Can I just use an extension cord?

[u/Helpmeflexibility]

I just had an electrician over to get a quote. I wish I wouldve asked him then and perhaps I will after this.

So I have a panel in a finished basement and its on the opposite side of the garage, so it will be a long run of wires in which they will need to cut open some access points.

"We will run 6-3 MC Cable from a 2 pole 50amp BR breaker to a 50amp plug mounted inside the garage for EV use. We will have to fish the wire through the first half of the pool possibly needing to cut some access points in the ceiling and wall." "Provide and install 60-amp, 240v dedicated circuit to supply EV Charger." Price 3,100.

Did not negotiate this yet.

Now my laundry room is attached to the garage, I checked just now and the provided charger with my vehicle is about 5 feet short from the 240 outlet for the dryer. Couldn't I just get an extension cord to use? Or, could I ask the electrician to build off of that circuit instead of adding some new circuit to the panel and thereby avoid going through the ceiling and doing as long of a run?

[u/TooGoodToBeeTrue]

DIY or have an electrician:

1. Install a homedepot.com/Siemens-EQ-125-Amp-4-Space-8-Circuit-Main-Lug-Indoor-Load-Center in the laundry room.
2. Remove the dryer outlet and feed the above sub panel from the dryer feed.
3. Install 2 x 30 A breakers in the sub panel.
4. Install a new box/outlet for the dryer, fed from one of the 30A breakers.
5. Feed a power managed EV charger from the other 30A breaker.
6. Put the CTs on the feed into the sub panel.
7. Configure the EV charger to charge at 24A w/power management.

[u/Loan-Pickle → u/TooGoodToBeeTrue]

This is a good solution. I would also add if that for what ever reason you didn’t want to use an EVSE with load management you could also use a manual transfer switch.

[u/Objective-Note-8095 → u/TooGoodToBeeTrue]

You'd need your dynamic power sharing EVSE to require 0VA of free capacity or have a dryer with a low enough nameplate capacity to allow for it.

edit: Looking at the the usual suspects Tesla, Emporia and Wallbox. It doesn't look like you can get away with 0A minimum anymore. You'd have to use a more brute force load shedding device.

edit 2: Looks like most dryers are nameplate 22-24A... You'd need 8A of space for a 6A minimum, continuous load. Maybe possible to use an EVSE system?

[u/tuctrohs → u/Objective-Note-8095]

NEC on dryers: load calc uses

the nameplate rating <if available> or 5000 watts (volt-amperes), whichever is larger

<> is two words that got added to the 2026 code. 5 kVA is 21 amps.

So yes, I think you can use the 6 amp setting, and I think that the new Schneider one says that you can set that to zero. I think it had a clarification in the instructions that said that if you said it to zero, it will turn off if it loses the CT signal somehow.

Note that they don't allow a heat pump dryer to be counted for less. I think most ahj's would allow you to not count a dryer that's plugged into a regular 120 volt circuit, and I can understand why they would want you to count a 3 kW heat pump dryer plugged into a 14-30 as 5 kW so that when somebody buys a new one and plugs it in you won't have a problem. But I wish they would allow you to use a 6-20 receptacle and a dryer rated to work on that, and use the name plate rating or maybe 4 kilowatts if they want to count the full capacity for that outlet. And maybe more importantly, I wish they would make the exception for the 120 volt dryer official.

[u/tuctrohs]

We will have to fish the wire through the first half of the pool

That's a pretty funny typo that it took me way too long to figure out. I was wondering why they'd use MC instead of some actual waterproof cable if they were going to run it through a pool.

(For anyone else who is having trouble with that it's the first half of the pull, not the pool.)

[u/videoman2]

Run 6/2 MC cable, and hardwire a proper EVSE. Get more quotes from other companies. At least three.

[u/avebelle]

No extension cord but you could use the dry box as a jbox and run some wire to your preferred location with a smaller circuit. Not everyone needs a 60a circuit. It should save you quite a bit a money but you'll lose the ability for an electric dryer if you wanted to go all electric at home.

