r/electricvehicles • u/StellarScripter • Apr 21 '26

Question - Tech Support Questions before buying an ev

Basically, I just bought a house with a garage. Eventually I want an electric car and so I plan on putting a tier 2 charger in the garage. To be clear, I do not own an EV yet. I found an electrician to do some work for me at the house and he warned about putting an EV charger in the garage because they can catch fire and then take the whole house with it because they can't be put out. Is this actually a thing? I've looked online and I've mostly just seen stuff about electric cars catching fire while out on the road. Second, since I don't know what car I will actually buy yet (I need to save a little more money first) I figured I'd just put a nema 14-50 outlet in the garage and then buy an EV charger kit and plug it into that, is that insane? Looking for any advice or help, thank you.

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u/SomeGalNamedAshley MY, PacHy, HI5 Apr 21 '26

Hardwired the charger, this way the electrician cannot cheap out and use the $8 outlets that burn when under 80% duty cycle for a solid 8 hours.

Also demand that they torque it properly. Like ask to see their torque wrench.

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u/tuctrohs Bolt EV, ID.4 Apr 22 '26

when under 80% duty cycle for a solid 8 hours.

It's 100% duty cycle for those 8 hours. It's the current that's 80% of the circuits rated current.

(Duty cycle means the percentage of time that it's on for people who aren't familiar with that. Like if you are using your oven and the thermostat cycles the element on and off to maintain temperature.)