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[Moidore]

Hi folks, currently looking at getting a Zero S, and wanting to reduce the charge times would like to get a quick charger as well. However on the Zero website it notes: "you must plug each charger into a separate 110V/15A circuit."

Given a household power socket, how would you know that the socket on this wall is on the same or different circuit on the other wall?

If you didn't know and happen to plug the bike's on board charger and a quick charger into the same circuit, what would happen?

[frodus]

you'd trip the 15/20A breaker on your service panel.

[oobflyer]

I've been using a Quiq charger for awhile - each one draws around 7A from the 120V circuit. Most home circuits are 15A. If there is nothing else drawing electricity on the same circuit you can plug both chargers into one outlet.
If the circuit is a 20A circuit (some of the outside outlets may be 20A) you shouldn't have a problem.

In my garage I can see the wiring in the attic - so I can tell which outlets are on which circuit to avoid overloading a circuit, however, I don't use the Quiq charger at home very often. I use it mostly for the longer rides.

One time I was charging at a friend's house with both chargers plugged into an outlet at the front of his house - I didn't have any problem until it got dark and he turned on the front porch light. It tripped a circuit breaker. I guess his outdoor outlet is a 15A circuit.  ;-)

[Richard230]

If you buy a 2013 or 2014 Zero you will trip the circuit breaker on a typical house electrical panel if you charge on the same circuit.  My 2014 Zero pulls 12 amps from the wall. (My 2012 Zero S charged at 7.5 amps.) However, you might try to see if there are two separate outlet circuits in your garage by tracking down another wall outlet that may be in your garage and verify that it is on a different circuit.  Alternately, you could have an electrician install a new wall outlet near your existing one and have him hook it up to another 15/20 amp circuit in your home or have him install a new circuit and breaker just for that outlet.

[dkw12002]

My circuit breaker has a list of where each circuit goes, but to be sure you could plug in a lamp, then throw the circuit to be sure. I only have one 120V circuit in my garage, but the utility room is right next to the garage and if I used a quick charger, I'd plug an extension cord in there.

[Moidore]

So for a 2014 zero the on board charger is 1300W, so it will pull 1300W/110V = 11.8 amps from the wall.

I'm in Australia so our power sockets are 240V@10A, so onboard charger is 1300W/240V = 5.4A, and with a quick charger it's 1000W/240V = 4.2A, so 5.4 + 4.2 = 9.6A total current draw... So theoretically a typical Australian 240V/10A household socket can charge a 2014 Zero with a quick charger on the same circuit?? Or is my maths wrong somewhere?

Australia is getting the 2014 Zeros at the end of the month, so I'm doing the homework first

[NoiseBoy]

The socket may be 10A but assuming you share the same system as the UK your ring main should be rated to 30A minimum. So you can run quite a few quick chargers from your household sockets.  Assuming that your outdoor/garage sockets are on a separate ring main (which they should be).

Having said all that, it wouldnt be all that expensive to have your electrician install an extra circuit if you so wish.  If i was doing that though I would probably get them to put a J1772 box in at the same time for future proofing.

[Moidore]

Quick question to the folks that have the quick charger from Zero for the 2013/2014 models, is it the 96V model? Is the Zero version using some kind of proprietary connector, or if I am able to buy the Quiq from another retailer and it would work with a 2014 Zero?

[WindRider]

You can buy the QuikQ charger from other sources but the connector will be different and you will have to program the mode of the controller to fit the Zero battery application.   If you buy the Zero one it comes with the correct mode programmed in and the appropriate connector.   Not sure how much you can save from another source but if it is less than $100 I would say it is likely not worth fooling with.

[rotoiti]

From my experience, the QuiQ charger will initially draw up to 9.5 amps (110V) for an hour or two, then settle on around 7 amps. I was not able to charge my 2012 DS when I had both chargers on the same 15A circuit (I tried). 20A circuit was doing fine.

Zero SR onboard charger draws about 11.5 amps initially then it stabilizes at around 10.5. This trips the 20A circuit breaker if I connect both chargers at the same time.

[BSDThw]

Rotoiti,

how did you measure this?

I am surprised because it should be opposite. Certainly the charger will pull some extra current in the first seconds but it has a constant current output.
Therefore the Watt will rise when the battery voltage rise. First it is a bit strange but your charger will start with lower Watt and rise it only short before the battery max voltage is reached it will reduce the current.

If I do "distance" riding and have the possibility to recharge after 50km even if there is a second charger in 100km I do a short brake at 50km because I can charge with higher Watt        

[Richard230]

When my 2014 Zero S battery was down to 30% one day I charged it while hooked up to a Kill A Watt.  The draw started at 1250 watts and just before going to the balancing state the draw from the wall outlet was 1450 watts.

[rotoiti]

I don't have a graph or anything like that. I collected this data by just looking at the amp reading on my kill-a-watt meter and by resetting fuses

[Doug S]

Why not just put a lamp into the socket, flip circuit breakers until the lamp goes out, then use the lamp to see if the other outlet is on the same circuit?