Advice on charger location in garage

[thefisch]

With a MPY on order to replace my wife's car, my homework assignment is to look into installing a charger. I was hoping you all could recommend the best location in the garage given our specific situation.

We have a three car garage with the breaker panels on the wall nearest the single garage door. I park on that side since it is a tight fit with the wall close to the driver's side door and the water heater (with pole) in front. My wife prefers to park on the other side and still wants to park and charge the MYP - essentially she parks in the middle of the three car garage as we have storage shelves all along the wall on the opposite side. Here are some photos of that panel side of the garage to give some context:

The silver car is mine and you can see the pole protecting the water heater with some pool noodle on it acting as a bumper. My kids did that after someone bumped their leg on it.

There is room to add breakers in the larger panel on the right. The smaller one is full. The panels are mounted to wood along the sides but the bottoms of the panels are covered only by drywall so that should be easier to access from below.

From the photo above, you can see how tight it is on that side. I can get out of the car OK but my wife and kids had trouble before so we added matching pool noodles where the doors make contact.

While I would love the look of EMT for the install, a horizontal run alongside the car would be problematic down this wall. With concrete block walls, it's recommended to use hangers (or minnies) to keep the pipe off the wall to avoid corrosion. So EMT would stick out 2 inches from the wall which would not be good for opening my driver's door, and those hanger clips would scrape you if you walked by too close. Plastic conduit would allow the conduit to hug the wall and be kinder to the doors and not stick out more than the noodles. The charger would have to be closer to the rear bumper of my car so I could still walk down the side without having to shimmy or bump into it.

The space between the garage doors would be ideal but we hang our shop vac there so it could reach one side of either car. Plus this would increase the install costs for sure getting the wire up and over.

So far we've come up with two possible mounting locations for the charger and would appreciate your feedback on these and any other suggestions:

• Place the charger one or two feet to the right of the panels near the front wheel/bumper of the silver car in the photo. This would be about 15 feet in from the garage door.
  • Would the charging cable be able to reach the MYP which will be parked on the other side (where the black SUV is to the left of the shop vac). We could route the cable in front of the silver car and down the side to reach the Tesla assuming the cord is long enough. Also, this would avoid me driving over the cable while she is charging.
• Place the charger closer to the garage door down the wall which would be about 9-10 feet to the left of the panels.
  • One concern is the conduit run down that wall which I mentioned above. We'd need to make sure there is clearance for the car doors.
  • Another concern is that the silver car would be driving over the charging cable while in use. Not sure if wall connector cables are heavy duty enough for that.
  • One positive is that this would allow more range for charging cars outside of the garage where the first option would only leave 6 or so feet of cable reaching outside if needed.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

 

[jcanoe]

You don't want to drive over the charging cable, even one time could damage the wiring.

The best location is where the shop vac currently is mounted. I have three shop vacs in my home and they are all on casters, they easily roll where needed.

I would have the EMT or plastic conduit run from the panel (sub panel) up to the ceiling, then to the front of the garage and across where the garage doors open and then down to where the shop vac currently is located. I would install the Wall Connector between the two garage doors. That location would enable the Tesla charging cable, charging connector to reach the Tesla vehicle(s) with no issue.

 

[thefisch]

Thanks for the response. Good to know you can't drive over the cable. So I'd probably have to either maintain discipline to unplug the cable before entering or exiting or go with option 1 and install the charger to the right of the panels and run the cable in front of my car.

Regarding the shop vac, we tried the casters at first but would never pull it out to use. Once we mounted it there we use it all the time as the long hose can reach the insides of both cars. So we'd prefer not to move that.

 

[E90alex]

Shop vac location is ideal but yes, the conduit and wire run would be more expensive. You can leave the shop vac there and mount the charger higher.

To the right of the panel and routing the cable around the front of the silver car likely won’t be long enough.

You can go to the left of the panel closer to the garage door and you’ll have to either suspend the cable above the silver car or get one of those drive over cable protectors (looks like a speed bump) and go under the car.

 

[jcanoe]

Thanks for the response. Good to know you can't drive over the cable. So I'd probably have to either maintain discipline to unplug the cable before entering or exiting or go with option 1 and install the charger to the right of the panels and run the cable in front of my car.

Regarding the shop vac, we tried the casters at first but would never pull it out to use. Once we mounted it there we use it all the time as the long hose can reach the insides of both cars. So we'd prefer not to move that.

It might be a bit awkward but you could install the Shop Vac a bit higher up (or lower down.) Longer Shop Vac hoses are available. Then the Wall Connector would be installed either above or below the Shop Vac.

