Chevy Bolt: Proven and compatible chargers for the home
First off, there are two charging options available for the Chevy Bolt: home сharging and Public Charging. We’ll discuss home charging in more detail below.
It’s important to note that you can buy a home charger (see our home EV Charger buying guide ), but it’s not necessary unless you plan on doing long-distance trips or live somewhere without easy access to public chargers. And although public chargers are free for most drivers, occasionally they do require payment or membership. For most people with regular daily driving needs, home charging is all you need – other than plugging into any standard 120v wall outlet which provides an extremely slow charge (see home EV Charger buying guide).
If you want to install a Level 2 charger at home, you have two options: You can either hardwire the charger directly into your electrical panel, or you can use a plug-in charging station.
Best plugin chargers for Chevy Bolt
JuiceBox 40 Smart EV Home Charging Station (40 Amp, NEMA 14-50 Plug, 240 Volt, 25ft Cable), Wi-Fi, Indoor/Outdoor charger, UL Energy Star Certified
Aug 3, 2023 11:15 AM
Lectron Level 2 Charging Station (240 Volt, 20ft Cable, 32 Amp) NEMA 14-50 Plug, EVSE 7.68kW Compatible with All SAE J1772 Electric Vehicles
Aug 3, 2023 11:15 AM
Siemens US2 VersiCharge Level 2 Electric Vehicle (EV) Charger (240 Volt, 20ft Cable, 30 Amp) NEMA 6-50 Plug, J1772 Compatibility, Easy Installation, UL Listed
Aug 3, 2023 11:15 AM
A plug-in charging station is less expensive than a hardwired charger, but you have to remember to unplug it when you’re not using it. This type of charging station also comes with a built-in circuit breaker, so you don’t have to worry about overloading your home’s electrical system. If you have more than one plug-in electric vehicle, you can use multiple charging stations at the same time.
Best hardwired chargers for Chevy Bolt
ChargePoint NEMA 14-50 plug/hardwired Home Charging Station Level 2 (240 Volt, 23ft Cable, 16/24/32/40 Amp for NEMA 14-50 plug or 48/50 Amp for hardwired mode), Wi-Fi Enabled EVSE, UL Listed, ENERGY STAR, Indoor / Outdoor
Aug 3, 2023 11:15 AM
JuiceBox 40 Hardwired Smart EV Home Charging Station (40 Amp, 240 Volt, 25ft Cable), Wi-Fi, Indoor/Outdoor charger, Energy Star UL Certified
Aug 3, 2023 11:15 AM
Wallbox Pulsar Plus Level 2 EV Charging station 11.52 kW (240 Volt, 25ft/7m Cable, 48 Amp) Hardwired, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Alexa and Google Home
Aug 3, 2023 11:15 AM
A hardwired charger is installed by a professional and is more expensive than a plug-in charging station. Once it’s installed, however, you never have to worry about forgetting to unplug your charger—it’s always on and ready to go. Plus, because it’s hardwired into your electrical system, you can use a higher wattage Level 2 charger (up to 10 kW) without having to upgrade your home’s electrical panel.
Chevrolet Bolt home сharging
There are two options available for home charging your Chevy Bolt: Level 1 Basic and Level 2 Fast. We’ll discuss both in more detail below. It’s important to note that you can buy a home сharger (see our home EV Charger buying guide ), but it’s not necessary unless you plan on doing long-distance trips or live somewhere without easy access to public chargers. And although public chargers are free for most drivers, occasionally they do require payment or membership. For most people with regular daily driving needs, home charging is all you need – other than plugging into any standard 120v wall outlet which provides an extremely slow charge (see home EV Charger buying guide ).
Level 1 Basic: This first electric car charger option allows you to charge your Bolt at home, or anywhere that has a 120-volt, three-prong outlet. To use it, just plug the connector into your Chevy Bolt and the other end into a standard 120v wall outlet. It will take about 12 hours to fully charge your Bolt using Level 1 charging.
Level 2 Fast: The 240-volt Level 2 charger is for your home or public charging stations and provides about 25 miles per hour of charge. To use it, just plug the connector into your Chevy Bolt and the other end into a standard 240v wall outlet (example NEMA 14-50) or a dedicated charging station. It will take about 4-6 hours to fully charge your Bolt using Level 2 charging.
