is there any problem with charging the leaf only with 120?

There is no adverse effects to using the 110v, trickle-charge cable, other than it takes a very long time to fully charge the car.

I called Nissan LEAF customer service and asked them some questions about battery life and charging. According to this agent they recommend charging at LEVEL 2. Level 1 is for convenience when you don't have 220V. Will trickle hurt it? Don't think so, and I did not press the agent on if it would reduce life. The did offer that fast DC charging is not something you want to do often (if at all). Is there data to back that up or is this their opinion? Did you read the manual. Sometimes there are pearls of wisdom in there.

The issue with the fast charging is it creates heat and the leaf has no ability to deal with heat. Nissan foolishly has not installed any active cooling as most/all other electric car vendors have done. So when you fast charge this creates more heat, which will kill your battery.

Every Leaf on the road has a dying battery just a question of how fast

I think that is true level 2 is best over all. I do believe the fast charge once in a while can help battery so as you watch the temp. I have seen my Ahr and SOH move back up from a proper fast charge.

As long as the battery is not overheated quick charging does no harm.
The recommended charging temperature is 6-7 bars on the temperature gage. At lower and higher temperatures the charging rate is reduced. The battery should not be left at a low state of charge at temperatures below 0°F. The battery heater comes on at 0°F but not if the battery is below 30% if the car is not connected to the charging station.
Some do-it-yourselfers have routed a flexible duct from the HVAC to the battery compartment for cooling in hot ambient and heating in cold ambient temperatures. Perhaps some can inform the rest of us of the results?

I can't see any reason for the trickle charger to hurt anything. As others have said, the biggest issue with these batteries is heat. If anything, the 120V charger would put the least amount of heat into the battery. I've only had my Leaf for a few weeks, but I've only charged it with the 120V charger and haven't seen any issues.

The only thing the trickle charger may hurt is your wall outlet and its own plug, watch both like a hawk for any signs of heating or blackening of the terminals. If you find any, replace your wall receptacle. To produce a useful amount of 400V DC current for the Leaf battery from a 110V AC source takes more than a "trickle" of wall current.

Aside from that, the charge rate from the trickle charger is barely enough to heat the battery at all, and it's axiomatic for every battery chemistry known to man that slow charging is always healthier than fast. Some battery types are hurt less by fast charging, but that's all you can say. From a longevity standpoint, if you use the car little enough that the trickle charger keeps you rolling with no inconvenience, then it's the healthiest way to go.

I completely agree. If I was plugging into an old outlet that was only wired with 14 gauge wire, I'd feel differently about it, but in my particular case, it's a brand new outlet wired in 12 gauge. No signs of overheating yet! Though my girlfriend took the car today and ran the battery down to the VLB warning. It'll be over 20 hours charging, so I'm watching it close to make sure nothing gets too hot. I don't plan on continuing to use L1 forever, but until I finish rewiring the garage, L1 will have to do.

float_6969 wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 30, 2021 4:59 pm

I completely agree. If I was plugging into an old outlet that was only wired with 14 gauge wire, I'd feel differently about it, but in my particular case, it's a brand new outlet wired in 12 gauge. No signs of overheating yet! Though my girlfriend took the car today and ran the battery down to the VLB warning. It'll be over 20 hours charging, so I'm watching it close to make sure nothing gets too hot. I don't plan on continuing to use L1 forever, but until I finish rewiring the garage, L1 will have to do.

Sounds like you have an excellent handle on it. Happy (electric) motoring!

Thanks! The charge went fine! I checked the plug when I went to bed and it was slightly warm, but nothing I would call hot. It must have taken less than the 20 hours that the car predicted because it was charged when I woke up this morning and that was less than 16 hours charging.

That being said, I don't like that ANY heat built up in the plug and eventually I'm sure the heat would damage the outlet/plug, so L2 is definitely the better option.

once I put in the level 2 I couldn't ever think about going back. The systems are not very expensive anymore but when you have to get the Electrican in to wire it that will cost you, but my first charger I bought in 2012 cost $1795 bucks vs. one I put in my garage for $350 from ClipperCreek

That's one of the ones I was looking at. It seems a like it's a bit more sturdy than the others I've seen reviewed.

