Home charging stationsI have 2020 Aviator GT, have had it for about 18 months now and love it. I've written posts in other Aviator forums about charging and the most important thing I would point out to you is that no matter what method you use to charge your Aviator (either the Lincoln OEM charge cord or dedicated charging station) be aware that the vehicle itself has a small 3.7KW on board charging module (which is the part that actually charges the high voltage battery) and no matter what you plug it into it is not capable of charging any higher/faster than 3.7KW (about 16A at 240V (Level 2)) and takes about 3.5 hours to charge fully.
I put a charging station in my garage at home and I have one outside my office at work as well. My top recommendation would be the JuiceBox Pro 40: https://evcharging.enelx.com/store/residential/juicebox-40 The best thing about the JuiceBox chargers is they have built in wifi and a companion app which is amazing, it gives you so much information and stats about your charging, voltage, amperage, electricity usage, graphs, etc. They just revamped the JuiceBox with a new design earlier this year that is much better than the old one and they also redesigned the charging cord to be much lighter and more flexible as on the old model the cord was heavy and could get very stiff especially in the cold.
My second recommendation would be the ChargePoint Home Flex https://www.chargepoint.com/drivers/home/ I have a Chargepoint unit at work and I would have to say that the charger itself is slightly better than the JuiceBox in terms of design, aesthetics and function but I find the JuiceBox app a bit easier to use than the Chargepoint. Another benefit of the Chargepoint is that it's capable of higher charging current of up to approx. 52A if it is properly hardwired to a 70A breaker. That wouldn't be useful to you now with an Aviator GT which can only handle 16A but it is great for "futureproofing" if you ever upgrade to a BEV in the future.
As for general tips for installing a charging station you definitely need to plan and consult with an electrician if you're not knowledgeable about electrical stuff. You also should check your local electrical codes as to what is and isn't allowed based on the capacity of your incoming electrical service from your utility if you have 100A or 200A service. Where I live in Toronto the electrical codes set by Ontario Electrical Safety Authority are quite strict when it comes to EV charging stations. When my electrician installed the charging station at my house he ran into some problems with the inspector because I only have 100A incoming electrical service coming from the street and I have existing loads in my breaker panel for an electric range and electric dryer so because they are worried about overloading the panel they would not issue a permit for the charging station unless the charging current could be restricted to no more than 32A on a 40A rated circuit (with #8 wire) even though the JuiceBox charging station I bought is capable of a max charging current of 40A on a 50A rated circuit (with #6 wire).
The good thing is the Lincoln OEM charging cable (actually made by Webasto) that comes with the Aviator GT is rated for 240V 16A which is the max charging rate the vehicle can handle anyway so if you don't want to incur the cost of installing a dedicated charging station you could just use that all the time and all you need to do is install a 240V 20A NEMA 6-20R receptacle in your garage which shouldn't cost much.
See my previous posts about charging and related stuff in the other Aviator forums for more info.Thu, 05 Aug 2021 01:31:27 +0000
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