Part 1: GM Charging Station Install (Continued)
One of the really cool things GM does for 2022-23 Bolt and Bolt EUV buyers is provide free charging station installation. The reason for this is pretty obvious: installing Level 2 charging at home makes it a lot easier to own an EV, and it isn’t always cheap to get the job done right. You can learn more about GM’s program and my experience with it so far here, at my first article about it.
Higher packaged Bolt and Bolt EUVs come with Chevrolet’s Dual Level Charge Cord Set, and it can be added during the purchase of base package Bolts that don’t include it (for a small fee), or purchased afterward from GM parts departments. Like Tesla’s Mobile Connector, Chevy’s cord set has removable ends to plug into 120v NEMA 5-15 outlets or 240v NEMA 14-50 outlets, like you’d find at an RV park. I’ve read here that they’re going to offer more plugs, perhaps for TT-30, 5-20, or dryer plugs. 240v charging maxes out at 32 amps with this cord set, allowing for roughly 7.7 kW charging under ideal conditions.
For most people, that’s good enough, and GM will hire Qmerit to just install a 14-50 plug in your garage or driveway that you can use the cord set to charge with. When leaving town, you can always unplug it and pack it under the false floor in the trunk. It’s also possible to fix the unit to the wall or hang it up securely when it’s being used over and over in the same place, which makes for an attractive and safe situation.
M0AR!
For me, 7 kW just wasn’t enough. I wanted to charge my EUV at the maximum power its onboard charger can accept. I paid for 11.5 kW, and I want my 11.5 kW. It’s not a huge difference in charging speed (6 vs 10 hours from dead to full), but where I live, the only DC fast charging stations live on dealer lots and can only be used during business hours. Being able to get a few more miles on a day when I do an unusual amount of driving is worth it.
Plus, I had an Emporia Smart EVSE on hand, and it made sense to use that charging station and hopefully test it with some other Emporia power management devices. So, I opted for Qmerit’s “non-standard” installation, where they cover the first 450,250 (1000 labor/parts, 250 permitting), and bill you for the balance.
To run 6 AWG wiring from my electrical panel, under my manufactured home (yes, it’s a double-wide trailer, but that’s the fancy term), under part of my front yard, and onto a post in my driveway, the electrician quoted almost double what GM and Qmerit would pay. But, I took advantage of El Paso Electric’s rebate program to cover the other half of the installation cost.
The electrician who came out was professional, did a great job putting in a good-looking installation (even if most of it will be buried or hidden under the house), and did it all in one afternoon. The next day, I got a bill from Qmerit for the remaining balance, which I’m going to pay using a reimbursement check El Paso Electric is going to cut soon.
The only thing left is to wait for the inspector to come by so I can bury the conduit and button things up, but I’ve been through enough here to know that GM and Qmerit really will put in Level 2 charging at your house, even if you don’t want the “standard installation.” There was one point where the electrician and Qmerit didn’t understand something, but it was a misunderstanding that was relatively easy to iron out. If you don’t need anything unusual in your charging install, it should be pretty straightforward.
Dealers Need To Understand The Situation Better
While GM and my utility are doing things right, there’s a weak point: dealers.
While I’m pretty happy with the dealer I ultimately bought my EUV from, the sales personnel didn’t seem to understand EVs, charging stations, and available local incentives very well. They knew about the GM/Qmerit deal, but I was surprised that they didn’t offer a lot of information about home charging.
At a minimum, I think dealers should be not only ready to sell you a car and send you an e-mail with information about the GM charging installation, but they should also bury new EV buyers with information about tax credits, local incentives from governments and utilities, and perhaps even have some contact information for local electricians. You should come away from the dealer with a plan for getting charging installed, in other words, or the information you need to make a plan with ease.
They should also tell you where to find local charging stations, how to plan road trips, and many other things they’re not telling you right now. I know some dealers have EV specialists who do this stuff very well, but they’re probably finding that most buyers at this early part of the adoption curve are “power users.”
The total “n00bs” who know next to nothing about EVs aren’t going to do very well unless their needs are totally covered by a standard charging installation and they never drive out of range of it.
In Part 2, I’m going to cover my Texas-sized road trip, followed by the other things I promised at the top (links are provided up there, too).
All images by Jennifer Sensiba.
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Jennifer Sensiba is a long time efficient vehicle enthusiast, writer, and photographer. She grew up around a transmission shop, and has been experimenting with vehicle efficiency since she was 16 and drove a Pontiac Fiero. She likes to get off the beaten path in her Bolt EAV and any other EVs she can get behind the wheel or handlebars of with her wife and kids. You can find her on here, here, and YouTube here.
