt) and amperage (6 to 40 amps, in one amp increments), and it has some very basic scheduling features and energy tracking capabilities: from the WiFi interface, you can schedule a future charge time (although not, apparently, a recurring schedule), limit the total amount of energy delivered or the duration of charging, and it will keep track of cumulative charging in kWh and the current session in watt hours.However, if you are buying the GoPlug in the expectation that you're going to get a pre-assembled OpenEVSE Advanced, you should be aware that the firmware of the GoPlug is deliberately simplified (some might go as far as to say "crippled") even though the hardware is apparently identical to the OpenEVSE Advanced. The good news is that you can flash the OpenEVSE Advanced WiFi firmware onto the device and it will enable all of the OpenEVSE Advanced features. There is also a real paucity of online support information available that's specific to the GoPlug; with the exception of the storefront where the pre-assembled OpenEVSE Advanced has been replaced with the GoPlug, it's hard to find the pages that include information on the GoPlug specifically, as it does not appear on any of the menus as an option.So if you're looking for the sort of energy tracking features and smart home integration the OpenEVSE Advanced is capable of doing (albeit with a lot of end-user work), you may be better off for now just buying the OpenEVSE kit directly from their website and assembling it yourself, at least for now, and the "out of the box" experience is not really comparable with a smart EVSE yet. It appears from the questions and answers on Amazon that there are plans to add more "user friendly" smart features to the default GoPlug firmware that would make the GoPlug more comparable to the JuiceBox Pro and ChargePoint Home chargers, and if/when those are available I expect I'll update this review accordingly.
G**K
Just plug it in...Works great
All I did was plug it in, and it works. We have a Volt and a Bolt ev. We've had the Volt since 2014, and charging with 110 volt was an over nite affair. Now it is charged in less than 2 hours. With the Bolt ev, we would plug it in each nite, when my wife got home from work, but would not have a fill charge each day, using the 110 volt charger. At the end of the week, it would take until Sunday, to get a full charge. With this charger, it has a full charge EVERY Night, in about 2 1/2 hours. Bonus...My electric bill dropped by $20/mo.
J**Y
Small and sweet
Works great! Our EV hasn't missed a charge since we bought this charger. I wasn't able to find the mobile app for it - the one that comes up is for a charging bag. Then I used the browser on my iPhone, which worked well
Trustpilot
1 week ago
1 day ago