Waterproof plug & receptacle for EV use

[todd.martin]

In my 4-5 years of EV ownership, I have fried some plugs & receptacles from rainy conditions and have been shocked a few times.  Also, a bit of misplaced moisture can cause the circuit to trip leaving you without a charged up car.

To fix this, I have purchased from Fruit Ridge Tools www.fruitridgetools.com) both a Leviton WETGUARD male & female plug.  Both have a nice bright yellow rubber housing with yellow rubber sleeves to lock out water.  The female connector comes with an attached cap that covers the receptical when not in use.  I really like the quality of the product.

I ordered (through Ebay) the connectors on a Tuesday afternoon.  They shipped the same day and arrived on Thursday's mail.  Both parts together cost $29.90 plus $6.43 for shipping & handling.  I ordered NEMA 6-20, 250V connectors.  Other flavors are available.

If you drive an EV and don't use a fancy J1772 connector, I highly recommend going with a waterproof connector.

[john.emde]

In my 31 + years of EV ownership and use, I have never fried a plug or receptacle and have never been shocked by the AC line. Even in the rain, snow, dog peeing on the cord, etc.
One way to avoid a problem such as yours, is to make sure the cord connections (like your water proof) going to, and at the car are dry. The final (and I stress final) plug-in should be at the source. (Wall outlet)  There is usually a spark when plugged in, and this will eventually wear out that connection, and it is easier and cheaper to replace the wall outlet than the one on your car.
If you do feel a tingle or worse, when you touch the car, there is either a ground fault somewhere in your high voltage system, or the charger is not properly grounded to the car. Find the source of the problem and fix it and stay safe.

John Emde

[stephen.grushas]

I agree with Mr. EV ( John Emde), after 12 + years of EV ownership and using many customer's vehicles at Pioneerconversions, I have never been shocked or fried a plug on my vehicles or any of the customer's cars.

[geoffrey.pullinger]

Many years ago I started running extension cords outside for various purposes.  I once ran about 300' of extension cord from my apartment to my car to run the block heater on my Oldsmobile Diesel.  This was not plugged into a GFCI outlet but the breaker would still click off if water got into the plugs from melting snow.  I've never had a problem with getting shocked regardless of how many ridiculous things I've done with extension cords.  These cords were all 120 vac so I can't speak to what would happen if you were using 220 - 240 vac but I would expect if each side of the circuit had a GFCI  and/or a breaker it would be pretty safe.
There is some talk of connecting electric cars with DC going directly to the battery.  This scares me because DC voltages in the 120 to 440 volt range they are talking about are pretty hazardous.  They need a different kind of circuit breaker for DC (as you probably know) because opening a high-voltage, high-current DC circuit quickly is a little more difficult.  I'm sure they have it covered but it still scares me!