The additional length of conduit and wiring is not going to appreciably add to the cost. Most of the cost is for the electrician's time, materials are perhaps 1/3rd of the total. This is a straight forward installation with no wall penetrations other than at the panel.

I still thing the Shop Vac would be happier roaming around, maybe it would meet a nice Roomba vacuum.

 

[Sophias_dad]

My charging installation

How about that... Note that its a Gen2 charger, and if you go this route you should use JP75W-L20 hangers since the Gen3 cable is smaller. You'd need to cross the garage above the torsion spring assembly.

The small width of the handle holster allows me to hang an air compressor(removed for the picture) in between the doors.

In your situation you could go across the ceiling as well. That wasn't an option for my installation because my ceiling joists are 12' off the floor and the cord would likely be too short.

 

[sidewinder]

i have the same setup as you except my garage is oriented with single door on the right side. i park my jetski trailer where you have the silver car. i'm also debating how to go about mounting the wall connector. my current plan is to mount the wall connector next to the panels. then run the charging cable up to the ceiling and over and down the other side using hooks.

here are some pics to give you an idea.

Retractable Overhead Charger Cable Mount Parts for Tesla Model S, 3, X, and Y for Either Mobile or Wall Connector Chargers - Etsy

This Car Accessories item by EscapeSpeed has 352 favorites from Etsy shoppers. Ships from Friendswood, TX. Listed on Jan 10, 2024

www.etsy.com

Ceiling Mounted Cable Management

www.chevybolt.org

https://www.chevybolt.org/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.chevybolt.org/attachments/img_0918-jpeg.45180/

i'm planning on using a spring balancer like the etsy listing and bought this to mount on the ceilng to hold the charging cable and retract it up when not in use. only issue on my end is that due to the garage orientation, car in the middle will need to back in otherwise cable would not reach the charging port on the other side. it should actually be easier in your case as you won't need to back in.

i would use a flex conduit coming out of the bottom of the main breaker panel and run it along the bottom and up next to the sub panel since you won't need to run it very long. only issue might be clearing the garage door rails. wall charger is 24ft so there should be enough length to reach the other side. charger can be mounted higher if it needs to be longer.

 

[Jimboy435]

Do you have attic access? I installed 2 chargers on each side and my electrician pulled the wire from the attic to the other side behind the wall.

 

[Cosmacelf]

I've been driving over my charger cable for years with no problem. But I agree that it isn't recommended.

 

[davewill]

Maybe the vac can be mounted at the floor level? That should leave enough room above it.

 

[thefisch]

I've been driving over my charger cable for years with no problem. But I agree that it isn't recommended.

Yeah, I want to try and avoid that. My wife has already told me she doesn't want it laying on the ground, but she also doesn't want to wind up 20+ feet of it every time. Plus when it rains and my car is dripping on the floor, she won't want to take up the cable then either.

Shop vac location is ideal but yes, the conduit and wire run would be more expensive. You can leave the shop vac there and mount the charger higher.

To the right of the panel and routing the cable around the front of the silver car likely won’t be long enough.

You can go to the left of the panel closer to the garage door and you’ll have to either suspend the cable above the silver car or get one of those drive over cable protectors (looks like a speed bump) and go under the car.

By my calculations it is about another 25 to 30 feet of wiring and conduit to make it over to the shop vac going up to the ceiling along the walls.

And you are right the cable won't be long enough to go on the right side in front of my car. I laid out a rope along that path and it comes up a few feet to short. So scratch that option.

Up in the air might be the best way.

It might be a bit awkward but you could install the Shop Vac a bit higher up (or lower down.) Longer Shop Vac hoses are available. Then the Wall Connector would be installed either above or below the Shop Vac.

The additional length of conduit and wiring is not going to appreciably add to the cost. Most of the cost is for the electrician's time, materials are perhaps 1/3rd of the total. This is a straight forward installation with no wall penetrations other than at the panel.

I still thing the Shop Vac would be happier roaming around, maybe it would meet a nice Roomba vacuum.

I measured moving the shop vac up and down to see how that might work. But my wife told me she doesn't want both of them in the same space - too much going on was her comment.

My charging installation

How about that... Note that its a Gen2 charger, and if you go this route you should use JP75W-L20 hangers since the Gen3 cable is smaller. You'd need to cross the garage above the torsion spring assembly.

The small width of the handle holster allows me to hang an air compressor(removed for the picture) in between the doors.

In your situation you could go across the ceiling as well. That wasn't an option for my installation because my ceiling joists are 12' off the floor and the cord would likely be too short.

