Chargers Advice Needed

[CuckooBird]

Hi,
I'm new to the EV world and currently expecting delivery of the new Enyaq iv80. I can't seem to choose between these chargers. My house has single phase supply of electricity and no solar panels etc. Can anyone advise what is best in terms of ease of charging and has an easy app which clearly shows the current charge costs, how long left to charge etc. Unsure what else as not seen anything. These are the options I can choose from as part of the offer.

1) Ohme Home Pro (tethered with 5m cable)
2) Ohme Home Pro (tethered with 8m cable)
3) Ohme ePod (untethered)
4) Wallbox Pulsar Max (tethered with cables)
5) MyEnergi Zappi 2 (untethered)
6) MyEnergi Zappi 2 (tethered with cables)

Guessing the car will come with charging cables that I can store away each time, therefore I dont have the chargers with the cables out all the time?

Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks

**Edit 07/09***
Thank you for the pointers folks. I've opted for the Ohme ePod in the end. Have a few spots it can be setup that are easily accessible to the car. Install and fitting is included as is the charger. Don't have solar so the Zappi's weren't worth getting. Didn't need an 8m cable either. It was mainly between options 1, 3 and 4.

[KBEE]

I have a PodPoint Solo 3 charger at home - perhaps one to add to your list!?

Overall, I don’t think it does anything unusual compared to others, but it’s neat and tidy and has worked well so far.

The main things I’d recommended are:

1. Plan where you’re going to have it installed. Obviously it needs to be fairly close to where you will park your car, but if that can also be close to your main fuse box and electrical supply, that’s a huge help.

2. From there, you should be able to work out how long a cable you’ll need. The cable that came with the Enyaq is 6m, which should be plenty long enough for most uses. If you get a tethered charger, you can obviously measure up. Don’t necessarily think you have to go longer just in case - it’s better not to have bits of cable coiled up when you’re charging!

3. Personally, I’m glad I have a tethered charger. It’s just much easier and more convenient to park up at home and just unwind the tethered cable and plug it straight in. I mean, it’s not a huge hardship to fish the one out of the boot but you know what I mean. On the PodPoint, the tethered cable just loops around the unit and there’s a nice dock to put the connector. It’s very quick and easy.

4. App wise, the PodPoint one does allow you to set charging schedules (or you can just set it to “manual” and use the car scheduling instead), and the unit just connects to your home wi-fi to feed data to the app. To calculate charging costs, you have to enter your kWH rate (from your electricity bill) and the app does the simple calculation for you based on how much electricity you use charging. There are some nice graphs to show usage and you can check how much you spent in the last week or month or year or whatever.

5. The PodPoint app also records any usage you make of their public charging network. My work has their chargers installed, so I can also see how much I’ve used there too, all on the same account and app. I’m sure others are similar.

Good luck choosing. I don’t think you’ll go too far wrong with any option really, but do consider tethered for the convenience factor.

[IanEV]

I also have a Podpoint solo 3 but untethered. It works well. I took the view that saving the £100 on the untethered version was worth it given the cable will be the first thing that is likely to break and therefore a separate cable is easy to replace.

And the car comes with the cable in any case

[Ken3966]

I have the Ohme charger with 8 m cable as that worked best for locating charger near fuse box and where I normally park car on drive. I can park nearer but then have to pass through a gap only slightly wider than car and it is inevitable that it will scrape car one day.

I am on Octopus Intelliget so use their app on phone, I don’t do anything with the charger itself or the car as far as scheduling charges for off peak. OI does it all for you.

[ComicGeek]

I have the Ohme Home Pro with 5m tethered cable. Previously had a non tethered cable, but definitely find it easier with the tethered. I planned the location carefully so I can charge in either parking space. We have 2 EVs, so easier to swap the tethered cable between the two - can always guarantee that theres a charging cable in the boot and hasn't been taken out to charge the other EV.

Much, much easier to set up Intelligent Octopus through the Ohme Home Pro than through the Enyaq, if that was what you were looking to do.

I set up the charger on day 1, and haven't had to change any settings for the past 6 months. Even now and again I plug in and press a button on the actual charger screen to start charging immediately, rather than waiting for the cheap off peak rate, but that's all.

[Ken3966]

It’s worth trying to set the car needed by time in the app to suit. OI will often assign you slots outside of core time to reach the required charge by required time.
Eg if you need to start charging or indeed suddenly realise you need 90% or even 100% in the day to come when it has charged to say 80% overnight, after 5:30 am you will get an immediate off peak charge rate up until normally 10:30am, or even later at weekends.

[ricky10]

I havethe Ohme pro charger tethered. i wouldnt recommend this charger to anyone not because it is faulty, but for the feature it has, its not worth the money as it is sort of on the top end of cost. i only got it cos I got fobbed off twice by two installers. and third party installers are joke in terms of prices (£1500 for install). i got mine through Octopus and total install cost me £800.

people rave about Zappi due to its ability to link solar to charging - not sure if that swings it for you.

personally i would find a trusty electrician (reasonable priced) and get whatever smart charger you can get from places like screwfix/toolstation etc. all chargers sold nowadays need to be smart meaning you can control via mobile app. thats all you really need unless you have those EV tariff.

[tomm636]

I've had the Ohme Home, the predecessor to the Home Pro, for 2 years. With Octopus Intelligent it works really well, I have it set to reach 100% at 7am and we just always leave the car plugged on the drive and never had to touch the App once its set up.
We have plugged in a few times at <20% on an evening and always woken up to 100% charge in the morning all at their low rate.
I prefer a tethered charger, as its a lot quicker and more convenient to plug in, so it saves the "I'll plug it in later" and forgetting. It also saves having to pack away a dirty/wet cable.

[Ken3966]

Do you really need 100% as not recommended to regularly go to 100% or below 20%?

Don’t forget that although the car goes up in 10%, you can set OI in 5% increments so coul go for 95% max to help a bit?

[tomm636]

@Ken3966 we could do, but I have never worried about it too much to be honest and have read contradicting information. My understanding is that the main worries are with fast charging and that it also shouldn't be left at >80% or <20% for long periods.

We only ever charge at 7kW and the car gets used every day so never sits at 100 for long, if we went on holiday without the car I would leave it <80. The car is also on lease so I opt for convenience over longevity, although I suspect daily fast charging would be more detrimental than going to 100% at 7kW.

I think overall its just personal choice and lifestyle that control how people charge, this method seems to suit us without any noticeable detriment. I know I wouldn't have only filled my ICE fuel tank to 3/4 for 4 years to benefit another owner in 8 years time.