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Reviewed in Canada on May 24, 2023
I strongly suggest caution when considering purchasing HCS chargers, especially the HCS-80 units. I purchased two HCS-80 chargers and encountered substantial grief and unforeseen expenses during their installation.Issue 1 - Whip Tail vs Your Electrical CodeThe HCS units have a hardwired whip tail that is meant to be connected to your electrical service. The problem is that HCS-80 units require an 80-amp breaker hookup, but the wires in the whip tail connector built into to the unit are only 8 AWG.Our local electrical inspector says that's not thick enough to comply with our municipal building code, which requires an 80-amp hookup to use thicker wires (at least 6AWG). We contacted the manufacturer who said that unit is an "appliance" and was tested with the whip tail, so all is well. But guess who makes the final determination? Not the manufacturer! Your INSPECTOR makes that call.And if 8 AWG whip tail is not consistent with our electrical code, your inspector won't care what the manufacturer says. YOUR INSPECTOR HAS THE FINAL SAY. So in our case, we were forced to install a breaker subpanel *and* a downstream junction box and then connect the whiptail into that. Have a look at the attached photos to see what we had to do. The total cost for all this extra work was significant.Issue 2 - Unwieldy Car Hookup CableThe unit we purchased has a nice long 20 foot car hookup cable, but the problem is that this cable is REALLY thick and heavy. Much too heavy for smaller people (like my wife) to use easily. What's wild is that you can see in the photos that the charging cable that goes to the car is SUBSTANTIALLY thicker than the whip tail that hooks up to the junction box. What is up with that? If you are familiar with the 80A Tesla home chargers (as I was) you will find the cable that runs to the car MUCH thicker and clumsier.Issue 3 - Canadian CertificationThe label on the side of the unit (see attached photo) makes it appear that these units have been fully certified in Canada. Yet when I search the official ULC database for Canada, the HCS line of is not listed. (See attached screen shot.) That's pretty concerning.ConclusionThese chargers are okay. They do charge my car, although sometimes a little noisily. But I strongly, STRONGLY suggest that you investigate your local electrical codes before your purchase the higher end HCS units. In our case they were much more trouble than they were worth.Overall it was TON of a lot of hassle and extra cost to hook up these units. I wish I had purchased different, lower power chargers with thinner car hookup cables. Ones that are explicitly listed in the ULC database.
Michel Theunissen
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2023
Did lots of research but decided on this one. No fuss charging, no settings to mess with, it just works. Car takes care of what it needs. Bought the 40amp and had it professionally installed. Needed additional breakerbox work. Do realize they always require additional amps for safety. The 40amp version needs a 50Amp breaker. I had to supply 80 amps to my breaker due to there being an electric oven that uses a 30amp breaker as well. I also choose the nema outlet so in case I need to replace it I can just unplug it. I may decide to use the dual version one day in case I get an additional electric car.I am very happy with it, it charger my 75kw battery in less than 7 hours. For those who never had EV car, you generally are advised not to charge beyond 80%, and you probably don’t drive it till it’s empty, so maybe till 10%. So that gives you an effective range of about 70% of the total range. In my case that’s only about 5 hours of charging. The EV car normally has settings where you can set it up on when to charge, for example past midnight, to save money by charging only during non peak hours.The cable gets warm during charg8ng but not hot. Mostly it lays on the cold garage floor. I’m in California so we’ll see how hot it gets after the winter is over. This is a good brand I’ve seen used at car dealers. I’d stay away from chargers with all the fancy options, they tend to be flakey. I’ve always believed to get the one single tool for the job instead of getting something that promises to do all.
Ernie Colledge
Reviewed in Canada on February 1, 2023
My first experience with an EV--I'm learning!!
Steve
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2019
I was attracted to this product because of Clipper Creek's on-line reputation for customer service, the fact that it's made in the USA, and the fact that the company's Web site features a female electrician installing one of the units. (Nothing against men or male electricians, I just thought the photo evidenced a forward-thinking attitude.) I chose a plug-in unit, and had an electrician (male - that's all I could find) install an outlet in my garage. The unit arrived earlier than promised. It was well-packaged, came with all hardware, and features a printed manual with mounting instructions. The unit is reasonably light so it wasn't cumbersome to position. I was able to mount it myself easily and it works perfectly. It doesn't have "smart" features like WiFi and a phone app, but the car has that so I can still keep track of charging status. And, isn't life complicated enough already? You should be aware of the fact that the power cable for the wall outlet comes out the bottom and is large and stiff enough that you don't have much flexibility in distance or lateral spacing from the outlet for positioning the unit. If in doubt, don't have the outlet put in until you receive the unit and you or your electrician can verify where the outlet needs to be located. My outlet is roughly knee-high. See photo.
Rob L.
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2015
This EVSE (electric car charger) has fairly basic functionality, but it wins out in industrial design.The unit has no controls or settings you can change; it is all controlled from the car being charged. Feed it with power from a 40A 240V circuit breaker, and you're ready to charge. What I really do like is the way that the cord storage is integrated into the case, the way the case mounts to the wall, and the separate plug storage holster that holds the plug compactly almost parallel to the wall. Mounted on the side of the house next to the driveway, it's nice to not have that be very obtrusive, or sticking out where it can be damaged.The main case mounts with a pair of lag-type screws (included), vertically aligned on a single stud. They are driven from the front, so there is no need to mess around with measurements or opening the case and risking damage to the weatherproofing. I had to drill pilot holes through my stucco wall, but otherwise the included screws don't even need any pre-drilling. I store the cord in three generous loops around the built-in channel on the top of the case, although I usually only need to pull off two of the loops to get to my car's charging port. I have the plug holster mounted one stud over, to the left of the main case, which works very well. This convenient arrangement makes it much easier to hang the cord and plug up when the car is done charging, and leave the driveway tidy.I was very deliberate about the install process, thinking about how I wanted things arranged before I started drilling, and it still took me less than two hours to get it installed and operational.All that said, I do wish that this unit had some sort of connectivity for monitoring and programmability for my electric company's Time of Use plan. It makes much more sense for that programming to be on the fixed EVSE side, rather than in the car (as in the Nissan Leaf) which may use other chargers in other locations.
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