Thanks for the example. How high are those hooks off the floor? I need 10 feet to clear the spring since the garage is 8 feet tall. So it might work for me but I don't know how much slack I will have.

i have the same setup as you except my garage is oriented with single door on the right side. i park my jetski trailer where you have the silver car. i'm also debating how to go about mounting the wall connector. my current plan is to mount the wall connector next to the panels. then run the charging cable up to the ceiling and over and down the other side using hooks.

here are some pics to give you an idea.

Retractable Overhead Charger Cable Mount Parts for Tesla Model S, 3, X, and Y for Either Mobile or Wall Connector Chargers - Etsy

This Car Accessories item by EscapeSpeed has 352 favorites from Etsy shoppers. Ships from Friendswood, TX. Listed on Jan 10, 2024

www.etsy.com

Ceiling Mounted Cable Management

www.chevybolt.org

https://www.chevybolt.org/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.chevybolt.org/attachments/img_0918-jpeg.45180/

i'm planning on using a spring balancer like the etsy listing and bought this to mount on the ceilng to hold the charging cable and retract it up when not in use. only issue on my end is that due to the garage orientation, car in the middle will need to back in otherwise cable would not reach the charging port on the other side. it should actually be easier in your case as you won't need to back in.

i would use a flex conduit coming out of the bottom of the main breaker panel and run it along the bottom and up next to the sub panel since you won't need to run it very long. only issue might be clearing the garage door rails. wall charger is 24ft so there should be enough length to reach the other side. charger can be mounted higher if it needs to be longer.

Thanks for the detailed examples. This could be my best option. I would have to mount the charger higher than the normal 48" from the floor - maybe closer to 60" - so that the driver door on my car doesn't hit the charger when opened. I'll have to check the clearance needed for the door rails, but this option involves the least wiring and conduit so that helps cover the ceiling mounting hardware.

Do you have attic access? I installed 2 chargers on each side and my electrician pulled the wire from the attic to the other side behind the wall.

There is an eve over the garage so there is an attic. The garage is about 30 feet wide and where my wife parks the charging port would be closer to the wall with the panels on them than the other side.

 

[Sophias_dad]

Thanks for the example. How high are those hooks off the floor? I need 10 feet to clear the spring since the garage is 8 feet tall. So it might work for me but I don't know how much slack I will have.

The hooks above the door are at about 8' since I have traditional extension springs. You could >probably< make it work even if you installed the cable below your torsion spring assembly, but you'd have to worry about (and make arrangements to avoid) the lift cables literally sawing through the charging cable.

Some other measurements:
Diameter of a Gen3 power cable is 0.565", most 1/2" hangers would likely fit. I'd probably grab something from McMaster-Carr and put it across the ceiling for easy takedown if you have a visitor that wants to charge in the driveway.
Base of charger to floor: 4.5'
Front of garage to charger: 3'
Distance from garage wall to holster: 12'

With this setup I have probably 4' of extra cable. The charging handle easily reaches the ground. There's really no reason to NOT put the HPWC within a foot or so of the garage door, leaving you with several more feet of cable(to either reach the ceiling or above the torsion spring assembly).

 

[KJD]

The space between the doors is the obvious best location. You just need to also buy a cordless shop vac that is easy to move where you want it.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/CRAFTSMAN-...y-Shop-Vacuum-Battery-Not-Included/1000578307

 

[thefisch]

The space between the doors is the obvious best location. You just need to also buy a cordless shop vac that is easy to move where you want it.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/CRAFTSMAN-...y-Shop-Vacuum-Battery-Not-Included/1000578307

Thanks but my wife likes the hanging one - it is powerful enough for getting sand out of the floor mats and has a long enough hose to reach the front floor mats on both sides.

Plus I showed her the suspended cable idea this morning and she liked it, especially with the holder on the wall near the shopvac for the handle and the spring balancer about 8 feet down from the handle - that way it could reach the car regardless of whether we pull it into the single door side or where she parks now.

 

[thefisch]

i would use a flex conduit coming out of the bottom of the main breaker panel and run it along the bottom and up next to the sub panel since you won't need to run it very long. only issue might be clearing the garage door rails. wall charger is 24ft so there should be enough length to reach the other side. charger can be mounted higher if it needs to be longer.

By flex, do you mean Liquidtight Flexible Nonmetallic Conduit (LFNC) like that Hydromaxx stuff? I thought the conduit had to be solid like EMT or PCV schedule 40. Or is it allowable since it would be a short run under 6 feet?

The hooks above the door are at about 8' since I have traditional extension springs. You could >probably< make it work even if you installed the cable below your torsion spring assembly, but you'd have to worry about (and make arrangements to avoid) the lift cables literally sawing through the charging cable.