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Chevy EV Charger Installation
BLDG Electric is an experienced Chevy EV charging installation contractor in Edmonton. We help residential homeowners and property managers plan, select, install and maintain level 2 and level 3 chargers. Our certified electricians assess your property’s current capacity to support a charging unit. We then provide our top product picks based on all of your needs, including the make and model of your vehicle (Chevy electric vehicles, including the Bolt EV and the Bolt EUV), compatibility, charging speed, installation site and cost / budget.
We install all types of EV Chargers, including Chevy-branded components, FLO, ChargePoint, Teltonika, Siemens, and more. Through our quality assurance standards, we guarantee your EV charger installation work complies with Edmonton building and safety codes, and warranty all of our work!
We deliver custom EV Charging solutions for the leading electrical vehicle brands and the trickiest residential and commercial environments.
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BLDG can help you reduce the cost of installing a Chevy EV Charger through government rebates. Edmonton residents can access Federal government rebates if they own or have a lease-eligible zero-emission vehicle (ZEV). The following vehicles are considered to be ZEVs:
There are two types of rebates:
- Electric battery, hydrogen fuel cell and plug-in hybrid cars are eligible for a 5,000 rebate
- Plug-in hybrid cars are eligible for a 2,500 rebate.
Find all the information about Federal EV grants and tax write-off incentives for businesses here.
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Reconfiguring My Installation Expectations
There are two Pulsar Plus models available — one rated at 40 amps, and another rated at 48 amps — with important distinctions between the two that can complicate the installation process. While the 48-amp edition does provide a higher rate of charge, it’s only available in a hardwired version. The 40-amp version, which is the model I tested, allows you to either hardwire the unit to your house, or instead use a NEMA plug (similar to how you’d connect a dryer) to maximize portability.
With the inside berth occupied by my Datsun, all the electric cars I drive make use of my exterior parking spot, and so I intended to attach the charger to the outside wall of my garage. I had initially planned on going the NEMA plug route, reasoning that I could place the plug on the inside of my garage and run the cable through the concrete wall. This is the type of installation that many buyers might also initially gravitate to, given the likely presence of an existing 240-volt plug somewhere in their basement or garage area.
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When the electrician arrived, however, we had a conversation that quickly changed my mind. It turns out that there are a number of factors that worked against my NEMA plans. Some of these were specific to my situation. First, I had to respect the electrical code that forbade running any kind of high-powered cable through an outside wall to an inside plug. The reasoning behind the law is that, in the event of a fire, first responders need to be able to quickly disconnect high load electrical equipment (not just EV chargers, but heat pumps and air conditioning units, too).
With that plan quashed, he offered two alternatives: keep the NEMA plug and the charger inside and run the thick charging cable under the garage door when I was using it, or mount the plug on the outside of the garage just beside the Pulsar Plus. The first was a non-starter, as I had no wish to invite critters, snow or rain into my garage through the bulging gap the cable would create. The second was also unappealing, as it would push the Pulsar Plus charger onto my neighbor’s side of the shared garage wall, and even with its very small footprint, make it difficult for them to install their own unit in the near future (they had recently ordered a plug-in hybrid). The electrician also cautioned that it would make the Wallbox extremely easy to steal, as it would be a simple matter of unplugging the cable and undoing a few screws (versus the deterrent posed by cutting through a high-voltage cable).
The 80% Solution
With all of that in mind, I went with the hardwired install. This was the cleanest and least complicated option for me to keep the Wallbox unit on the outside and not crowd my neighbor or risk sharing my plug with someone in a more permanent sense.
The wiring was extremely straight-forward. My home is closing in on 100 years in age, but when I bought it a decade ago I had the entire electrical system updated from a 60-amp to a 200-amp entry and panel. Because of the location of the electrical entry from my alley, the panel itself had to be wall-mounted on the inside of my garage near the door, which meant that the electrician was bridging a gap of maybe 18 inches of air and concrete to reach the Wallbox outside. The 200-amp panel also provided ample headroom for adding a 40-amp charger, even with a full electrical heating system and separate AC system in the house.
