Tesla Universal Wall Connector

[flyct]

I’ve been using a Gem 3 Tesla Wall connector for about 3 years at both our house and our cabin. About 20 months ago we added a Lightning and we have been charging it with the Tesla Wall Connector with a NACS to J1772 adapter. Well last week after charging the Lightning I couldn‘t got the adapter to resease from the Tesla NACS plug. I thought I was going to have to use a Dremel to cut the adapter off. My wife was able to get it detached after fiddling with it for over a half hour.

So I bought 2 Tesla Universal Wall Connectors on EBay. I installed the first one at the cabin today since we were here. I’m impressed with the way Tesla designed the dual mode NACS & J1772, plug. It was a simple procedure to swap the 3 year old Gen3=with the new Universal.

When I get home my thought is to install the new Universal in place of the existing Gen3 Wall Connector and “daisy chain” the original Gen 3 on the other side of the garage to power share the 60 amp breaker. I’ll set the new Universal as a “leader” and the other as a “follower“.

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[Heliian]

Seems like a big waste of time and money to swap out functional EVSEs but you do you.

I would have just bought a new adapter.

 

[flyct]

Seems like a big waste of time and money to swap out functional EVSEs but you do you.

I would have just bought a new adapter.

If I only had one EV then buying a new adapter would be the easiest. But we have 3 EVs (Ford and Tesla) that need to be charged so I’m constantly installing and removing the adapter.

As far as waste of time, it took me less than 30 minutes to swap out the Gen3 with the Universal.

Using the A2Z adapter that I carry in the Frunk for use on the road was my original thought. but a quality adapter would cost about $75. I bought the “open box”, new Universal EVSEs for the $450 each. I’ll sell the used Gen3 for at least $300 so the difference isn’t that bad. The convenience is well worth the extra $75 cost difference after factoring in an additional adapter.

Plus as a bonus I get to install a 2nd one in the house garage that can easily power share and be daisy chained the single 60 amp circuit. You need one Universal version to be used as the “leader” to daisy chain.

 

[ijustice]

I also swapped out my juice box charger for two universal tesla chargers, daisy chained because we have gone from one ev (lightning) to total three (lightning plus two teslas.) now charging the two at one time is so easy. After install I didn’t adjust the current properly for the Circuit, quickly realized and went back and fixed that, that was a bit of a scare. I also got the chargers off eBay for about half what they are selling for by tesla. Ended up putting the juice box at a second home. It’s a shame I didn’t do all this initially but I also didn’t think I’d go all in on ev’s. Will now probably purchase two more ev’s,

 

[flyct]

I also swapped out my juice box charger for two universal tesla chargers, daisy chained because we have gone from one ev (lightning) to total three (lightning plus two teslas.)……………… Will now probably purchase two more ev’s,

Owning an EV can be addictive. Last week hopefully it was the last time I will need to visit a gas station. I put $75 of diesel in my F-450 in order to tow our 5th wheel camper to the new owner. Then I drove the 450 to the dealership to sell it to them. We are now free of the fossil fuel robber barons.

It took us about 11 years of EV ownership to be able to purchase EV’s with enough range to not have to have an ICE vehicle as a backup. We started with a 2015 Nissan Leaf that couldn’t make it from the dealer 100 miles away to home without a recharge.

 

[flyct]

Here’s a video on power sharing aka load management.

 

[RickLightning]

I contemplated putting in Tesla Universal Chargers after the JuiceBox debacle, but decided I didn't want to spend that kind of money. Instead, I replaced my JuiceBox boards with OpenEVSE boards, and set each to 24amps, pending someone writing the code for load balancing.

 

[Yellow Buddy]

I’ve been using a Gem 3 Tesla Wall connector for about 3 years at both our house and our cabin. About 20 months ago we added a Lightning and we have been charging it with the Tesla Wall Connector with a NACS to J1772 adapter. Well last week after charging the Lightning I couldn‘t got the adapter to resease from the Tesla NACS plug. I thought I was going to have to use a Dremel to cut the adapter off. My wife was able to get it detached after fiddling with it for over a half hour.

