Hardwire your home charging station! Or use a Hubbel / Bryant / Cooper 14-50 receptacle, not Leviton

[Luciddoodle]

If it is a 14-30 receptacle (read the letters molded in or look at the prongs in this photo), you can buy this item from Lucid to use with your Lucid portable charging adapter: It's not just a plug adapter - some components inside tell your Lucid charging adapter to pull only 24 amps from the receptacle instead of the 40 amps it would pull if plugged into a 14-50 receptacle.

NEMA 14-30 Charging Adapter

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Thanks, I get that, but is the outlet itself a risk given it’s a Leviton?

 

[DeaneG]

Thanks, I get that, but is the outlet itself a risk given it’s a Leviton?

A risk, yes.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

Did not read the entire thread so I want to make sure your home charger is INSTALLED CORRECTLY.

I hired an electrician who claimed he'd done EV chargers before and had planned to buy a Tesla. I had to send him home to get the proper torque wrench (screwdriver) for the connections. He thought he was fine. He put in a lower gauge wire than I asked ( the heavy gauge was too hard to install? but he did have the sense to "cripple" my Betty Boop by re-setting the DIP switches to lower amps). I re-did all his work after he left. The township inspector never even opened the box, never went to the main panel in the basement or checked the run to the garage. He just asked "who did the work?" and put a sticker on the outside of the box. I spent some hours reading the posts by the experts here = worth it! My house has not burned down as of today...no thanks to the "professional installation".

You've just spent a fortune investing in planet earth. Don't skimp on safety.

 

[Haggy]

One last comment and I will stop!

I had a dream last night that Leviton and Legrand sued us for defamation and product disparagement. And I was worried some here might pull back their dryer to check the receptacle.

So, I will note that the Leviton, Legrand and Eaton $12 receptacles are not defective, not dangerous, not illegal, not a violation of the NEC IF INSTALLED for their intended and common use: residential ovens, stoves dryers. These are intermittent, safe and proper uses of those receptacles. If your home dryer or stove is plugged into a Leviton receptacle, you are fine. They last for decades. (When left alone)

All of our warnings and recommendations deal with selection and installation of 240v NEMA 14-50 receptacles NOW used for continuous dury, 40 and 50 amp EVSEs, electric vehicle service equipment, the proper name for what we all call Home Chargers. Now that is a horse of a different colour.

They may not be inherently defective but it's much easier to torque a Hubbell outlet properly with a hex wrench than it is to torque a Leviton with a flat blade screwdriver. Even if you think that the Leviton is properly torqued, moving the heavy wires to get it in the box can loosen them up.

I can't comment on every EV out there, but hopefully, the car will lower the amperage when it detects problems. So if you see the charging rate drop, it might be a sign of a problem with the outlet. My brother was having that problem and I told him to swap out the outlet for a Hubbell and things now work perfectly. I didn't look at the outlet, much less check the torque, but since changing the outlet fixed the problem, I'd say that either the outlet or the installation was the problem. It's harder to get it wrong with the Hubbell.

 

[emoylv]

Thanks, I get that, but is the outlet itself a risk given it’s a Leviton?

Regardless of whether it's a 50A or 30A, the receptacle should be EV-rated. Key is the material used in the construction of the receptacle: it should be reinforced thermoplastic polyester. It used to be called Bakelite. If you can cut into it easily with a pocket knife, it isn't it. Hubbell makes an approved product HBL9430A for 30A service. This is for 4-wire service (includes neutral). Make sure the 30A dongle on the Lucid charger has 4 prongs before you make the purchase.

 

[DeaneG]

... it should be reinforced thermoplastic polyester. It used to be called Bakelite...

Pedantic, yes, but I'm old: Bakelite was actually an unreinforced thermoset phenolic. It wouldn't soften no matter how hot it got - just eventually burn.