About time!!! I’ve been waiting for this review. I’m about to get tied into the Enphase ecosystem with Solar and wonder if this is the way to go. Thanks!
The company that supplied and installed my Enphase system, including 2x 5P batteries told me that they'd had limited success integrating the Enphase IQ charger for other customers. I'm now in a dialog with them to learn more. I posted a question on the Enphase NA owners' FB page and got a couple of positive comments, bar the pricing. I'll post more here if I learn anything useful.
We have 2 hardwired outside at work. Been running for about 6 months through winter. Very easy and run every day with 2 Teslas, Ionic 5 and a Lightning. Looks like we will have another 5-10 evs by the end of the year. My only complaint is I wish it had more power so my ionic could take full advantage
Great review Tom. I actually have one I'll be reviewing very soon so it's good to see your thoughts before I test it out haha. I didn't realize the Hubbell 14-50 outlet was included. That's great. I've been meaning to upgrade mine (my current one isn't a Leviton, but with how many times I plug/unplug I want the Hubbell). It is very interesting to me the amperage isn't adjustable considering it's a smart charger. I don't think I've seen any other smart chargers without that functionality. Have you?
Good review, Tom. Thanks. I've got the dumb (no Wi-Fi) 60 amp Clipper Creek unit (outputs 48 amps continuous) and like it fine. It's installed inside my garage. I like the 5-year warranty. I don't want the Wi-Fi--just more opportunity for stuff to go wrong and an added vulnerability to folks on the internet who want to cause mischief. I was happy to pay the higher price to get what I expect to be an extended life and to get the satisfaction of buying an EVSE made in the USA,
Very useful review, thank you! I do wish Enphase would provide a connector holster that isn't right-handed - many must need a holster that projects straight out from the wall. I may have to buy a 3D printed holster from Etsy. I'm having an IQ40 charger installed next month along with solar and batteries. My goal is to to charge the car exclusively with excess solar to avoid selling the excess power back to my utility at a low NEM3 rate, as much as possible (California).
The Enlighten app is the same app that one uses if you have an Enphase micro-inverter based solar PV system. Looks like a well-built unit, but over-priced compared to other high-quality units, like the Tesla Universal Wall Connector
Since I already have enphase software with my solar install, I may choose this over chargepoint if I wanted to waste $500 on a 40amp charger. But I would honestly pass on both due to the cost
Before dinging it for the high price, this is a solid ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ unit. People looking for the best quality unit and who are willing to pay for it should look beyond Tom's lower overall score-this has very little competition in that top tier It might be helpful to have separate scoring for capability/quality and for value. People can look at thr price themselves a d decide whether it's worth it. Setting aside price, what others are in this quality tier? Flo and Chargepoint?
_"It might be helpful to have separate scoring for capability/quality and for value"_ -- you might say the same thing about the "smart" features, which many people don't care about. But, I think things could get out of hand trying to provide so many different ratings. Personally, I think the combined rating is fine. Since all the details contributing to the rating are published, I find it reasonably easy to mentally adjust the score according to my own concerns. So e.g. even though this EVSE only got a 90, I can look at the "smart" column and see it lost a lot of points there, for stuff I don't care about. Someone else could do the same thing for the price/value column.
Not happy with my Enphase IQ 50 EV Charger - 40 amps. It only uses excess solar power in increments of 25% - so 10A, 20A, etc. My excess solar is never over 17A so I am limited to 10A charging on the automatic mode. I hear new models next year will match excess amp per amp, not limited to 25% increments. I am trying to get a refund or apply for next model, but no response from Enphase. Web page does not disclose this limitation - I had to call customer support. Very disappointed.
Interesting to know that. My Enphase installer told me they had some reservations about adding the IQ EV charger to my installation, I wonder if this is the reason. Do you have a way to exclude the EV charger from draining down the batteries in the event that you opted to charge overnight?