Good quality company, it isn't the build quality of the Enviro that i bought in 2012 but then again it cost a fraction of the cost. If your going to keep it outside I would buy a little better model with better built quality, the one I bought is in my garage for my plug-in hybrid while my outdoor one is used by the wife's leaf and is still solid after nearly daily use for over 9 years

It'll be in the garage, so I'm not too worried about it.

I put in this one

https://store.clippercreek.com/featured ... ng-station

works great it is inside my garage so I too wasn't worried about build. It is a very fast charger, my Mercedes Plug-in goes for 10% to 100% in less than 2 hours, it takes 9 hours with 110v

Nice! I have a new breaker panel with plenty of room and current capacity, so I'll do a higher wattage, but Clipper Creek looks like good stuff.

It was what my electrican recommended and he mostly does solar and car chargers, he thinks their stuff is the best value, and they are a California company although I suspect they don't build in CA

The website says made in the USA, so they may be a legit USA made product!

BadQ45t wrote: ↑

Fri May 28, 2021 12:32 pm

It was what my electrican recommended and he mostly does solar and car chargers, he thinks their stuff is the best value, and they are a California company although I suspect they don't build in CA

float_6969 wrote: ↑

Fri May 28, 2021 4:48 pm

The website says made in the USA, so they may be a legit USA made product!

If they are built in Cali then they're assembled by robots. There's no other way to make a manufacturing profit in the DPRC.

That may not last, either. I understand the Politburo in Sacramento is fixing to charge the robots income tax. They'll probably quit and move to Texas. I hear Tesla is looking for a new robot crew in Austin.

They are in Auburn, CA, the Sierra Foothills. The cost of living there is about the same as a suburban area in Michigan.There is San Diego, LA and SF Bay Area and the rest of CA is like Alabama Just look at the House Minortiy Leader from Bakersfield

Seriously, even San Diego isn't hopelessly one-party, I know that. The problem is the LA metro, SF 9-county metro, and Sacramento metro all are, and they account for 59.7% of the population. Now it's so gerrymandered that the legislature has less turnover than the Soviet Politburo under Brezhnev. So unless "Alabama" revolts, I kind of think nothing is gonna change. Elon gave up on it for a good reason.

I would love to help Elon pack his bags and load the truck, I HATE that guy, but I guess when his shister company Solar City screwed me 100 ways from sunday that leaves a mark. But to original point, the Clippercreek folks are super nice, I talked about which charger would meet my current and future needs, the lady was working from home that day and didn't care if I ordered it from her or off the website.

BadQ45t wrote: ↑

Sun May 30, 2021 12:47 pm

the Clippercreek folks are super nice, I talked about which charger would meet my current and future needs, the lady was working from home that day and didn't care if I ordered it from her or off the website.

I get asked about chargers frequently, good info and thank you. Btw, if any of you have ever thought about wireless for your garage, the Plugless Power people are great as well and the two customers we've installed it for are happy with the product. It won't fix the more fundamental issues with the whole concept of full-EV, but it still strikes me as pretty cool to be able to completely ditch the pistol.

too late for me for wireless but I don't mine the pistol

I've considered wireless, but I've hear it's a bit inefficient?

You're paying for convenience. The loss isn't huge, about 12% compared to an L2 plug-in. Keep in mind that there are already large transformer and conversion losses in ramping 110V or 220V up to feed a 400V DC battery (about 11% typical). You're doubling that, but it isn't the kind of loss that will break your electric bank. Whether the convenience is worth it is strictly an individual value judgment.

Yea, that's not terrible. If I had a place in the garage I could park the car, I think I might consider it, but right now, it has to set in the driveway. I'm hoping to build a shop next year so I can get all my crap out of the attached garage so we can park inside.