Volkswagen ID.3 Forum

Hi, Ive taken the plunge and ordered yesterday a VW ID.3 Pro S Tour 77KWh. My attention now turns to finding a reliable home charger. I have already looked at a few but wondered if any existing ID.3 owners had any recommendations or conversely any brands I should stay away from. Im looking for a smart tethered unit with built in Sim. Would welcome any thoughts....

Hypervolt seem to be gaining lots of fans.

Pod Point as a stalwart in the market, probably the biggest market share in the UK.

Zappi is popular with those who have solar panels and/or home battery storage.

Andersen looks the best, but has a price to match.

Built-in SIM narrows it down a lot, from my recollection. I know of many people very happy with their Ohme’s, which has a built-in SIM, and Ohme have just released their “Home Pro” charger as well which looks like a good, cost-effective unit. Personally I have an Andersen A2, but that doesn’t come with a built-in SIM.

A close second to the Andersen for us was the Hypervolt.

There are lots of threads on here about chargers, worth a search to look at some of them, people have their favourites as you can imagine, usually the one they bought!

I went with a Pod Point Solo as I liked the look of it, the price was fair and VW recommend Pod Point at the moment, but it doesn’t have a built in SIM so in your position I’d be looking at Ohme, but there’s plenty of choice.

Built in SIM and mobile networks are a "PITA" Great if you live in an area with mobile coverage, but I live in Norfolk and we are lucky if we can get 3G outside of the big towns. So for me WiFi or another solution like the Zappi one are best. We had a chargemaster installed 4 years ago and it can't connect to the network. So my next planned upgrade is the Hypervolt.

Thanks for all of these responses. Hadn’t come across the Hypervolt one so will be doing my homework again over the next few weeks. Thanks.

I have an old chargemaster installed and if as I have been reading the ID3 charge scheduling doesn’t yet work, then when my car arrives I’ll need to install a smart charger to benefit from the Octopus Go tariff. I need WiFi because There isn’t a strong mobile signal here.

Was looking at Hypervolt and some others like SynEV, but I just found this on You Tube:



and for £15 I can upgrade my Chargemaster to WiFi!! Yes I need to do some surgery on it, but I am competent on electronics etc so not worried. Also with Octopus I can program IFTT to switch the charger on and off automatically when the tariffs change!!

I went to the Fully charged show in Farnborough, and spoke with both the Myenergi (Zappi) and the Wall box company. Both impress with the technology and both have phone apps to manage the chargers. I have a Zappi on order because I have solar panels and will also be getting a battery subject to delivery issues from China. Also talked to Octopus and Green Energy (not Green. - the one that’s gone bust). Octopus were more interested in pushing the variable tariff rather than their agile solution as did Green Energy. Green Energy suggested their nighttime rate was cheaper than Octopus but were more expensive on the day rate.
Nb when thinking about the charger remember that you have to get from the charger to your fuse board. Ok if it’s close and easy to fit. Mine took 30 metres of cable routed through my loft, so I pulled the cable through myself. Installers don’t always come and look at an installation or limit the length of cable they quote for. Get a fixed cost, especially if the charger is a long way from the fuse board and make sure the cable being used is appropriate.

Had a Wallbox Pulsar Plus installed by Octopus, so have switched to their Go tariff. The app (on my android phone) seems to work just fine, it was easy to set up scheduled charging on the app. It takes a day or so for all of the previous charging sessions to show up in the app, but they seem to get there in the end, so no complaints so far with either the hardware or software.

Zappi is very popular and very reliable. It also has unique design features, like it can work at a much longer distance from the house then one that relies on WiFi, as it has its own hub and custom radio signal.
It also has all sorts of features if you plan to get solar panels or a power wall.
I don’t have either, but it’s been reliable from day 1 with my octopus go tariff, set to only charge between 12:30 and 4:30

colonelpurple wrote: ↑Thu Sep 23, 2021 5:55 am Zappi is very popular and very reliable. It also has unique design features, like it can work at a much longer distance from the house then one that relies on WiFi, as it has its own hub and custom radio signal.
It also has all sorts of features if you plan to get solar panels or a power wall.
I don’t have either, but it’s been reliable from day 1 with my octopus go tariff, set to only charge between 12:30 and 4:30

Plus 1 on the above.
The Zappi has a lot of integration options for managing solar panels and heating etc if you have or plan to look into that kind of thing. (It's not the only charger that does this). With Gas going the way it is, I am looking to see how and where I can accelerate my renewable utilities options and the Zappi was bought with that integration in mind. The extra expense is probably pointless if you will not be going down any PV Solar route.

Correction to my note above. I meant “Good Energy” not “Green Energy”. Good Energy do my Feed in tariff for my solar panels, but do a night time tariff for EV charging as do Octopus.

Colonelpurple, do you have a battery integrated?

I am in a position to think about home charger again after months of different install issues.
In recent threads chargers with a built in SIM have been mentioned but Im not sure what the driver is for needing that.
My charger not yet decided.
The charger will be in reach of my wifi with an extender.
My car will not connect via the wifi extender because it has a protocol security glitch or something like that.
My hub is too far back in the house to pick that up.
I have a reasonable mobile coverage as well.
Running data cable to the charge point would be a headache.
Given the above is it likely that I should go for a charger with a SIM?
Advice appreciated.
Dave

Dave, I have a wallbox with Bluetooth so I use that to set up the timing through the app when I am near the charger. It is outside my WiFi range.

The main reason I can see for connecting it to wifi is to pick up any updates that might be required. I can connect it to the web via the phone hotspot, not sure yet will this be enough to allow updates when released by wallbox.

Do you know if Wallbox would communicate via a wifi extender. I was surprised that my car rejected it because of security. I dont understand why the car would connect to my normal wifi, although weak, but rejected the boosted extender.
And a SIM?

I don’t know that. I had considered getting an extender to extend wifi coverage to car and charger but it wasn’t worth the hassle of install for my situation. If I need to check that the timed charging has started I look at the WeConnect app which connects via the cars SIM.

Hopefully someone here can answer your query on why the extender could be an issue.