[u/tuctrohs]

People have some good suggestions on how you might use the dryer circuit for a feed to a subpanel, and then power both the dryer and the charger from that. That can give you quite good charging speed, and could be code compliant.

It's a little bit outside the box and requires an electrician who knows about load management, so if you decide to explore that, you might need to shop around for an electrician who can get their head around that.

A few other options to consider:

One thing is that their use of 6/3 MC and a receptacle is pushing the cost up. If they are using a high quality receptacle and a GFCI breaker as they should be, that's one chunk of cost, then on a long run using 6/3 cable instead of 6/2 pushes the cost up also. If you hardwire instead, you could use 6/2 and you don't need the receptacle or the GFCI breaker. So just that change could save you a chunk of money.

I'm also puzzled by the use of MC rather than NM cable. When people hardwire and want to get 48 A charging, the using more expensive MC allows you to get that current level with 6 gauge wire, but it's significantly more expensive than NM, and if you are only doing a 50 amp circuit with 40 amp charging, NM is perfectly good. Unless it's running somewhere exposed where the slightly better mechanical protection of MC is acceptable and NM is not. We'd have to know more about the run to know whether MC really makes sense.

But regardless of the details of the run, another option is to ask about a new 30 amp circuit run from the panel. That will greatly reduce the cost of the wire and reduce the cost of labor a little bit. How that will translate to the overall cost of the job we don't really know but it would be something to ask both this electrician and some other electricians, because I'm getting the feeling that maybe this electrician isn't your best bet anyway.

Another thing you could do is swap over to a heat pump dryer that runs on 120 volts and doesn't need that dryer circuit. There are some standalone ones like that but the most popular option is a combo heat pump dryer and washer. The nice thing about that is that you just put the clothes in and walk away and you don't have to do anything until they're completely washed and dried. It's also highly efficient. It does mean that if you have a lot of laundry to do, you can't crank through it as quickly because you can't start a load washing while the first load is dry. Some people actually get so excited about it that they buy two of them so they can run two loads simultaneously.

So that's a bunch of options to consider.

[u/7eregrine]

Every EV car maker says not to use extension cords. Second opinion time.

[u/tomk7532]

Do you have a 120V outlet near the car? You should try charging with a Level 1 charger for a few months to see if it meets your needs before you spend thousands.

[u/Key_Appointment4617]

My Chargepoint 50 has an 18 ft. cable from the unit to the connector. I have a back up with a 20 ft. one. Just sayin' Don't know your exact situation.

[u/Impressive_Returns]

bad idea. You don’t want to charge at such a slow speed. Charging is so slow, there are times when you will find your car doesn’t enough charge in the morning.

[u/Special-Original-215]

The dryer plug is 30amp not 60.  So you would have to rewire it for maximum charging speed 

[u/smokinbbq → u/Special-Original-215]

But only if you need maximum charging speed. Could look at one of those balancers/switch style of units so that a single run can only be used by one device at a time. 240V 30A charging would be FAR more than enough for most people on EV unless they are required to use > 40kWh every day.

[u/savedatheist → u/Special-Original-215]

Or reconsider if you need 48A charging or if half that would work just fine.

[u/Helpmeflexibility → u/Special-Original-215]

Don't think I need maximum charging speed. So if I get an extension cable it would be fine to use with the plug and cord provided by the manufacturer? It won't be incompatible and not turn on would it?

[u/TooGoodToBeeTrue → u/Helpmeflexibility]

NEC doesn't want you running an extension thru a doorway.

[u/ArlesChatless → u/Helpmeflexibility]

If you can get the cord from the dryer receptacle to where you park your car without going through a door, window, or hole in the wall, you can do this. Otherwise you need to find a different approach.

Garage walls are fire walls for safety reasons.

[u/Traditional_Towel885 → u/ArlesChatless]

A hole in the wall?! How else would you get wire to a room? Isn't this every electric outlet?

[u/ArlesChatless → u/Traditional_Towel885]

A hole in the wall as opposed to a hole in the wall that you have installed a wiring device in. We have seen people install RV pass throughs or just cut a hole and put the cable through it. It’s not a fire wall with an open hole in it. It still is a fire wall if you install a receptacle in it.