Some other measurements:
Diameter of a Gen3 power cable is 0.565", most 1/2" hangers would likely fit. I'd probably grab something from McMaster-Carr and put it across the ceiling for easy takedown if you have a visitor that wants to charge in the driveway.
Base of charger to floor: 4.5'
Front of garage to charger: 3'
Distance from garage wall to holster: 12'

With this setup I have probably 4' of extra cable. The charging handle easily reaches the ground. There's really no reason to NOT put the HPWC within a foot or so of the garage door, leaving you with several more feet of cable(to either reach the ceiling or above the torsion spring assembly).

If I went above the spring (which I would have to due to the lift cables as you pointed out), then that takes another 4 feet of cable to go up 2 feet on the right and down 2 more feet on the left. I am thinking on going across the ceiling under the garage door opener and rails as the door rails are 8 feet off the ground. First I would take the cable through a fixed hook near the bracketing for the rail above the charger as drawn below:

Then I would install a spring balancer to the ceiling near the rail bracket on the other side. I raised the door for this photo to better illustrate the clearance. The cable would be about 7.5 feet above the floor so you could walk under it. I would probably mount the charger a little higher like you did to allow for more cable to make it to the other side and also so the window on my driver's door doesn't bump into it.

Then I would install a holster like you did above the shop vac where my wife could still reach it so it won't hang down too much. I estimate there should be 9 to 10 feet of cable length left from the spring balancer to the holster and the wall is only 8 feet away. Since the spring balancer can be pulled out or down about 4 feet, there should be no issue reaching the charging port where she parks and you could even pull it back towards the panel wall if we ever had to park the car on the single door side.

And having the cable down at 7.5 feet would allow me to easily unhook the cable (as opposed up at 10 feet) if ever needed to charge on the driveway as the cable should extend about 10 feet outside of the garage with the charger installed just to the left of the panel. Of course we'd have to back in the car up to the single garage door.

Did I miss anything?

 

[Sophias_dad]

By flex, do you mean Liquidtight Flexible Nonmetallic Conduit (LFNC) like that Hydromaxx stuff? I thought the conduit had to be solid like EMT or PCV schedule 40. Or is it allowable since it would be a short run under 6 feet?



If I went above the spring (which I would have to due to the lift cables as you pointed out), then that takes another 4 feet of cable to go up 2 feet on the right and down 2 more feet on the left. I am thinking on going across the ceiling under the garage door opener and rails as the door rails are 8 feet off the ground. First I would take the cable through a fixed hook near the bracketing for the rail above the charger as drawn below:

View attachment 908263

Then I would install a spring balancer to the ceiling near the rail bracket on the other side. I raised the door for this photo to better illustrate the clearance. The cable would be about 7.5 feet above the floor so you could walk under it. I would probably mount the charger a little higher like you did to allow for more cable to make it to the other side and also so the window on my driver's door doesn't bump into it.

View attachment 908265

Then I would install a holster like you did above the shop vac where my wife could still reach it so it won't hang down too much. I estimate there should be 9 to 10 feet of cable length left from the spring balancer to the holster and the wall is only 8 feet away. Since the spring balancer can be pulled out or down about 4 feet, there should be no issue reaching the charging port where she parks and you could even pull it back towards the panel wall if we ever had to park the car on the single door side.

View attachment 908264

And having the cable down at 7.5 feet would allow me to easily unhook the cable (as opposed up at 10 feet) if ever needed to charge on the driveway as the cable should extend about 10 feet outside of the garage with the charger installed just to the left of the panel. Of course we'd have to back in the car up to the single garage door.

Did I miss anything?

I see what you mean, but I think the spring thing will be more trouble than its worth. Given where your max-open position for the garage door is, I'd probably stick a 2x4 across the garage door rails (held in place by a screw or two on each end where the rollers won't visit), then put a nail or clip on top of(or bottom of, if desired) the 2x4 to hold the cable so it isn't draping. I'd continue the pattern with clips following down the railing, using special super-flat-head bolts so the rollers don't have problems. You might need to do a bit of fancy metalwork or woodwork to get things attached. I'm a little concerned that the holster probably isn't designed for something to be pulling out all the time, and will never really hold the handle.

 

[JCLJorgenson]

If it was me, I would not install where the Shoplift is, since that means the connector's cable would actually have to run behind your MY to the back left charging port. My garage is setup very similar to yours and I placed the wall connector where you proposed in option 2, so it only needs a few feet of cable to connect (and will not ever go behind your car). How would that setup create risk of driving over the cable, am I misunderstanding something? Also, your MY cannot go into reverse with the cable plugged in.