@@dougf94912 I don't have a battery. I don't know how this charger would work with a battery. The way it should work is that the EV charging (when available) take priority over external battery charging. If you have a battery, maybe you can rig it so that my problems are lessened, but I think it is better to wait for new models.
Reached an OK settlement for a small credit with Enphase and they said they would change their marketing information to better disclose this limitation.
Enphase isn't including the industrial grade Hubbell HBL9450A that everyone normally refers to. They are including the residential grade Hubbell RR450F. There is a big price (and weight) difference between the two.
@@mowcowbell many EVs do not allow you to adjust the amperage. Mine does not. Thus, this unit is not suitable for my use case and desired features. What, exactly, is your point by arguing with me about MY use case?
I like the Enphase/Clipper Creek approach better than most. You first figure out what charging rate you have capacity for, and then you buy the correct size unit. That means zero chance of a software update or hacker changing something resulting in overloading your wiring. And it means you don't need a heavier and more expensive 48 A cable if you are only charging at 32 A. I have an old, non-adjustable 32 A chargepoint home, and I am really glad I got that before they discontinued it in favor of the "Flex" model.
You beat me to it. Same here. Anxious for them to get bi-directional off the ground. Of course Rivian will have to also update my R1S for me to parktake
This is exactly what I was going to mention. Tom, any chance you will get a sneak peek at the bidirectional charger from Enphase? I sure hope that is J 3400, because I’m not planning on shelling out money for a non-future proof bidirectional charger.
It was delayed until 2025. Also wouldn’t get your hopes up about current cars supporting it, the standard for bi-directional charging is still very much in flux and could change. I know Enphase said they are still talking to manufacturers about supporting it
Likely not happening for a while. With the switch to NACs there will be a delay. Plus using same wires for AC & DC will be a big issue in bi-directional devices.
@@JeffreyAdams-kt5gv Hope that isn't true but you could be right. Regarding AC/DC- the CCS port for the Ioniq 6 puts out 220/120 volts of AC I think, so it might be easier to put it back into the AC home system then we think. It may depend on the car ability to do V2L/V2H.
I mounted two HCS-40 ClipperCreek Share2 chargers three years ago and have only one minor complain: I wish they would make a mirror image holster design to make the cable face the opposite direction. The east wall of our garage is perfect, but the west side would be improved with a left-handed holster.
Have you offered that suggestion to Enphase? They seem responsive to customer input; it's likely not something they'd be able to offer immediately, unless they were already working on it, but with enough people asking, they might add the option. In the meantime, sounds like a good scenario for 3D printing. Heck, if Enphase is willing to share CAD data for the holster they do produce, it wouldn't be hard to flip it in 3D design software and get a perfect 3D printed version that way.
@@harvey66616 I did ask around three years ago when we purchased them and they didn’t have any plans to produce an alternate version. The 3D printing idea is a good one, although I doubt they would be willing to share CAD models.
@@KyleBrightman _"I doubt they would be willing to share CAD models"_ -- maybe not. Companies can be fickle. But they don't really have any reason not to, other than the hassle. It's not like their holster design is some kind of proprietary secret and offering the models in lieu of having the mirrored option would be a selling point (of course offering the mirrored option already manufactured would be better, but it'd be an even bigger hassle for them to do that). There is precedent in other industries to provide mechanical drawings of the products, whether in CAD format or otherwise. They do it so that customers can integrate their products into the customers' own scenarios, which helps the companies sell more product. Enphase _might_ be encouraged to do the same. :)
Thanks for the detailed review! This helps a lot as I look for a replacement for my old Clipper Creek EVSE that is starting to fail (after 11 years of near-daily use). FWIW, the IQ 50 price is now about $100 less than when you reviewed it, and Enphase is offering a NACS plug option in addition to the J1771 version. It's otherwise still the same, and of course still missing a lot of the "fancy" features, but it's a better value with the lower price. Still not cheap, but my experience with Clipper Creek and then Enphase is that customer support is top-notch, and the quality of the products are as good or better than anything else on the market (I have another Clipper Creek EVSE that is still going strong, though admittedly has only been in service for 7 years).
