Is a 5m charge point cable long enough?

[LondonLass]

I've just got the approval for the charge point installation at home. Until now we have been reversing the car onto the driveway and the 13A chargers passes under the garage door. Is the standard 5m cable that they will be providing long enough so that I can park nose in and still reach the charging point at the back hip of the PHEV?

 

[Stvtech]

At risk of stating the obvious, a 5m cable is 5m long. The Phev is 4.6m long, so assuming you park a foot away from your garage doors, to my mind it would be a bit of a stretch. You could probably reach (just!), depending on where the point is installed, but it would have to be pretty close to in-line with the side of the car.

Try it out by measuring a 5m length of hosepipe, bearing in mind that the 5m length usually includes the connector on the end.

 

[jaapv]

The charging connector on the car is not in the rear bumper, but at a guess 50 cm forward. Provided your charging point is on the right hand side as you park, 5 m should make it - just.
BUT. Public chargers outside the UK ( and possibly in the UK too) nearly always require a Mennekes type 1-type 2 cable and will normally be placed that you need a 6 m cable if you park nose in.

 

[Sharky]

I was in a similar situation at the time of installing the charging unit. The tethered unit came with a 3m cable and when I measured from the unit to how close I could get my car, it was apparent the cable would be of the ground, causing not only a trip hazard, but stain on the plug end in the car. If the tethered unit came with a 5m cable it would have been ideal, however it did not (I could have extended it at a later date!). So went for a charging unit with a plug and got a separate 5m cable (see one of my posts for what cable I got). The cable lives in the back of the car and has also come in handy for charging at other points. If you are feeling confident you could put a longer cable on when the installer has left!

 

[LondonLass]

Thanks for the replies. I've stressed to them that I want the unit on the same (right) hand side, and would prefer it to have just a little slack so that i don't have to creep closer to the garage door if i stop a few inches too far away. I wasn't sure if the cables were pre-sized when they arrive or if there is flexibility to have the sparky add a metre on by moving the snips a bit. Guess worse case i will have to continue reversing in and the 5m will easily reach the other side.

 

[Paule23]

It is best practice to reverse into a parking space or driveway anyway. It's usually much safer to reverse into an area with not traffic (a parking space) than into an area with traffic (I.e. A road).

Don't worry about the cable length and keep reversing in, better all round.

 

[Goldfinger]

We went for a 5m tethered charge point.

The charge point is just inside of garage door too, but even at 5 meters, and reversing the car onto the drive, it still looks 'close'.....

 

[aitchjaybee]

@stvtech, a 5m isn't always a 5m! I went for a 5m tethered chargemaster 16A and but the cable from the unit is only 4.5m - I usually reverse in but one day for boot access went nose in and found didn't reach, so I measured (I'd measured before car arrived so should have fitted). Its standard for this unit, it might be some (50cm) of the cable goes "inside" the unit. I queried it and they showed me the text that I hadn't seen before saying it is 4.5m see here http://www.chargemasterplc.com/index.php/products-home-units

HJB

 

[Stvtech]

Doesn’t surprise me of Chargemaster to be honest. I see that they are now charging £195 for what was previously free, and when I first booked up I'm sure I was told it came with a 5m cable. I found their service to be lacking, and am glad they more or less forced me to seek out another provider. They never even acknowledged my cancellation email (sent to the same address as all documentation, and cc’d to the ‘head office’).

Jut for kicks, went out and measured my ‘5m’ tethered cable on my Rolec unit. It measures 4.8m from the cable ‘grommet’ (about 2.5cm outside the unit) to the cable entry into the plug. If you take into account the plug itself, it comes out at just over 5m.

I’m quite chuffed with the Rolec