ChargePoint Home Flex: Universal Level 2 EV Charger with J1772 Connector

Charger was promptly delivered. Instructions were clear and made the install easy. The App that works with it via my iphone works well. Not cheap, but seems worth it overall

I’m an amateur electrician and like to diy. I did pull a permit before doing this. Initially I was going to do conduit and 6 awg THHN wire (10 awg ground). But, the local stores only had 100’ spools and cost got a little crazy.

With 6-2 NM-B (Romex), 3/4” wire staples (get the ones that say 6-2), a 50 amp breaker, 1” nm-b connector (panel), and a 3/4” nm-b connector (charge point rear mounting point) I was set.

6-2 romex is limited to 55 amps and continuous chargers delayed it to 80% so you’re limited to 40 amp charging. That’s roughly 30 miles/hour according to the manual.

You’ll want some way to cut the sheath/strip wires (I used a a box cutter.. box stores don’t sell tools for the larger wire). Having a drill/impact driver to cut holes in your joists (look up before you do it, there’s rules). I used a 7/8” spade drill bit to cut the holes. Beyond that I did cut some drywall; a dry wall saw gave me plenty of room to work in.

Beyond that the manual is great. Software is easy to use and works with my electrical company for cheaper scheduled charging.

Bought this and installed it myself. If you have even a little construction know how and your breaker box is inside the garage don’t pay an electrician $700 to do this. It’s so easy.

The electrician installed the unit and had it all wired up in an hour, but then he had to set up an "Installer Account" to tell the home office what size circuit breaker the unit was using. But that didn't let it charge any faster than 16 amps. Then I, the user, had to then create a user account to activate the charging unit. That sounds easy, but the unit wants to connect to the internet through your homes Wi-Fi / blue tooth connection to get the circuit breaker information to know how much current it can push when charging. My problem is I live in the country without any Internet, other than my phone. We called the company to ask for help, and they stayed on the phone for over an hour trying to work us through the problem, and the final answer was that we would be stuck with the slower 16 amps of charge until we could get internet. The electrician told them that they needed a bank of dip switches in the unit so he could select the output current (since the details of how much current it can put based on circuit breaker size is in the manual) instead of this #### internet setup.

After we hung up we got the idea to use the electrician's cell phone as a an internet hot spot, and I logged into it and was able to activate the unit. Even then, I had to stand in the garage near the unit, and the electrician had to stand 30 feet outside the garage to get a cell phone signal to be able to make the connection.
So, my bottom line is: If you don't have easy access to the internet at the location of your charging station, buy something else.

Everything works as promised, but I have a deep garage bay and where the unit needed to be installed, the cord barely reaches to the port on the back end of my large EV9, even when as close as I can get. 5' longer would have given a few more options. Just make sure to allow for some slack with the length of cord and where your station is installed, so that you aren't having to "stretch" the cord off the floor to reach the charging port. Install was expensive because it was about 30' away from my panel and conduit had to be run. The price on Amazon was the best I could find for this unit. After several quotes, my install parts & labor was a little over $1300. I also found out that registering an EV vehicle in my state is twice as expensive my gasoline SUV was. I guess the state is making up for the taxes it is unable to get from you for buying gas.

Had a little trouble getting it to hook-up to Wi-Fi at first, but all is well now. Way cheaper to charge at home than at fast charging stations. .56/KWH at public chargers, .14/KWH at home.

Had the hardwired version installed by a licensed electrician - figured since my utility company was reimbursing me...why not? The only kicker was that I had to install ONLY the ChargePoint Home Flex - no other charger brand. The same for obtaining the reimbursement for the actual (partial) purchase price of the charger from my home state. There is a very limited list in my state - so, I went with the one (and only one) that will provide me with off-peak charging credits from my utility - ChargePoint Home Flex. THIS CHARGER IS GARBAGE!! While Amazon may have 35k+ folks purchasing it and giving it decent reviews - they are probably locked into their utility company's mandate (as I am). After the electrician installed it, the charger connected to my app and WiFi and was up and running in seconds!!! But, after that first day/charge - that was it. Two very looooooong calls to ChargePoint Customer Service had them recommending I return it to Amazon for a refund. Well....who is going to pay to have the electrician come back out to uninstall then reinstall the replacement??!!!! ChargePoint didn't have an answer for that one. After reading a TON of Reddit posts with thousands of folks being roped in and experiencing this very same issue, I decided I would give it just one more try, but from a different retailer who may have units with updated Wifi modules installed. I will try the recommended hack of changing my Wifi password to one with no special characters (seems like total BS to me); and if this one doesn't work - then no more ChargePoint for me!! I will forego by utility company's discounts (sadly), and write them a loooooooong letter complaining about ChargePoint's quality control (and suggest everyone else do the same). This will be the only way we will change their minds and get the discounts we deserve. because the utility companies can't address a problem they don't know about. AND...don't let ChargePoint tell you that you have a weak Wifi signal in your garage - adding extenders don't work - even setting your cell phone up as a hotspot and putting it right next to the charger will not get your ChargePoint unit connect. NOTE: Don't know if this is a problem that exists solely with the hardwired version - would be nice to know. **UPDATE** There seems to be some truth to the notion that Chargepoint does not play well with your WiFi if your password contains special characters and/or there are other smart devices on the same network (ie: speakers, thermostats, etc.). So, when I installed the new unit purchased from different retailer (in the hopes the faulty WiFI modules had been updated), I also added a new network to my router where just the ChargePoint would live...no special characters in either the network name or password, and 2.4GHz (for additional range), just for a little additional insurance. So far, it has been working well...fingers crossed!!!