T8 charging

[siebek]

Originally Posted by Automatic Only

Looks like I'll have to buy a longer cable - have found one online for £200 + VAT which is 10m which should be more than long enough and I can probably sell the original Volvo one to recoup some of the cost.
My only slight concern is whether using a 3rd party cable would invalidate the warranty - does anyone have any knowledge on this front?

How can you invalidate the warranty? Someone may need to correct me, but how would Volvo know what type of cable you've used?
I've been using 5m extension cable with 2.5mm2 conductor cross-section for over 8 months now. If you know something about electrics, you will know it is safe to use such extension cable for charging your Volvo. All the restrictions included in manual are to ensure that people don't use underspecified extensions. Some of the extension cables have very thin conductors which may overheat, melt the insulation and result in fire risk.

[Automatic Only]

Originally Posted by siebek

How can you invalidate the warranty? Someone may need to correct me, but how would Volvo know what type of cable you've used?
I've been using 5m extension cable with 2.5mm2 conductor cross-section for over 8 months now. If you know something about electrics, you will know it is safe to use such extension cable for charging your Volvo. All the restrictions included in manual are to ensure that people don't use underspecified extensions. Some of the extension cables have very thin conductors which may overheat, melt the insulation and result in fire risk.

Yes I can't think of any way they could tell what method of charging you have been using.
Have you been using this in bad weather with no problems? The thing I am most scared of happening is rain causing the RCD to trip and killing the whole building of power.

[Automatic Only]

After a lot of deliberation and swinging in different directions as to what to do I have finally ordered one of the below at 15m long:

https://www.toughleads.co.uk/collect...rs-rcd-options

It seems that they are designed with EV charging in mind and have seen positive reviews on other EV forums of them so hopefully it all works well!
Car finally (after nearly 8 months) being delivered on Tuesday - can't wait to get my hands on it!

[Moonlanders]

Originally Posted by Automatic Only

After a lot of deliberation and swinging in different directions as to what to do I have finally ordered one of the below at 15m long:

https://www.toughleads.co.uk/collect...rs-rcd-options

It seems that they are designed with EV charging in mind and have seen positive reviews on other EV forums of them so hopefully it all works well!
Car finally (after nearly 8 months) being delivered on Tuesday - can't wait to get my hands on it!

It will be interesting to see your feedback once you receive and have used this. This looks perfect for charging at our static caravan where the standard lead will not reach. Thanks for sharing.

[Automatic Only]

Originally Posted by Moonlanders

It will be interesting to see your feedback once you receive and have used this. This looks perfect for charging at our static caravan where the standard lead will not reach. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks - yes I'll let you know how I get on!
One other question that has just cropped up is how important is it that the 3 pin plug is not unplugged during charging? Volvo seem to say that it can damage the socket if this happens - I'm just slightly concerned just in case someone pulls it out as I won't be babysitting it!

[Automatic Only]

Originally Posted by Moonlanders

It will be interesting to see your feedback once you receive and have used this. This looks perfect for charging at our static caravan where the standard lead will not reach. Thanks for sharing.

I have used this to charge the car since yesterday (2 full charges and a few part charges) - seems very good so far. Cable stays cold (I think it's rated at 15 amps) and seems very good quality. The only slightly annoying thing is that due to the length (15m) it does get in a tangle quite easily as there is no reel. However due to the nature of the cable it's not too difficult to untangle.
It seems to charge the car in about 4 hours 30 which suggests a draw of around 11 amps - I haven't found a way of adjusting the charging speed and can't seem to find it in the manual either, if there is a way of doing this and anyone knows then I would be interested to know how...