Hello all! New 2017 Volt owner here

3736 Views 41 Replies 10 Participants Last post by hellsop, Jul 4, 2017

anon

Discussion Starter · Jun 26, 2017

cliffs of this thread that i made are:

-found a "used" '17 with almost 24k miles (its 14 months old though)
-started out at $24k
-haggled back and forth online and got down to $21k
-visited dealer saturday and for them down to $20,500
-im happy as a lark so far!

just a couple things i've noticed so far that maybe someone can answer for me.....

1. when connected to BT i don't hear my phone when texts come through. what am i missing?
2. i've seen older threads so my apologies if its been answered....can i change my default charge to 12amps over 8?
3. what is your level 2 charger of choice for home?
4. is there any way to turn the electronics on without starting the car? (my FFE would be just to push the start button without your foot on the brake)

and last but not least (i couldn't find a definitive answer on GDOTS website)......

5. can i get the AF tag and use the HOV lanes in GA still?!?

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jcanoe

· #2 · Jun 26, 2017 (Edited)

anon said:
cliffs of this thread that i made are:

-found a "used" '17 with almost 24k miles (its 14 months old though)
-started out at $24k
-haggled back and forth online and got down to $21k
-visited dealer saturday and for them down to $20,500
-im happy as a lark so far!

just a couple things i've noticed so far that maybe someone can answer for me.....

1. when connected to BT i don't hear my phone when texts come through. what am i missing?
2. i've seen older threads so my apologies if its been answered....can i change my default charge to 12amps over 8?
3. what is your level 2 charger of choice for home?
4. is there any way to turn the electronics on without starting the car? (my FFE would be just to push the start button without your foot on the brake)

and last but not least (i couldn't find a definitive answer on GDOTS website)......

5. can i get the AF tag and use the HOV lanes in GA still?!?

1. when connected to BT i don't hear my phone when texts come through. what am i missing? [Connect using USB cable and AA or CarPlay and the Volt will chime when you receive text messages and offer to read them to you.]
2. i've seen older threads so my apologies if its been answered....can i change my default charge to 12amps over 8? [Yes, for Level I 110V/120V charging provided the outlet and circuit is not overloaded. 12 amps is the maximum load for a standard 15 amp circuit so tread cautiously.]
3. what is your level 2 charger of choice for home? [Personally, Clipper Creek LCS-20P with NEMA 14-50 connector.]
4. is there any way to turn the electronics on without starting the car? (my FFE would be just to push the start button without your foot on the brake) [Yes, you can turn on the radio/audio center infotainment system with the driver's door closed just press the center console audio volume control button one time. With the driver's door open press twice. Warning! Do not press the Start button without pressing the brake pedal. If you hold the Start button for 5 seconds the Volt enters diagnostic/maintenance mode and the 12V battery will not be charged by the on board 12V charger. If you leave the Volt this way you will run down the 12V battery and your Volt will need to be jump started. If you accidentally enter maintenance mode just press Start again to cancel. ]
5. No idea.

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jcanoe

· #4 · Jun 26, 2017

anon said:
Also, do I have to be setup with onstar before I can get the most out of the chevy mylink app? If so, will that show me. Barging status when at the house?

If not, how can I check the charging status while plugged in at my house?

Yes, to get the most out of the MyChevrolet App I believe you will need an OnStar account.

A quick way to assess the state of charge of the Volt battery is to count the number of times the green charging indicator on the dashboard blinks before repeating the series of blinks:

1 blink: 0 - 25% charged
2 blinks 26 - 50 % charged
3 blinks 51 - 75 % charged
4 blinks 76 - 99 % charged
solid green = 100% charged

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jcanoe

· #9 · Jun 26, 2017 (Edited)

anon said:
is the 12 amp worth it that much even on a 220?

or what about if im at my folks 40 year old house with shady wiring and need a quick top off. will 12amps burn their house down?!?

There is no such thing as a quick top off with a Level I EVSE 120V at 8 or 12 amps. Charging at Level I just takes a long time. What you can do is locate the electrical panel, identify the 15 or 20 amp circuit that goes to the garage and figure out what else is plugged in. If the outlet in the garage is old, worn out, loose it is easily replaced by you or an electrician. If there are no other high power devices, appliances, tools, pumps etc. plugged into and using the circuit in the garage you may be able to use the 12 amp setting. It is not that you will overload it but the wiring will get warmer than at 8 amps and over time this will shorten the life of the wiring. Remember, this is not like a toaster that runs for under 10 minutes, the Volt will require 12 amps continuously for as long as 13 - 14 hours for a full charge (19 hours at 8 amps for the same charge.)

