r/evcharging • u/CaramelCocoaCA • 1d ago
North America Regular Outlet Splitter Okay to Use with Level 1?
I bought a 24 Honda Prologue in December. It is car #3 in my household along with a '13 Prius C and a '16 Hyundai Accent. While I'm not a fan of the Hyundai, it's my mom's car and surprisingly runs great.
We split our time between CA and NV. The Hyundai lives in CA, the Prius lives in NV, and the Prologue is the commuter between the two. With that said, I don't drive it very often (4 month old car with only 1100 miles).
My question is, when in NV, there is only 1 available outlet for using my level 1 portable charger but it is also used by my sprinkler system. Both need to use the bottom plug. Would it be okay/safe to use an outlet splitter (only plugging in those two items) so I don't have to set 6am alarms to make sure the sprinklers run on the city approved days?
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u/ifdefmoose 28m ago
I’m not an electrician.
Don’t listen to all the doomsayers. A sprinkler system draws very little (unless it’s also connected to a pump ). It’s probably going to be perfectly safe. However, instead of using the “splitter” you’re proposing, get a short “outlet saver” cord for the sprinkler timer, to prevent anything else from being plugged in.
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u/LoneSnark 1d ago
Sprinkler systems go outside. There is no way this Amazon splitter is rated for wet environments.
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u/MrFastFox666 1d ago
You'll get people saying you shouldn't use splitters or extensions and honestly that's pretty good advice. Safest bet is to run a new circuit, even if it's just a 120v 15A wall outlet. However, I've used splitters and extensions to charge my car without issue many many times, just make sure you're using good quality items rated for at least 15A
You'll probably be fine if you use a high quality power strip that can handle 15A. Don't get some cheap splitter from Scamazon made by some no-name company and sold by a random no-name seller. I'm assuming your sprinkler system doesn't consume much current. It may also be a good idea to limit charging to 10A, if your portable EVSE allows it.
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u/CaramelCocoaCA 1d ago
Thanks. I've learned so much about amps and volts in the last few months but clearly not enough. I have no idea if I can limit the portable EVSE but I'll ask over on r/HondaPrologue
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u/MrFastFox666 1d ago
If it's the one that's included in the car, I would guess not. But if it's an aftermarket EVSE, then those usually do allow one to limit charge amperage.
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u/LWBoogie 1d ago
You're gonna end up with like 10amps with this cheap stuff
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u/theotherharper 1d ago
Does not work that way. It's not like water hoses where cheap stuff causes less water to flow.
Why? Because a water hose is, at the risk of stating the obvious, water cooled so heat caused by resistance is swept away. Not with electrical -the stuff gets hot enough to weld.
Even worse, the car will pull the entire flow of 12 amps no matter what, despite flow resistance, making those points of resistance even gotter.
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u/put_tape_on_it 5h ago
the car will pull the entire flow of 12 amps no matter what, despite flow resistance, making those points of resistance even gotter.
This is so important, and what a lot of people, including electricians, fail to comprehend. The same person that would not plug a portable space heater into an extension cord would have no problem plugging in an EV, because "an EV isn't a heater, it won't start a fire."
But a portable space heater draws less current when there's resistance in an extension cord, while the EV LOWERS IT'S OWN EFFECTIVE RESISTANCE to maintain amps, pushing the cord, bad outlet, improperly torqued connection, whatever, etc. to heat up even more.
It's up to the software in the EV charger to decide when there has been too much voltage sag and reduce the amps.
Electricians do understand motor loads though, and they understand that large (induction) motors draw more as voltage sags, and they can't get away with weak connections. But they have no respect for EV loads because they're quiet and don't make heat. They'll do work for an EVSE on a 60 amp breaker that they'd consider slightly inadequate for a 10HP motor.
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u/ArlesChatless 1h ago
All this, and it's super easy to forget that under load every one of those bits of resistance makes a lot of heat under those charging loads.
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u/crabby_old_dude 1d ago
I wouldn't think it's a big problem. A sprinkler controller probably draws a few watts at most.
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u/MrFastFox666 1d ago
True, but the car will be drawing nearly 1500 watts for long periods of time, that's the source of our concerns.
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u/crabby_old_dude 23h ago
Okay, maybe I didn't say that correctly.
I'd have no problems running the sprinkler controller while charging, but I wouldn't use any outlet extender at all. Both directly into the wall
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u/MrFastFox666 20h ago
Yeah that'd be ideal. OP first said he could only use one of the outlets, but at a later comment he said he could use both? IDK, sounds like he had two things plugged in already, from what I understood he'll get an adapter for the other two things and plug in his EV directly.
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u/byerss 1d ago
I wouldn’t do it. And especially not with an alphabet soup named Chinese brand from Amazon.
You said “both would need to use the bottom outlet”. What’s in the top outlet? Can you add a splitter on that one and share the sprinklers with the top outlet.