Even though I already have a Autel Maxicharger and a Tesla Mobile connector mounted on my wall, I still enjoy watching your evse reviews. Keep up the great work! I wish my Autel cable was that flexible. It's terrible at any temp below 40F.
The enphase charger has a longer warranty because they know it’s higher quality. But I wish there was a feature to deactivate it from your phone if it’s mounted outside your home.
I too have had a 30-amp Clipper Creek for 7 years for use with my Volts, still going strong! I believe Clipper Creek built all of the level 1 chargers that came with the Volts. I paid $400 at the time and it has zero features; it's just a dumb box but it does its job well. The Volts take care of the scheduling so nothing more needed.
I thought there would the ChargePoint Home Flex would hold the deep freeze cable spot forever so it's nice to see this cable has good pliability. Even though this comes with a Hubble outlet it's still a very expensive unit. Besides the price I actually like this one.
This charger actually saves you money!!! Many people miss the fact that this charger makes dynamic decisions to start and stop charging depending on site conditions and your cost of power, (time of day etc). Tom and people please be sure to review the advanced capabilities of this charger, it will review if you have “excess solar power” available that the utility will give very little $ for, start charging, if the other way around occurs, you turn on loads air conditioning, electric oven etc, it can be set to stop charging until later. This can save you a lot of money, hundreds of $$$ each year. So far no other charger has these dynamic smart savings capabilities. (Some have a timer, some are getting, but an Enphase IQ EV charger saves you more money which is why it is often a better value than others.
Why? Most cars are still coming equipped with J1772 and not NACS. Sure NACS will be standard eventually, but "anyone putting in a charger" now is more likely to have a car that needs the J1771. In any case, the Enphase IQ line is now available with either J1772 or NACS as a customer option, so you can just pick the one you think works best for you.
Seems way over priced, even for the quality. A $26 discount for the hardwire version doesn't seem like enough. I would think the cord and receptacle costs quite a bit more than that. Good to see great cold weather performance.
It makes zero sense to me to use any charger other than the Tesla universal wall charger. The best bang for the buck slim, as powerful if not more powerful and cheaper than almost everything. Who pays more for less just because?
There are some people out there that will not purchase anything Tesla related. I agree with you that the Tesla Universal Wall Charger definitely is the solid choice, especially considering the transition happening to NACS, but having multiple options and competition is only a positive thing for consumers... assuming they don't just buy cheap trash off Amazon with no research.
what if you have a vehicle that takes more than 48a and want to charge in a reasonable time? there arent many that can, but that is a reasonable reason to buy something else.
I love how Tom gets excited every time he sees how cold his freezer can get
I love what I do!
I've had the older Clipper Creek unit for years, very robust unit, hard wired, outdoors in MA. Solid performer.
Ok including a high quality outlet in the kit is a home run in my book. that is great forward thinking by this brand.
About time!!! I’ve been waiting for this review. I’m about to get tied into the Enphase ecosystem with Solar and wonder if this is the way to go. Thanks!
The company that supplied and installed my Enphase system, including 2x 5P batteries told me that they'd had limited success integrating the Enphase IQ charger for other customers. I'm now in a dialog with them to learn more. I posted a question on the Enphase NA owners' FB page and got a couple of positive comments, bar the pricing. I'll post more here if I learn anything useful.
We have 2 hardwired outside at work. Been running for about 6 months through winter. Very easy and run every day with 2 Teslas, Ionic 5 and a Lightning. Looks like we will have another 5-10 evs by the end of the year. My only complaint is I wish it had more power so my ionic could take full advantage
Glad to see the product hasn’t lost any ground. So glad I chose ChargePoint Home Flex. Thanks Tom‼️ 36:04
Nice job Tom! Another super well done review.
