charger install tomorrow
It looks like my charger will finally be installed in my neighbor’s garage tomorrow. Looking forward to it, as my GFI charging in the garage has been pretty unreliable—it keeps tripping. And the document they mailed us today, about how to deal with problems with the 110v charging cable, just kind of annoys me:
- With a 18-foot cable and most people charging in their garages, how are you supposed to charge on a non-GFI outlet? Code requires one in garages because of the wetness, doesn’t it? They could have designed the 110v cable in 2 pieces: a GFI piece that is optional and a cord that can be used with or without the GFI.
The recent thread on NAM about more and more donations of MINI E’s to non-profits and other companies is raising some hackles, and rightly so. MINI should address it somehow… It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Maybe one thing MINI could do is work hard to get their lobbyists to convince Congress and the IRS to ensure field trial participants get a portion of the $7500 tax credit. That would ease some of the distress…
My Year with an All-Electric MINI 
on June 30, 2009 on 3:28 PM
This may be either a) stupidly obvious and/or b) academic now that you are getting the charger – but do you have an electric garage door opener? Is it plugged into a ceiling outlet? Mine is, and it’s not GFI protected, as I deliberately tripped the GFI and that outlet still worked . . . just a thought, probably a useless one for you. But I was kind of surprised when I was looking around the garage for a non GFI outlet and just happened to look up . . .
on July 1, 2009 on 8:45 PM
Steve: It’s obvious and not yet academic (the charger got installed yesterday but no cable still). I felt silly that I had not looked. But that outlet is GF as well. So yesterday I had the electricians replace the GFI and it charged overnight and all day today without problem. So I can go to work tomorrow now. Thanks for the idea.
on July 1, 2009 on 9:24 AM
I’m Robert, I have a MINI Coper S. I also have a MINI blog and store and recently did a 4 part story on 3 west coast MINI E lessees. Stop by and see what you think, leave a comment. One of my posts shows some of the MINI E swag I’ll be selling, soon at my store.
on July 1, 2009 on 9:26 AM
BTW… I added a MINI E Blog page to my blog and included yours, come by and check it out.
on July 4, 2009 on 4:10 PM
GFI’s have been “cost reduced” to the point of being flaky, according to the guy at Clipper Creek. Just changing one that trips with another brand (maybe from a place like Grainger and not Home Depot) might do it. I have plugged in several places with GFI’s, only had trouble with one. And it was very new.
on July 27, 2009 on 9:38 AM
This fellow Ed Kim turned his E back to MINI.
I never understood the problem of where other “E”s are going? Seems, if I drove one, none of my business.
http://mini-e-edju.blogspot.com/