Our resident EV charging equipment expert and reviewer Tom Moloughney is at it again, this time putting together another comprehensive video review of the United Chargers' Grizzl-E DUO EV charger.
The Grizzl-E DUO is a dual-head electric vehicle charger and is capable of charging two EVs at the same time. It pulls it off by dynamically splitting the power it delivers to each vehicle and splitting the 40-amps of total charging power that it's capable of delivering.
The DUO comes as a plug-in EV charger and can be ordered with either a NEMA 14-50 or NEMA 6-50 plug configuration. Both plug configurations will allow the DUO to deliver its maximum 40-amp power, provided the outlet is on a dedicated 50-amp circuit. Be sure to discuss this with your electrician.
If the circuit is not rated for 50-amps, the Grizzl-E DUO can be derated to deliver less power so that it won't overload the circuit. Tom explains how to adjust the power output by positioning the internal dip switches inside the DUO.
The video explains that while the DUO can deliver a full 40-amps (9.6 kW) with just one vehicle plugged in, the unit can only send a maximum of 32-amps to a single vehicle if two EVs are plugged in at the same time. This is because the DUO needs to "reserve" 8-amps for the second vehicle, just in case it's set to charge later or wakes up to precondition the battery hours after finishing the charging session. To be clear, if both vehicles are plugged in and one finishes charging, the second vehicle will be getting 32-amps (7.7 kW), not the full 40-amps.
Additionally, the DUO has a problem when the owner sets up a scheduled departure time for charging their EV. For some reason, the DUO will not send power to the vehicle when a scheduled departure time charging is set in the vehicle. Some EVs allow the owner to set a time when they will depart in the morning, and the vehicle will intelligently calculate when the charging needs to begin so that the vehicle finishes charging right before the owner leaves the next day.
That sais, scheduled departure time charging isn't to be confused with regular scheduled charging. That's when the owner sets a preferred charging time or window, and the EV won't start charging until the scheduled time begins. Many people with time-of-use charging plans use scheduled charging, and the DUO will work fine with that. United Chargers – maker of the Grizzl-E line of EV charging equipment – knows about the issue with scheduled departure time charging, and is working on a solution.
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Tom puts the DUO through all of the usual paces, including the cable deep freeze test and the connector drop test. He also tests its ability to share power when charging two electric vehicles.
Tom provides plenty of details in the video, but also offers his ratings and "hits and misses," which can prove very helpful when comparing the various systems he's reviewed. The DUO scored 92 on Tom's points-based EV charger rating system, which is a very impressive score. Check out the entire video to find out Tom's final thoughts and rating.