Great review Tom. I actually have one I'll be reviewing very soon so it's good to see your thoughts before I test it out haha. I didn't realize the Hubbell 14-50 outlet was included. That's great. I've been meaning to upgrade mine (my current one isn't a Leviton, but with how many times I plug/unplug I want the Hubbell). It is very interesting to me the amperage isn't adjustable considering it's a smart charger. I don't think I've seen any other smart chargers without that functionality. Have you?
Good review, Tom. Thanks. I've got the dumb (no Wi-Fi) 60 amp Clipper Creek unit (outputs 48 amps continuous) and like it fine. It's installed inside my garage. I like the 5-year warranty. I don't want the Wi-Fi--just more opportunity for stuff to go wrong and an added vulnerability to folks on the internet who want to cause mischief. I was happy to pay the higher price to get what I expect to be an extended life and to get the satisfaction of buying an EVSE made in the USA,
Very useful review, thank you! I do wish Enphase would provide a connector holster that isn't right-handed - many must need a holster that projects straight out from the wall. I may have to buy a 3D printed holster from Etsy. I'm having an IQ40 charger installed next month along with solar and batteries. My goal is to to charge the car exclusively with excess solar to avoid selling the excess power back to my utility at a low NEM3 rate, as much as possible (California).
Clipper Creek used to manufacture in CA. What happened to that site?
Thank You for All that you are doing for our Planet Earth.
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The Enlighten app is the same app that one uses if you have an Enphase micro-inverter based solar PV system. Looks like a well-built unit, but over-priced compared to other high-quality units, like the Tesla Universal Wall Connector
Since I already have enphase software with my solar install, I may choose this over chargepoint if I wanted to waste $500 on a 40amp charger. But I would honestly pass on both due to the cost
You may have missed the smart $ saving features that this unit is capable of.
Before dinging it for the high price, this is a solid ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ unit. People looking for the best quality unit and who are willing to pay for it should look beyond Tom's lower overall score-this has very little competition in that top tier
It might be helpful to have separate scoring for capability/quality and for value. People can look at thr price themselves a d decide whether it's worth it.
Setting aside price, what others are in this quality tier? Flo and Chargepoint?
_"It might be helpful to have separate scoring for capability/quality and for value"_ -- you might say the same thing about the "smart" features, which many people don't care about. But, I think things could get out of hand trying to provide so many different ratings.
Personally, I think the combined rating is fine. Since all the details contributing to the rating are published, I find it reasonably easy to mentally adjust the score according to my own concerns. So e.g. even though this EVSE only got a 90, I can look at the "smart" column and see it lost a lot of points there, for stuff I don't care about.
Someone else could do the same thing for the price/value column.
Not happy with my Enphase IQ 50 EV Charger - 40 amps. It only uses excess solar power in increments of 25% - so 10A, 20A, etc. My excess solar is never over 17A so I am limited to 10A charging on the automatic mode. I hear new models next year will match excess amp per amp, not limited to 25% increments. I am trying to get a refund or apply for next model, but no response from Enphase. Web page does not disclose this limitation - I had to call customer support. Very disappointed.
Interesting to know that. My Enphase installer told me they had some reservations about adding the IQ EV charger to my installation, I wonder if this is the reason. Do you have a way to exclude the EV charger from draining down the batteries in the event that you opted to charge overnight?
@@dougf94912 I don't have a battery. I don't know how this charger would work with a battery. The way it should work is that the EV charging (when available) take priority over external battery charging. If you have a battery, maybe you can rig it so that my problems are lessened, but I think it is better to wait for new models.
Reached an OK settlement for a small credit with Enphase and they said they would change their marketing information to better disclose this limitation.
Enphase isn't including the industrial grade Hubbell HBL9450A that everyone normally refers to. They are including the residential grade Hubbell RR450F. There is a big price (and weight) difference between the two.
Why would anyone buy this instead of a Tesla wall connector?
69th like…. Nice.
The inability to adjust amperage is a huge miss. Total dealbreaker for an otherwise excellent unit.
