Buying a new EV charger

Batpred · 2025-10-22T13:10:53Z

I had an EV car for a few years and an EV charger for a bit longer.You may wonder why I didn’t wait until ordering my BMW and let the salesperson “handle that for me”? Everyone’s different. We read the regs, we wanted the wiring neat. Our wall insulation was planned. We wanted the wall tidy. So we took charge (pun mildly intended). We bought the charger unit, got a proper electrician who gave the certificate and all. When I realised the registration hadn’t been done with the DNO—well, I did it. Now I’m eyeing up a second charger. Same house, same optimism—but definitely not the same brand. Here’s what matters to me these days: reliability. Do what it says on the tin. No “beta features” that turns us into lab mice testers. No app that thinks my driveway is under the 5G mast. Or one that tries to deceive the ISO level API security standards my car manufacturer made available (with a sorry end). Ideally my charger should: Top up the car battery to a minimum level by a set time (for those early commuters among us). No ifs nor buts. Do it as cheaply as possible, without any safety shortcuts. Use my PV power smartly or buy leccy when the grid’s cheap. And if so, charge it to a higher level. Have an app that remembers who it is from one week to the next. Or no app at all, what’s wrong with a touchscreen on the charger? And yes, it should be “kind to the grid.” Though honestly—how’s a normal human supposed to know what that means? Half the time, “grid-friendly” seems to mean “we limited your charging speed without telling you.” What about you—have you found a charger that behaves like a grown-up appliance instead of an overexcited teenager with a Wi-Fi addiction?

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Batpred

(@batpred)

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Joined: 12 months ago

Posts: 349

Topic starter 04/12/2025 5:28 pm

Posted by: @agentgeorge

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@batpred they should change their name to OhMy!

Absolutely, but they seem to make great youtube videos singing to the tune of an app with great UI...

They avoided my direct question about how I can use their charger using the API as a dumb socket...

We have continuous issues. The "app" no longer checks the car battery level and now it also does not charge when we need it to.

16kWh Seplos Fogstar battery; 8kW Solis S6-EH1P8K-L-PLUS hybrid inverter; Ohme Home Pro EV charger; 100Amp head, HA lab on mini PC

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AgentGeorge

(@agentgeorge)

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Joined: 11 months ago

Posts: 113

04/12/2025 7:12 pm

@batpred Inwas looking at the Ånderson Wall Box, found the original directors sold out the company and formed a new one Simpson & Partners. They make a very nice compact unit, now at revision 3. It looks to tick all the boxes, has all the options now built in, Solar, Load Balancing, no cable to get damaged or vandalised, light on the charge socket so easy to find in the dark.

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