Of course, a 40-amp rating on the circuit doesn’t translate into a full 40 amps coursing through the cable to the car. Each Wallbox unit features an internal current selector switch that limits output to 80% of the available circuit, which in my case translated to a 32-amp draw. I asked the electrician why this was the case. He explained it’s again a function of electrical code (in both Canada and the United States) to not run a circuit at more than 80% of its capacity for a continuous power draw.
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He also said that the difference in charging speeds between a 32-amp and a full 40-amp or even 48-amp connection is negligible in the context of how most EVs are charged at home. For example, my setup allowed for 7.6-kW of charging, versus 9.6-kW for the 48-amp version of the Wallbox. This works out to a difference of maybe an hour or two when bringing a very large battery from empty to full, which was largely irrelevant for overnight charging.
Having trained myself for years to look at EV chargers exclusively based on how much power they had to offer, so as to minimize the time spent at a public station, I realized that I now had to change my perspective about what an effective vehicle charging strategy looked like.
Simple and Affordable Setup
Overall, installing the charger was a simple process that took the experienced electrician (who had more than a thousand similar installs under his belt) roughly three hours. In terms of cost, he told me that my simple setup would run me just 450, which in combination with the 650 retail price of the Pulsar Plus 40A brought the total to 450,100. If your electrical panel is farther away from the charger’s mounting point, he said, the installation bill can climb into the 450,300 range.
Using the charger itself was even easier. To put it bluntly, all that’s needed to top up at home is to unclip the Pulsar Plus charging cable from the mount and stick in a vehicle’s charge port. The system automatically communicates with the vehicle and starts providing power, with the LED lighting on the unit shifting from steady green to pulsing blue (it can also show yellow when locked, or be turned off completely so as not to draw attention to itself). It’s such a simple system that I rarely find myself using the app at all.
The Wallbox’s 25-foot cable makes it a cinch for me to reach the varied port locations of the vehicles I test, and it coils much more easily than I thought it would. So far, I’ve plugged the Pulsar Plus into vehicles as far apart on the EV scale as the entry-level Chevrolet Bolt and the six-figure Mercedes-Benz EQS, and it handled both models with no issues. Charging speeds are excellent, and I can usually count on a full battery in the six-hour range when starting from nearly empty, which is well within expectations.
If You Can Charge at Home, You Really Should
Over the past month, I’ve had the Pulsar Plus actively charging for just over 23 hours. Quebec has the cheapest electricity pricing in North America, and for a total of 73.6 kWh of usage I paid 3.23. That covered about 250 miles of driving, for a total cost of about two cents per mile. Using the average cost of electricity in the United States, that works out to about 19 in total costs, or about eight cents per mile. That’s certainly less expensive than paying for service at a public charger, even in the most generous of locales, with the added bonus of not having to wait in line.
Beyond the economic aspect, the convenience of having a home EV charger cannot be overstated. In the past I often meticulously planned out each week of driving with a given electric vehicle, taking into account when I’d have to charge, where I’d be able to plug-in, and monitoring its battery state at all times. With a Level 2 charger attached to my garage, however, I feel like I’ve been freed from the shackles of range anxiety.
Knowing that the battery will be at 100% in the morning allows me to use almost all of a vehicle’s driving range during the day without having to worry about tomorrow. It’s been especially reassuring on road trips: This past weekend, I took the Bolt on a 180-mile round-trip ride that came close to exhausting its power pack in cold weather, something I would have been much more concerned about prior to the arrival of the Wallbox.
One of the best parts of Level 2 ownership is that it’s also virtually worry-free. The Pulsar Plus doesn’t require any specific maintenance, contains no moving parts, and aside from the cable getting stiffer in cold weather, doesn’t seem to mind the changing of the seasons. While I’m curious to see if charging speeds drop once the deep freeze hits this winter, they’ve been remarkably stable over the chilly, damp weeks in November and December.
If you’re considering a Level 2 charger at home, the Wallbox Pulsar Plus is a strong contender — especially if you plan on connecting more than one vehicle, or like tracking and controlling your charging sessions online. Although self-installation is possible, especially if you already have a NEMA plug handy, I recommend hiring an electrician to make sure everything is done properly and to code, for maximum peace of mind. After just over a month of regular use, my only regret is that I waited this long to step up to the Level 2 plate.