Many EV's let you adjust the max amperage from a specific location (like on my Tesla Model Y). Having that ability would be redundant.
@@mowcowbell many EVs do not allow you to adjust the amperage. Mine does not. Thus, this unit is not suitable for my use case and desired features. What, exactly, is your point by arguing with me about MY use case?
@@loriallen67 You didn't say 'your use case', you weren't very clear. But I understand that it wouldn't work for you.
I like the Enphase/Clipper Creek approach better than most. You first figure out what charging rate you have capacity for, and then you buy the correct size unit. That means zero chance of a software update or hacker changing something resulting in overloading your wiring. And it means you don't need a heavier and more expensive 48 A cable if you are only charging at 32 A. I have an old, non-adjustable 32 A chargepoint home, and I am really glad I got that before they discontinued it in favor of the "Flex" model.
@@mowcowbell I don’t know who’s use case I would be referring to other than my own. 🤷🏼♀️
Sorry, too expensive and too big for 40 A.
I can hardly wait for you to review the Enphase EVSE that will be bi-directional. They claim this year. Have an Ioniq 6 to take advantage of that.
You beat me to it. Same here. Anxious for them to get bi-directional off the ground. Of course Rivian will have to also update my R1S for me to parktake
This is exactly what I was going to mention. Tom, any chance you will get a sneak peek at the bidirectional charger from Enphase? I sure hope that is J 3400, because I’m not planning on shelling out money for a non-future proof bidirectional charger.
It was delayed until 2025. Also wouldn’t get your hopes up about current cars supporting it, the standard for bi-directional charging is still very much in flux and could change. I know Enphase said they are still talking to manufacturers about supporting it
Likely not happening for a while. With the switch to NACs there will be a delay. Plus using same wires for AC & DC will be a big issue in bi-directional devices.
@@JeffreyAdams-kt5gv Hope that isn't true but you could be right. Regarding AC/DC- the CCS port for the Ioniq 6 puts out 220/120 volts of AC I think, so it might be easier to put it back into the AC home system then we think. It may depend on the car ability to do V2L/V2H.
I mounted two HCS-40 ClipperCreek Share2 chargers three years ago and have only one minor complain:
I wish they would make a mirror image holster design to make the cable face the opposite direction. The east wall of our garage is perfect, but the west side would be improved with a left-handed holster.
Have you offered that suggestion to Enphase? They seem responsive to customer input; it's likely not something they'd be able to offer immediately, unless they were already working on it, but with enough people asking, they might add the option.
In the meantime, sounds like a good scenario for 3D printing. Heck, if Enphase is willing to share CAD data for the holster they do produce, it wouldn't be hard to flip it in 3D design software and get a perfect 3D printed version that way.
@@harvey66616 I did ask around three years ago when we purchased them and they didn’t have any plans to produce an alternate version. The 3D printing idea is a good one, although I doubt they would be willing to share CAD models.
@@KyleBrightman _"I doubt they would be willing to share CAD models"_ -- maybe not. Companies can be fickle. But they don't really have any reason not to, other than the hassle. It's not like their holster design is some kind of proprietary secret and offering the models in lieu of having the mirrored option would be a selling point (of course offering the mirrored option already manufactured would be better, but it'd be an even bigger hassle for them to do that).
There is precedent in other industries to provide mechanical drawings of the products, whether in CAD format or otherwise. They do it so that customers can integrate their products into the customers' own scenarios, which helps the companies sell more product. Enphase _might_ be encouraged to do the same. :)
Thanks for the detailed review! This helps a lot as I look for a replacement for my old Clipper Creek EVSE that is starting to fail (after 11 years of near-daily use).
FWIW, the IQ 50 price is now about $100 less than when you reviewed it, and Enphase is offering a NACS plug option in addition to the J1771 version. It's otherwise still the same, and of course still missing a lot of the "fancy" features, but it's a better value with the lower price. Still not cheap, but my experience with Clipper Creek and then Enphase is that customer support is top-notch, and the quality of the products are as good or better than anything else on the market (I have another Clipper Creek EVSE that is still going strong, though admittedly has only been in service for 7 years).