If the electrical panel is located in the garage an electrician can tell you if the panel has capacity for another circuit and can easily run the wiring for a 240V dedicated circuit for the Volt. People on the forum will recommend you get a 50 amp 240V circuit installed but your existing electrical service and panel may not be able to support another 50 amps but you may be able to add a 240V 20 or 30 amp circuit, a 240V 20 amp circuit is all that is needed for the Volt to fully charge at Level II in 4.5 hours.

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jcanoe

· #14 · Jun 27, 2017

anon said:
wait, so the basic wall plug that came with the car....i can use that with his ~$60 adapter and it turns it into an l2 and it is just as good as a $300 one? i glanced at the 79 pages, but is any disassembly required for it?

Yes, except you would be limited to 240V/12 amps instead of 240V/16 amps, so charging will take a little longer than the 4.5 hrs charging at 16 amps takes. You would still need a 240V dedicated circuit and outlet installed. The 240V circuit is most of the cost of putting in a Level II charging capability.

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jcanoe

· #17 · Jun 27, 2017 (Edited)

anon said:
Pardon my ignorance since I'm no electrician.....but the end of the plug is currently a basic 3 prong wall outlet plug. Are you saying that I plug the 3 prong into the adapter which would then be plugged into my newly installed 240 outlet and it will work at 240v?!?

Yes. There is no immediate danger since your Volt's EVSE will automatically detect that there is 120V present on what is by code supposed to be the neutral blade socket (the thicker blade). The way you get 240V is this is the voltage when measured across the two hot leads of a 240V outlet. The danger is that someday someone will plug a piece of standard 120V equipment into the 240V outlet thinking the adapter cable is there to provide standard 120V power on the hot blade socket and a neutral connection on the neutral blade socket and someone could be electrocuted or it could start an electrical fire. You could have a warning label on the adapter cable and it won't matter. People don't always read labels and can't be expected to understand the risk of non-standard electrical wiring.

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jcanoe

· #22 · Jun 27, 2017

anon said:
i must be having a slow day today! so will i need to change out the current 3 prong 120v outlet to a different outlet, or just the wiring in the wall to the breaker that will need to be changed?

You will need both new wiring and an a receptacle box with a 240V outlet. Forget about the existing 120V outlet in the garage it stays as it is. Your electrician would run new wiring from the panel to a new receptacle box with the 240V outlet. Then you would plug in either a Level II EVSE with the matching 240V plug or the adapter cable previously described for use with the EVSE that came with your Volt.

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jcanoe

· #24 · Jun 27, 2017 (Edited)

anon said:
cool. so i'd just need to find my 240 outlet of choice and then order the adapter based on that. why so many choices? is that for people that already have outlets in place?

what would be the outlet of choice?

Yes, some people already have a 240V outlet such as a dryer outlet and just need the EVSE to have the matching plug. Each outlet and plug have a maximum voltage and amperage rating. Older homes could have 240V outlets that are of a type not commonly used today but perfectly fine if the wiring and outlet are in good condition.

Start with your electrician and he can advise if you can add a 30, 40 or 50 amp 240V circuit to the existing panel, then pick an outlet that matches. If your panel is maxed out you would need a new sub panel added for the new 240V circuit. Worst case, you find that your current home electrical service line is maxed out, then a new service line would have to be run. This is known as a "heavy up" service, for example going from 100 amp service to 200 amp service. That would run into $.

A NEMA 14-30 is a common 240V/30 amp outlet and plug used with today's electric dryers. The NEMA 14-50 is commonly used with electric ranges and ovens and also commonly used with RVs at campgrounds but requires 240V and a 50 amp breaker and wiring. Your Volt would work with a 240V 20 amp circuit. 240V 20 amp circuits do exist but are less common, 240V circuits in the home are more commonly higher amperage than 20 amps.

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jcanoe

· #27 · Jun 27, 2017 (Edited)

anon said:
my current house is only a year old and not maxed out. not sure what i'd be able to run as far as breakers though.

i wanna say when i had a plug dropped for my FFE years ago it was a nema 14-30. so i might just go with that adapter again.

What is FFE? Are you currently still using the 14-30 outlet, is it in your garage? If it is not currently being used and located in the garage you would be good to go. You would not want to constantly unplug and plug into the NEMA 14-30 outlet as the outlet would wear out and become lose as it is not designed for continuous plugging/unplugging.

If there is no more room or capacity in the electric panel, if you don't use the current 14-30 outlet you could have the electrician disconnect the existing 14-30 wiring at the panel, run new wire to the garage and a install a new 14-30 outlet and connect the new dedicated circuit wiring to the existing 30 amp breaker. In this case the old 14-30 outlet would no longer be connected at the panel.

