I worked for a cable company and the biggest single issue our customers had was cable being cut and stolen for the copper - sometimes when it was live. Most charging points are at the front of the house and on view from the road so visible to local low life. Also on most tethered units I see the cable is exposed, damp and dirty so it never gets wound away properly after use and in any case always looks untidy on a smart home front. If it gets damaged because its exposed or not stowed away, then its extra cost and aggro to order and fit a replacemnent & how do you charge in the meantime? My cable spends 99% of its time in a clean and dry boot - it might get wet and a bit dirty over one charging period but not enough to deter coiling up and putting away. Most charger cables are pretty tough these days, but I've seen real deterioration in the sheaths of cables after UV exposure in a few hot summers. Finally, you've paid for the cable with the car, why pay for another one with a charge point?
I've got a type 1 tethered as I had two Mitsubishis. Bought an MG with type 2 and still have a Mitsubishi with type 1 so bought a type1 to 2 adaptor off eBay, works for both cars.
My installer and I agreed between us that a tethered charger with 10m cable was the best option as it comfortable reaches the garage where the car is parked. After 6 months, this arrangement has worked well for the reasons you give and it also looks quite neat thanks to the charger's cable tidy.
Untethered is useful if you want to use an Ohme cable with an electricity tariff such as Octopus Agile. We've got a BMW branded tethered charger, but cannot finely control start and finish of charging with this. We got a free BP Chargemaster (untethered) charger with our 2nd (additional) EV, and using an Ohme cable with this allows charging carefully synchronised with the Agile tariff.
@@NicolasRaimo Like many people, our (second) charger was installed for free as part of a package with a new car. Because of this, I chose Untethered, so I could add an Ohme cable to give fine control (cost £150 with a special offer)
We have four Ev Chargers at home on 3 Phase Power. 🇬🇧 1 x 7kW untethered which is connected to Solar & home storage batteries. This can be used by any car, variable cable lengths. 1 x 22kW tethered wall charger (Grid Only) for daily use 1 x 22kW untethered wall charger (Grid Only) for guest use. 1 x 7kW 32 Amp Commando Socket for Off-Grid Emergency use with Universal Mobile Charger on any car type... attached to Home Storage & Solar
Good to know I'm not the only idiot who managed to damage my tethered cable by reversing my car over it! (The sort of mistake you only make once!) But in my defence my garage is only slightly wider than my car and it is a lot easier to recoil the cable after driving the car out of the garage. Another advantage of tethered is that you are still able to charge at home if your vehicles cable is stolen or damaged when public charging. Or you are unable to release it from a public charger.
Mate, Happy wife - happy life! I just got a untethered one and regretted it already.. Will be fitting a padlock bolted to the wall and basically leave the cable always plugged in.... Only downside is that i got an Indra Smart Pro and there is no way to "disable" the charger to prevent unauthorized use....
@@NicolasRaimo Yeah that's the general idea, however not quite the case when one lives right next to a busy air B&B... from driveway parking to noise you would be amazed :) I recently had someone plug a granny charger once (well only noticed once) on my outdoors socket next to my driveway!! As evil as I am I just switched the MCB and done eheheh!! Not bothered about a few quid at all, and would have helped if asked... Now with a nice 7Kw fountain on the wall... Lets see...
@@jsva8661 Maybe put a notice there's a £5 charge to use and to post into letter box, you could set the charger to only charge after 12:30 most won't press or notice the boost function.
@@NicolasRaimo That's what i am thinking doing, but to be honest either that or just put a steel bar locking the consumer unit where the RCBO is. switch it off, lock it and done! No occupied driveways, no abuse no nothing :) But for now, i will just see on how it goes :) Thanks for the advice!
Untethered chargers are also preferable if you live anywhere with snow conditions (and your charger is not inside a garage). If a tethered cable loop is not fully clearing the top of the snow when not in use, the plow service will refuse to clear the snow on your parking/street, as they can not be sure where the cable is going. (Side note: There is no lethal voltage in a tethered cable when not connected to the car, but the plow operators still stay away....) Maybe not an issue in the UK, though!
Aye. Specially during bad weather! It was bad enough when we were using the granny charger while waiting for the wall box . Its the Mrs car and I was the one that kept going out there to plug and unplug the thing!! It was inconvenient which defeated the whole thing of charging at home.
@@wobby1516 You make it sound so good albeit, Im the kind to open the doors for people of whatever gender.... On this occasion it was more of a self preservation thing 😬
I got an untethered unit so I could use an extra long cable to charge the EV even if it was parked at the end of the drive. The only (free with my car) option for a tethered charger was quite short. I then bought a long cable that lives attached to the unit, meaning it has the same advantages of the tethered one anyway. And yes, I'm aware that you can get longer cables with tethered chargers, but it wasn't part of the free charger with a Zoe offer.
To be honest the free charger they offer the zoe is a perfectly good waste of the grant money from the government, specially if you want to integrate it correctly with smart home and smart deals. If you just wanted a free outside power socket then its totally fine.
@@duncanmartin2626 There were a very small handful but the market has moved on massive this year with nearly all going OCPP meaning they are super smart!
Not if you thread the cable through a wall mounted bicycle security bracket. They'd have to then cut the cable into two, making it useless. That's what I've done.
If you got a generation 1 leaf, so frog shape if you like then your plug be a type 1 and won't work with type 2 cars unless you get an adapter like this amzn.to/3quo3sK
Make your mind up! @7:16 you say the untethered is more expensive than the tethered - then @ 7:33 you say the exact opposite. For clarification, the tethered charger is always more expensive than the untethered because you are paying for the tethered cable in the first instance!
What for?… me or you? As the 2 answers won’t be the same… it’s why am doing a playlist of chargers to review them all to find the right charger that fits you