[vltvlt972]

I see all these nicely organized garages that have EVSE level 1 or 2 chargers with 15 and 25 foot charging cords hanging on (wrapped around) hooks. There must be a better way.

I currently reach up and grab the J1772 plug hanging above my Volt's charging port on a hook attached to the garage ceiling, and pull it down a few feet to plug in the Volt. This is the simplest way to recharge - very convenient.

But when the car is parked outside the garage, I would like to pull the cord out to the car and plug it in without having to grab 20 feet of wire off the hook and unwind it to reach the charging port. When finished charging, I would like the cord to be wound up on a spring-loaded spool instead of have to wind it up myself and hang it back in the garage.

Anyone know of a spooling device that would allow me to avoid all this fooling around with charging cables?

 

[Eagleco]

I see all these nicely organized garages that have EVSE level 1 or 2 chargers with 15 and 25 foot charging cords hanging on (wrapped around) hooks. There must be a better way.

I currently reach up and grab the J1772 plug hanging above my Volt's charging port on a hook attached to the garage ceiling, and pull it down a few feet to plug in the Volt. This is the simplest way to recharge - very convenient.

But when the car is parked outside the garage, I would like to pull the cord out to the car and plug it in without having to grab 20 feet of wire off the hook and unwind it to reach the charging port. When finished charging, I would like the cord to be wound up on a spring-loaded spool instead of have to wind it up myself and hang it back in the garage.

Anyone know of a spooling device that would allow me to avoid all this fooling around with charging cables?

So when you are charging the car in the garage, would most of the cable be spooled up? If so, that could create a dangerous situation. The cable may get too hot if it is tightly spooled up. Even if it's not dangerous, a hotter cable means more electrical resistance and wasted energy that is not going to the car.

I have a Clipper Creek LCS-20, and in the instructions, they explicitly state that the unused length of cable must be loosely wrapped around the charge station. This is so that heat can dissipate adequately. I have felt the cable while charging, and it can get fairly warm, especially in the summertime in a hot garage.

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[obermd]

I've had vacuum cleaners with the spring loaded cable retractors. Invariably they break. I'll take the manual cable loops any day.

 

[Steverino]

Some related threads on this ceiling mount idea:


Ceiling Mount:
https://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?9424-L2-charger-ceiling-mount

Retracto Cord:
https://gm-volt.com/forum/showthrea...op-system-pulls-the-electric-charger-cords-up

Ceiling Rail:
https://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?94162-Ceiling-rail-system

 

[vltvlt972]

Thanks for the responses. I had not considered heat as something that increases resistance in a copper wire. It may be hard to predict how much energy might be wasted but it could be significant when an L2 (or L1) charging wire is wound tightly on a spool.

It seems that Retracto is out of business - the domain name is for sale.