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jcanoe

· #29 · Jun 27, 2017 (Edited)

anon said:
sorry, ford focus electric. but that was in an old house. i didn't own it in my current house. now i wish i woulda kept my clippercreek lcs-25p as well

Got it. So you know the drill, have an electrician let you know if you can install a 30 amp circuit and outlet such as 14-30 or even greater amperage dedicated circuit and outlet in your garage. If you have the electrical capacity and think you will be in the home for some time then it may be worth getting a 50 amp circuit and a 14-50 outlet even though all the Volt requires is a 20 amp circuit, your next vehicle might be able to charge at 240V and 32 or 40 amps so a 40 amp (minimum amperage circuit required for 32 amp EVSE) or 50 amp (minimum amperage circuit required for a 40 amp EVSE) circuit would be required. The permit, labor, breaker and outlet cost would be about the same for a 50 amp circuit as for a 30 amp circuit. The wire for the 50 amp circuit would be a thicker gauge so it would cost a little more. Most of the cost for the 240V circuit would be for the labor and permit so if you can you should install the 50 amp circuit so it is ready for whatever EV comes next.

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jcanoe

· #31 · Jun 27, 2017

anon said:
i got a friend who is an electrician so he's gonna help me out. fortunately the outlet is less than 5 feet away from the box so not a lot of labor involved.

i'll probably just go with my stock 3 prong evse, this wall outlet, this breaker, and the nema 14-30/50/60 adapter from Chris.

Sounds good, let your electrician friend select the breaker so that it is correct for your panel.

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jcanoe

· #33 · Jun 27, 2017 (Edited)

anon said:
ha! so all breakers aren't plug and play huh?! any way i can determine which one i need so we don't have to make a stop to lowes once he gets there?!

Code requires that the brand of breaker match the panel, your electrician friend can chime in if he wants. Open your panel, take photo of current panel and breakers, ask for help at Lowes, show them the photo(s) and find the matching style/brand of breaker for the 240V breaker you need but until your electrician friend advises you don't know for certain what amperage breaker to buy as 20, 30, 40 and 50 amp breakers look the same.

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jcanoe

· #35 · Jun 27, 2017 (Edited)

anon said:
Finally got onstar connected and talking to the app so that's a go!

Still not able to get notifications when on BT about texts. I've checked my iPhone and all the settings someone suggested above but it's still silent and nothing pops up.

Ideas?

I tried the BT connection notification option and could not get text messages I sent to myself to trigger any notification with the BT connection. I seem to recall that originally I had two MyChevrolet BT devices show up on my iPhone and somewhere along the way I deleted the MyChevrolet devices from my BT connections and re-paired my phone but now my iPhone only shows the one MyChevrolet BT device. I read online that the second BT device was used for text message notification so that may explain why this no longer works, I have no idea how to get the second MyChevrolet device to appear on the phone. Anyway, I confirmed that I can send text messages to myself using my iPhone while CarPlay is running and I receive a chime alert tone and a screen banner that I have a text message, the caller and the message contents is read aloud and I can also reply via voice. My advice is use CarPlay or Android Auto. Apple keeps enhancing CarPlay, not sure what is happening with AA. My iPhone music definitely has better audio quality when I listen using CarPlay than using BT audio. It is lame that we need to plug in to a USB port to use Carplay and AA but unlike the USB ports on the Bolt at least our phones charge quickly when plugged into the Volt's USB port.

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jcanoe

· #38 · Jul 4, 2017 (Edited)

anon said:
So I got my plug from Chris, but I do think it's the right one. I'm no electrician however, but is this a NEMA 14-30 plug?

Have you contacted Chris to ask him? Here is the CC LCS-20 with NEMA 14-30 plug. https://store.clippercreek.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=65&search=LCS-20&category_id=66

Here is a wiring diagram of the NEMA 14-30R: https://www.google.com/search?q=nema+14-30p+wiring+diagram&tbm=isch&imgil=9PLj_G3ppwPc5M%253A%253BN-ktqUmbdBkmwM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.generatorsforhomeuse.us%25252Fconnect-generator-to-home%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=9PLj_G3ppwPc5M%253A%252CN-ktqUmbdBkmwM%252C_&usg=__araoeGN83xy8LUdFw03Vbk70d1w%3D&biw=1283&bih=612&ved=0ahUKEwiEpvm5su7UAhVBcD4KHZMICkUQyjcIQA&ei=YORaWYT2EcHg-QGTkaioBA#imgrc=9PLj_G3ppwPc5M: In the adapter that you show in the photo it appears that the neutral tab is not there, probably because in this application you only need the two blades (each is wired up to a single phase 120V, they are 180 degrees out of phase to each other.) The round connector is the Ground connector. It looks good to me but I am not an electrician. When you plug the EVSE that came with your Volt into the female end of the adapter cable you received from Chris the EVSE will detect 120V coming from the wire terminated on each of the blade connectors for 240V total. The Ground is also essential, the neutral wire connection is not used.

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