Other good EV chargers and charging adapters
J1772 chargers
If the Grizzl-E is out of stock: You should buy the Emporia EMEVSEVAR without hesitation. It cost 100 more than the Grizzl-E at the time of our testing, but the have since equalized. That makes them two of the cheapest non-Tesla chargers we tested. The Emporia got up to 40 A in our tests with the Tesla and 45 A with the Volkswagen—both of which are below its 48 A rating but still on par with that of the Grizzl-E. Like the Grizzl-E, this charger has a three-year warranty, is UL-listed, weighs 20 pounds, and has a sleek, low-profile shape. It has a slim, 24-foot cord, its metal cord holder is sturdily built, and it comes with a handy set of hook-and-loop ties to keep the cord neatly coiled when not in use. The Emporia model can be installed via a NEMA 14-50 plug or hardwired directly into your home power grid. (It lacks the Grizzl-E’s optional NEMA 6-50 configuration, but that’s an unusual plug type anyway.) This charger is rated to operate in temperatures between.22° to 122° Fahrenheit, and its NEMA 4 (similar to IP56) rating means it’s highly protected against the elements. Plus, its plug has a removable rubber cap, further protecting its innards from dust and water damage, and it was shipped to us in adequately protective packaging.
If you want a charger with a replaceable cord (and can live with some significant drawbacks): The ChargePoint Home Flex is a good alternative to the Grizzl-E. It’s one of the priciest models we tested (750 at this writing), and its NEMA 3R rating (similar to IP14) means it’s not especially weatherproof. It also failed to live up to its amperage claims in our testing (it’s rated for 50 A, but we measured only 44 A with the Volkswagen and 40 A with the Tesla). And if you don’t connect to its mobile app, you’re stuck at a sluggish charging rate of 16 A. However, there’s still a lot to like about this charger. It has a three-year warranty, is UL-listed, and can be hardwired or plugged in via a NEMA plug (either 14-50 or 6-50). It weighs just 18 pounds, and it has a slim, 23-foot cord. It’s relatively sleek and compact, and it comes with handy hook-and-loop cord keepers, a built-in cord holder, and pre-printed sticky labels (so you can easily annotate the circuit breakers on your electrical panel). Notably, this is the only model we tested with a user-replaceable cord, meaning you can easily swap in a new one when it wears out, rather than having to replace the entire unit (because the cord gets handled more frequently than the other components, it’s likely to wear out the quickest). This charger is also the only model we tested that uses almost no plastic in its well-designed packaging, and it can be used in colder climates than most models we tested (with a working range of.40° to 122° Fahrenheit).
If you want a charger the size of a child’s lunch box that has a longer cord than the Grizzl-E: Get the Wallbox Pulsar Plus (48 A). Its nearly 700 price tag (at this writing) is eye-popping, but it has a slightly longer cable than those of our picks (25 feet, which is as long as it can be while abiding by national safety standards), and it’s one of the smallest, most discreet models we tested. Like the Grizzl-E and Emporia chargers, it weighs just 20 pounds, is UL-listed, and has a three-year warranty, and it performed well in our amperage tests (passing 40 A to the Tesla and 45 A to the Volkswagen). Also like those models, it can be plugged into a NEMA 14-50 outlet or hardwired in (though it lacks the Grizzl-E’s NEMA 6-50 plug option). It has a NEMA 4 (similar to IP56) rating, meaning it’s highly protected against the elements, and it’s safe to use in temperatures from.22° to 104° Fahrenheit.
Tesla chargers
If you want something more portable and less expensive than the Tesla Wall Connector (and you can deal with slower charging): The Tesla Mobile Connector is a good option. Unlike the Wall Connector, the Mobile Connector can’t be hardwired into your home’s electrical setup, but it comes with two interchangeable plugs: NEMA 5-15 (for a standard 120 V outlet) and NEMA 14-50 (for a more powerful 240 V outlet). It comes with a convenient mesh zip-up storage case, it’s small and sleek, and, at 5 pounds, it’s lighter than any other contender. Like the Wall Connector, it’s backed by a two-year warranty, is UL-listed, is rated to operate safely at temperatures between.22° to 122° Fahrenheit, and has an IP55 weatherproof rating. It has a lower amperage rating (12 A with the NEMA 5-15 plug or 32 A with the NEMA 14-50 plug) than the Wall Connector (which offers 48 A), and its 20-foot cord is on the short side compared with most we tested. But these tradeoffs might be worthwhile if you want a charger you can keep in your trunk for emergencies or occasional slow-charging. Also, at this writing, it costs just 200, making it the least expensive charger we tested.
