Wallbox Pure Outside installation

[MrM]

Hi everyone,

I am just about to get my wallbox pure installed by Schneider Electric. I had a very positive conversation with a lady Charlotte and she was kind enough to send through the technical manual for the charger - I have waited so long for this car I am ingesting any piece of new information I can find . When I looked at the brochure I noticed throughout that it said:

The Wallbox Pure can be installed indoors or outdoors (outdoor installation, however, requires protection from inclement weather conditions)

I sent in my photos of where it needed to be installed — on the outside of my house next to the driveway.I signed the agreement to have the work done, and then thought I would just check if Schneider were going to take care of the weather protection. I noticed that the electrics were rated IP54 (Protected against splash water from any direction) but the box has no water protection at IP3X.


So I asked Schneider to confirm that they would provide the relevant weather protection to the box as per the technical manual. I got a response from a guy called Paul:

The plastic cover gives additional protection with the IP54 unit (Spray proof from all directions) being inside. We do not provide additional protection. We have over 100 external installs with no issues.

As Schneider Electric carry out the installation then the warranty would not be affected by any installation issue.

So I will take the response on face value, although "over 100 external installations in around 6 months" is not a huge number to derive statistics from. Interestingly when I replied saying that they should perhaps change their documentation and I would be letting the forums know that people shouldn't worry about rain damaging the charger I got radio silence...

If anyone can point me to a link on how to attach a PDF of the Wallbox Pure Operating Instructions.

Has anyone experienced any problems with their Wallbox Pure and weather conditions?

 

[Dshirt]

Mines been rained on and it's fine. The do say try not to out on exposed wall.

 

[MrM]

Thanks for that - I don't hear much on the forums from wallbox owners. Were you happy with the installation?

 

[Dshirt]

Yes - the man installing was very professional - took about 3 hours. He said schneider had 3000 orders in uk!

 

[MikeS]

I’m surprised there are so many orders for the BMW EVSE when in UK you can get other EVSEs fitted for free (3Kw) or for about £95 (7Kw). Especially when these free ones are much smaller that the BMW Pure and the cable is longer (.5m!!).

 

[BrianStanier]

Many i3 buyers are first time EVers and may not be aware of the OLEV program. And BMW won't tell you about alternatives to their wallbox.

 

[MikeS]

Brian - true. But 3000 seem a really high number. In addition, I would have thought that given the innovation of the car and as its design it is primarily attractive to ‘almost early adopters’, that most potential owners would be searching the web for info and find forums like these. Partly why I keep mentioning the ‘free’ EVSEs

 

[BrianStanier]

I agree 3000 is high - too high to be believable.

 

[DerfSdrawd]

My BMW Wallbox is also on an outside wall, albeit under a 0.5m overhanging eave so it is pretty sheltered. It got my depleted i3 range up from 14 miles to an indicated 70 miles in about 90 minutes today. Most of our real life travelling in this car will be 30-40 mile round trips from home, one after the other so a swift recharge at home is important.

The Schneider install was pretty efficient and I notice it came with its own smart meter so I (and SSE) can see how many KWh are being consumedat any point in time. I've noticed that the box will sometimes switch to just 1KW charge instead of 7.4KW and have disconnected & reconnected to fix.

Also on a couple of occasions when unlocking/locking the car whilst it is charging the box has reported an error (flashing red button) and I've fixed that by switching off its supply. I'll see if this is a recurring issue and if so will report it.

Bit more than outside installation, sorry!

Only complaint was the amount of brick dust the Schneider fitter left behind. I know it's my garage but even so...!