Even though I already have a Autel Maxicharger and a Tesla Mobile connector mounted on my wall, I still enjoy watching your evse reviews. Keep up the great work! I wish my Autel cable was that flexible. It's terrible at any temp below 40F.
If the plug is a point out failure, why not just hardwire?
I recommend that.
FYI Clipper Creek had JuiceNet Wi-Fi units. My HCS-40P is a dumb EVSE and has been very reliable and is 9 years old now.
NACS connector is available now!
I don't mind the full version length, - (edit) I just watch it on double speed.
The enphase charger has a longer warranty because they know it’s higher quality. But I wish there was a feature to deactivate it from your phone if it’s mounted outside your home.
You can get locking plug covers?
Hi Tom, looks like Enphase has 32 A, 40 A 48 A, and 64 A versions of the IQ charger. They are expensive, but I guess you get what you pay for.
The score is good, but it seems pretty dang pricey.
I too have had a 30-amp Clipper Creek for 7 years for use with my Volts, still going strong! I believe Clipper Creek built all of the level 1 chargers that came with the Volts. I paid $400 at the time and it has zero features; it's just a dumb box but it does its job well. The Volts take care of the scheduling so nothing more needed.
I thought there would the ChargePoint Home Flex would hold the deep freeze cable spot forever so it's nice to see this cable has good pliability. Even though this comes with a Hubble outlet it's still a very expensive unit. Besides the price I actually like this one.
This charger actually saves you money!!! Many people miss the fact that this charger makes dynamic decisions to start and stop charging depending on site conditions and your cost of power, (time of day etc). Tom and people please be sure to review the advanced capabilities of this charger, it will review if you have “excess solar power” available that the utility will give very little $ for, start charging, if the other way around occurs, you turn on loads air conditioning, electric oven etc, it can be set to stop charging until later. This can save you a lot of money, hundreds of $$$ each year. So far no other charger has these dynamic smart savings capabilities. (Some have a timer, some are getting, but an Enphase IQ EV charger saves you more money which is why it is often a better value than others.
I have the Solaredge evse running off excess solar. Love that our car is charged off sunlight. :)
31:15 you say it is not power adjustable, but gave it 0 instead of -1.
Ahh, good catch!
EARTHQUAKE TOMMY MOLO...!!! (Stop, Drop, and Roll)
Just seems like anyone putting in a charger should use NACS now.
Why? Most cars are still coming equipped with J1772 and not NACS. Sure NACS will be standard eventually, but "anyone putting in a charger" now is more likely to have a car that needs the J1771.
In any case, the Enphase IQ line is now available with either J1772 or NACS as a customer option, so you can just pick the one you think works best for you.
Seems way over priced, even for the quality. A $26 discount for the hardwire version doesn't seem like enough. I would think the cord and receptacle costs quite a bit more than that.
Good to see great cold weather performance.
It makes zero sense to me to use any charger other than the Tesla universal wall charger. The best bang for the buck slim, as powerful if not more powerful and cheaper than almost everything. Who pays more for less just because?
It's definitely a solid unit, but there is no "one size fits all" for home charging. There are units that are better suited for some customers.
There are some people out there that will not purchase anything Tesla related. I agree with you that the Tesla Universal Wall Charger definitely is the solid choice, especially considering the transition happening to NACS, but having multiple options and competition is only a positive thing for consumers... assuming they don't just buy cheap trash off Amazon with no research.
Because the Tesla unit does not work with my enphase solar system. That’s why I wouldn’t buy a Tesla unit.
what if you have a vehicle that takes more than 48a and want to charge in a reasonable time? there arent many that can, but that is a reasonable reason to buy something else.
@@Mobile_Dom there are versions of this charger up to 64 amp, if your car can handle that.