So I bought 2 Tesla Universal Wall Connectors on EBay. I installed the first one at the cabin today since we were here. I’m impressed with the way Tesla designed the dual mode NACS & J1772, plug. It was a simple procedure to swap the 3 year old Gen3=with the new Universal.

When I get home my thought is to install the new Universal in place of the existing Gen3 Wall Connector and “daisy chain” the original Gen 3 on the other side of the garage to power share the 60 amp breaker. I’ll set the new Universal as a “leader” and the other as a “follower“.

Just an FYI - it’s now against code to daisy chain them. I had Gen 1s that shared a circuit with comms, but the Gen 3s operate in dedicated circuits due to the code change.

 

[flyct]

Just an FYI - it’s now against code to daisy chain them. I had Gen 1s that shared a circuit with comms, but the Gen 3s operate in dedicated circuits due to the code change.

What code would that be?

On page 35 of the most recent Gen3 installation manual shows that you can use " GROUP POWER MANAGEMENT" Group Power Management Setup With Single Branch Circuit..

A Gen3 at the end of the daisy chain line only requires one lug per wire input, so essentially it isn't daisy chained.

The beauty of the Universal Wall Connector is that they provide 2 lugs per connection to easily facilitate Daisy Chaining them

https://digitalassets.tesla.com/tesla-contents/image/upload/gen-3-wall-connector-manual.pdf


Breaker and Branch Circuit Setup Group power management circuits may be installed in an electrical panel that supports other loads. If space is limited or the main power supply is far from the Wall Connectors, installing a dedicated load center may be prudent. See below for examples of Wall Connector group power management diagrams (one with sub-panel and one without). Each individual Wall Connector in below examples is capable of providing 48 amps when it is the only one in use. As more Wall Connectors begin plugging into vehicles, the system will automatically distribute power based on the total power allocated to the site.

 

[FloridaMan655321]

I went with the universal one as well. I like to have Tesla control the times when it can charge as I've read the Ford app can mess up. It does require having an extra app installed on my phone, but whatever.
I do like how they made it so the adapter stays with the station or the cable. Kind of makes it dummy proof but also secure. And whenever I upgrade to another vehicle (or my wife buys an EV) with a NACS charger, there isn't anything to swap out or change.

 

[flyct]

With the Universal Connector you can’t loose the adaptor. It stays locked in either the base station when using it in a NACS port or locked in the handle when using it with a J1772 charging port vehicle. Definitely dummy proof and secure.

On another note. On our 125 mile trip from the house to the cabin my Teslas use 31-36 kWhs and the Lightning uses 55-62 kWhs as reported by the Tesla Wall Connectors.

 

[beast]

I need to do this soon. Just bought my girl a new tesla model Y for the baby we having coming and plan on adding another universal charger and daisy chaining

 

[RickLightning]

With the Universal Connector you can’t loose the adaptor. It stays locked in either the base station when using it in a NACS port or locked in the handle when using it with a J1772 charging port vehicle. Definitely dummy proof and secure.

On another note. On our 125 mile trip from the house to the cabin my Teslas use 31-36 kWhs and the Lightning uses 55-62 kWhs as reported by the Tesla Wall Connectors.

Two points.

1) How do you lose an adapter at your house? I don't get that.

2) The charger is reporting energy from the house. You actually get in the vehicle about 7% less. I haven't yet compared your numbers, but the truck is 40% less efficient than a Mach-E, I'd expect the same for a Tesla sedan. But it's a 70%+ difference. Wow.

 

[Maquis]

What code would that be?

Until the 2023 NEC, each EVSE was required to be on its own branch circuit. If one lives in a jurisdiction that has not yet adopted NEC 2023, this is technically a violation. That said, I’d do it anyway!

 

[HOTAS]

I got a Tesla UWC and it’s power sharing with a pre existing Tesla Gen3 WC,
daisy chained. Awesome setup.
I made a post about it a few months ago.

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