Sustainability and EV chargers
By most metrics, driving an electric vehicle is much kinder to the environment than driving a gas-powered car. Fossil fuels produce large quantities of carbon dioxide when burned, and in turn those carbon emissions trap heat in the atmosphere and lead to climate change.
In 2020, the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in the US was the transportation sector, primarily from combustion-engine cars and trucks. By contrast, in 2022 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that EVs “offer the largest decarbonisation potential for land-based transport.” They have no tailpipe emissions, require much less maintenance than traditional vehicles, and lack many of the components that have historically made cars difficult to recycle. (At the same time, it’s important to recognize that the process for recycling lithium-ion batteries, the kind found in EVs and most other rechargeable devices, is still far from perfect.)
In terms of charging EV batteries, there’s still room for improvement, since about 61% of the electricity generated in the US currently comes from fossil fuels. However, if you’re able to install rooftop solar panels or another energy-efficient electrical system in your home, you could greatly reduce the climate impact of powering your EV charger. Even if you’re not a homeowner, there might be a community solar program that you can take advantage of in your area.
As with most electronic devices, one of the most sustainable things you can do with an EV charger is treat it well, avoiding the need to replace it. If a part breaks or it stops working, the company might offer replacement parts or repairs (especially if the charger is still under warranty). There’s also a growing industry built around maintaining and repairing EV chargers, and many DIY-ers offer free tutorials if you want to try your hand at it (if you have questions, we recommend consulting the community at iFixIt, especially if you’re new to electronics repair).
Even if your charger is running like Usain Bolt (as in, perfectly), you can keep its ticker ticking longer by wiping off any excess dust and moisture that accumulates on its exterior surfaces, since they can degrade metal and plastic over time. Also, to avoid damage, don’t run your charger if the weather is hotter or colder than its rated operating temperature. Keep in mind that a stuffy garage is often hotter than the temperature outside.
Sadly, at some point, even the sturdiest and most scrupulously cared-for EV charger will reach its end of days. When that happens, the best thing to do is recycle it. Recycling facilities salvage usable components from old electronics, which can mitigate the need to mine and manufacture the materials needed to make new ones. So this simple action can help conserve natural resources, reduce emissions, and avoid polluting soil and water systems. (And if you’re unsure how to recycle electronics, here’s a handy guide.)
The competition
The Blink HQ 150 is small and streamlined, weighs just 16 pounds, and comes with a wall-mountable cord organizer. It’s also UL-listed, backed by a three-year warranty, and has a 25-foot cord (among the longest we’ve seen—and the longest the National Electrical Code (NEC) will allow). However, it has the lowest amperage rating we accepted in our testing pool (32 A), and we were unable to confirm this in our hands-on testing since it can only be hardwired or plugged into a NEMA 6-50 outlet (we used a NEMA 14-50 outlet for our testing, which is more common). The plug has a handy rubber cap attached to keep out dust and moisture, but it’s otherwise less weatherized than most models we tested; it has a NEMA 3R rating (similar to an IP14 rating), which means it’s only somewhat protected from accumulating ice, airborne dust, and falling rain, sleet, and snow.
The Electrify America EA2R040JPA10-00 slightly exceeded its amperage rating (40 A) in our testing, reaching 45 A with the ID.4 and 40 A with the Model Y. It’s large yet streamlined, weighing just 20 pounds, and it has a 24-foot cord, a built-in cable organizer, and a wall-mountable plug holster. It’s backed by a three-year warranty, is UL-certified, and has two installation options: NEMA 14-50 plug or hardwired. However, it’s on the pricey side (650 at this writing), and its NEMA 3R rating makes it one of the least weatherized models we tested.
The Enphase HCS-50 is on the larger side, but it has a slim profile, and, at 14 pounds, it’s one of the most lightweight models we tested. It has a 25-foot cord, a built-in cable organizer, a wall-mountable plug holster, a lock on the plug to prevent illicit charging, and a NEMA 4 (similar to IP56) weatherization rating. It’s also ETL-certified, backed by a three-year warranty, rated to operate safely at temperatures from.22° to 122° Fahrenheit, and available in a NEMA 6-50, NEMA 14-50, or hardwired configuration. However, its amperage rating is on the lower end (40 A), and it’s the priciest model we tested, costing 725 at this writing.
This article was edited by Ben Keough and Erica Ogg.