In regards to that location, have you checked with an electrician to see if they can discretely run the power up the wall, through the ceiling and back down to your preferred location? Most pros can figure that out or can at least run conduit along those same lines (avoiding door ding space concerns). To clarify, there is no reason why the conduit or cable needs to come out from the bottom of the circuit box, it should be able to go up and along the ceiling (and possibly in the ceiling).

I have my MY next to the wall with the connector and my wife has a Model 3 parked on the other side. That setup allows for me to also charge her car, although that is a scenario where the cable is running behind my Model Y. Fortunately the wall connector is right in front of me when I go to my car and the green light turns to a blue light if it is plugged in. I can also clearly see the cable running out of the wall connector to her car. Here is a photo of my setup...

 

[tangible1]

With a MPY on order to replace my wife's car, my homework assignment is to look into installing a charger. I was hoping you all could recommend the best location in the garage given our specific situation.

We have a three car garage with the breaker panels on the wall nearest the single garage door. I park on that side since it is a tight fit with the wall close to the driver's side door and the water heater (with pole) in front. My wife prefers to park on the other side and still wants to park and charge the MYP - essentially she parks in the middle of the three car garage as we have storage shelves all along the wall on the opposite side. Here are some photos of that panel side of the garage to give some context:

View attachment 908021
The silver car is mine and you can see the pole protecting the water heater with some pool noodle on it acting as a bumper. My kids did that after someone bumped their leg on it.


View attachment 908018

View attachment 908020
There is room to add breakers in the larger panel on the right. The smaller one is full. The panels are mounted to wood along the sides but the bottoms of the panels are covered only by drywall so that should be easier to access from below.

View attachment 908017


View attachment 908019
From the photo above, you can see how tight it is on that side. I can get out of the car OK but my wife and kids had trouble before so we added matching pool noodles where the doors make contact.

While I would love the look of EMT for the install, a horizontal run alongside the car would be problematic down this wall. With concrete block walls, it's recommended to use hangers (or minnies) to keep the pipe off the wall to avoid corrosion. So EMT would stick out 2 inches from the wall which would not be good for opening my driver's door, and those hanger clips would scrape you if you walked by too close. Plastic conduit would allow the conduit to hug the wall and be kinder to the doors and not stick out more than the noodles. The charger would have to be closer to the rear bumper of my car so I could still walk down the side without having to shimmy or bump into it.

View attachment 908022
The space between the garage doors would be ideal but we hang our shop vac there so it could reach one side of either car. Plus this would increase the install costs for sure getting the wire up and over.

So far we've come up with two possible mounting locations for the charger and would appreciate your feedback on these and any other suggestions:

• Place the charger one or two feet to the right of the panels near the front wheel/bumper of the silver car in the photo. This would be about 15 feet in from the garage door.
  • Would the charging cable be able to reach the MYP which will be parked on the other side (where the black SUV is to the left of the shop vac). We could route the cable in front of the silver car and down the side to reach the Tesla assuming the cord is long enough. Also, this would avoid me driving over the cable while she is charging.
• Place the charger closer to the garage door down the wall which would be about 9-10 feet to the left of the panels.
  • One concern is the conduit run down that wall which I mentioned above. We'd need to make sure there is clearance for the car doors.
  • Another concern is that the silver car would be driving over the charging cable while in use. Not sure if wall connector cables are heavy duty enough for that.
  • One positive is that this would allow more range for charging cars outside of the garage where the first option would only leave 6 or so feet of cable reaching outside if needed.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

all in all, I'd consider conduit overhead to gain flexibility of charger location if you don't wish to move other items.

 

[thefisch]

I see what you mean, but I think the spring thing will be more trouble than its worth. Given where your max-open position for the garage door is, I'd probably stick a 2x4 across the garage door rails (held in place by a screw or two on each end where the rollers won't visit), then put a nail or clip on top of(or bottom of, if desired) the 2x4 to hold the cable so it isn't draping. I'd continue the pattern with clips following down the railing, using special super-flat-head bolts so the rollers don't have problems. You might need to do a bit of fancy metalwork or woodwork to get things attached. I'm a little concerned that the holster probably isn't designed for something to be pulling out all the time, and will never really hold the handle.

The 2x4 is a good idea if more support is needed for the cable. I'll have to play around with the options when the time comes to see what works best. Until then...

 

[Sambub]

Is the Tesla gonna go where the black car is?

If so, like others, highly recommend you put charger where shop vac is.

Do you have access above garage? Is there an attic? If so, they can run cable above ceiling, then down shop vac wall.

Having the charger right there at back of car is really convenient. It’s easy to plug in after garaging and cable does not get dirty or damaged. That’ll be much more convenient than having the vac in that spot.