Granny Charger

[busa]

Fair point , maybe I should open my eyes, lol

 

[TWbm]

I charged last evening but when I started the charge the green light started flashing. I ‘jiggled‘ all the connections after turning everything off. Switched power on again and solid green light! Guess there’s some degree of sensitivity built into the system demanding everything is 100% OK not just 99%!

Oh and flashing green light = not charging!

I get the impression the chargers are quite sensitive to the 'quality' of the electricity. I'm sure I've seen a warning somewhere about using extension leads, for example. I had no choice but to do that for a short while at our van in France, and the connection was very hit and miss, but once I wired up a waterproof UK socket with its own breaker on the 16amp supply it was fine.

I'm no sparky, but have recently had to sort out some issues with interference on both CCTV and audio systems at a bar we own - all down to 'dirty' electricity i.e. not being delivered with a proper sine wave on the AC 50hz. I don't pretend to understand the physics, but I do know that for the CCTV, putting an uninterrupted power unit which also cleans up the current worked and for the audio I had to move the amplifier off the same extension as the TV receiver.

Put simply, the less connections the power has gone throgh before it hits the charger lead, the more reliable it seems to be.

 

[DON]

Can the Granny Charger be plugged in and left "live" all the time?
I have installed mine in a home-made mini-shed to keep it dry on the side of my house.
Works well, but I am fed up opening the door and lifting the lid on the weather-proof sockets in order to turn it on and off all the time.
Can I leave it switched on when not connected to the car?
I have left it on a few times and it hasn't suffered, so I assume it's OK>
View attachment 5531

Hi all I put a post on EV Charger forum the other day as I was going to run a new 6mm power supply outside using a spare 40amp on my cu, to use the granny charger as I only do 4k per year, my god I was slaughtered about using a granny charger as a permanent charging supply!! when cheapest quote for a 7kw charger is £830 after grant, feel better now seeing other folk are doing the same

 

[ajw1100]

Talking of the Granny Charger. I am not sure if the cable will fit under my garage drop down door. I need the cable diameter, also length from 3pin to charger input, charger itself and charger output to type 2 connector. I gather it's quite short. Anyone have a ruler handy....?

Thanks guy's

 

[midician]

Talking of the Granny Charger. I am not sure if the cable will fit under my garage drop down door. I need the cable diameter, also length from 3pin to charger input, charger itself and charger output to type 2 connector. I gather it's quite short. Anyone have a ruler handy....?

Thanks guy's

Its illegal to put a electrical cable in any doorway in Australia. After repeated opening and closing on the cable there is a risk of the insulation degrading and hence the risk of electrocution or short circuit.

 

[Alb]

The cable fitted under my garage door when I used the Granny. The gap was bigger than the cable so there was no contact between cable and door.

 

[ajw1100]

Thanks, but I do not have your garage door so that really does not help much. If the cable is squashed at all by the door then that is not an option, legal or not. .

 

[Alb]

The outside diameter of my cable is 10.4mm

 

[ajw1100]

Thanks Alb, I will find an 11/12mm tube/rod and see if it will pass unhindered beneath the closed door.
Next time you have your ruler handy any chance of the other measurements?
I did have them but now cannot find them

 

[the royal county]

Afternoon all,

I tried to charge my HS PHEV with the Granny charger, it seems it's not working (it could be me). When I attrach everything and plug in at the socket at home, all the lights are blinking. Checked this as per destructions on the back. It states it's checking......

Am I doing something wrong, or is it the electrics at home aren't up to it? I've tried it several times, still the same all light indicators blinking = checking.......... but no charging!

 

[bwanamdevu]

Afternoon all,

I tried to charge my HS PHEV with the Granny charger, it seems it's not working (it could be me). When I attrach everything and plug in at the socket at home, all the lights are blinking. Checked this as per destructions on the back. It states it's checking......

Am I doing something wrong, or is it the electrics at home aren't up to it? I've tried it several times, still the same all light indicators blinking = checking.......... but no charging!

I get this ‘blinking’ sometimes and usually end up disconnecting everything, starting again and making sure that each connector is firmly seated in the socket. Often it seems to be plugged in OK but blinks. Taking it apart, plugging it all back together and then it seems to like the connections causing it to start charging!
I think some of these charger are very sensitive.

 

[sido]

I always try to refer to my charger as the slow charger as i feel it is a little disparaging to Grannies some them are clearly not even old, never mind
slow. In this age where I don’t even know whether to refer to people as he, she, they, etc and any of the other multi combinations which can be used at present. It does seem we EV drivers may well be inadvertently or deliberately, sexist, blinkered and a whole host of other things, The Lady magazine might call us if they wrote an article about it.

 

[bwanamdevu]

I always try to refer to my charger as the slow charger as i feel it is a little disparaging to Grannies some them are clearly not even old, never mind
slow. In this age where I don’t even know whether to refer to people as he, she, they, etc and any of the other multi combinations which can be used at present. It does seem we EV drivers may well be inadvertently or deliberately, sexist, blinkered and a whole host of other things, The Lady magazine might call us if they wrote an article about it.

You are of course correct in most of what you have just written but in our defence, it is not just EV drivers that refer to them as ‘granny chargers’ as a lot of sellers will refer to them as that as well. That term appears to have entered general parlance and is probably, or will be, one of the newer entries in the Oxford English Dictionary . Personally, I wouldn’t mind in the slightest if they had come to be referred as ‘grand-dad chargers’ being one myself.

 

[Alb]

Probably quite a few of us around here are Grandads (me included)!

 

[sido]

Are they’re any Grannies on this forum perhaps we could have your views as well? Another Grandad.

 

[jem111111]

Afternoon all,

I tried to charge my HS PHEV with the Granny charger, it seems it's not working (it could be me). When I attrach everything and plug in at the socket at home, all the lights are blinking. Checked this as per destructions on the back. It states it's checking......

Am I doing something wrong, or is it the electrics at home aren't up to it? I've tried it several times, still the same all light indicators blinking = checking.......... but no charging!

are you using an extension lead ? as when i first used my granny charger it would not work on my existing extension lead. I borrowed a friends and it worked on his , so i brought a 10m one from wicks ( i think ) and no problems since.

 

[ajw1100]

Please, with all these slow/granny/grandad chargers out there could someone let me have measurements of:

3 pin to charger, cable length?
End to End of the actual charger, the meaty bit?
From the output of the charger to the housing of the car connector, cable length?

I reckon I will need to put an extension in the garage so I can run the cable under the garage door and up to the car. I would prefer the charger to be dry inside the garage..........

Personally I think that fast chargers are called fast chargers and slow chargers should be called slow chargers. How Fast is Fast and how Slow is Slow anyway?

 

[TWbm]

Please, with all these slow/granny/grandad chargers out there could someone let me have measurements of:

3 pin to charger, cable length?
End to End of the actual charger, the meaty bit?
From the output of the charger to the housing of the car connector, cable length?

I reckon I will need to put an extension in the garage so I can run the cable under the garage door and up to the car. I would prefer the charger to be dry inside the garage..........

Personally I think that fast chargers are called fast chargers and slow chargers should be called slow chargers. How Fast is Fast and how Slow is Slow anyway?

The lead is near enough 4m end to end, but you lose a bit of that where the car plug sticks out sideways. From the mains plug to the inline transformer is 40cm. My cable runs past the drivers door to remind me to unplug it ...

I've cobbled this together to take the strain off the cable: