Who has the best charging stations?

As subject matter experts, we provide only objective information. We design every article to provide you with deeply-researched, factual, useful information so that you can make informed home electrification and financial decisions. We have:

• Sourced the majority of our data from hundreds of thousands of quotes through our own marketplace.

• Incorporated third-party data and information from primary sources, government agencies, educational institutions, peer-reviewed research, or well-researched nonprofit organizations.

• Built our own database and rating system for solar equipment, including solar panels, inverters, and batteries.

We won't charge you anything to get quotes through our marketplace. Instead, installers and other service providers pay us a small fee to participate after we vet them for reliability and suitability. To learn more, read about how we make money and our Editorial Guidelines.

After 28 hours of research and 85 hours of testing, we found the United Chargers Grizzl-E to be the best at-home charger for EVs with a J1772 port, whereas the Tesla Wall Connector is best for EVs with a J3400 connector.

They’re also more likely to have premium features, such as a power cord that’s long enough to reach across a two-car garage or a wide variety of installation options.

Most modern EVs ship with a Level 1 charger—these tend to be small, portable, and slow-charging, thanks to their 120-volt output. But the fastest way to juice up an EV at home is to use a 240-volt Level 2 charger, adding four or more times as many miles per hour of charge.

Whether you’re a longtime electric vehicle owner or you’re still waiting for your first EV to leave the factory floor, you should consider investing in a Level 2 charger for your home.

If you drive a Tesla, this is your best option for at-home charging. It’s rated for up to 48 A of current, suitable for indoor and outdoor use, and backed by a two-year warranty. It also has a super-streamlined look, and its built-in cable organizer keeps its 24-foot cord neatly stored.

This is the EV charger we’d put in our garage. It’s fast-charging and lightweight, and it comes with a lengthy, 24-foot cord. Plus, it’s the most weatherproof model we tested.

In the US, the vast majority of EV owners drive Teslas, which have a J3400 charging port (also called the North American Charging Standard, or NACS). A growing number of car companies have also committed to implementing the J3400 connector in future EVs, though many existing EVs still use the longstanding J1772 connector. For this guide, we chose to focus on chargers that are compatible with either a J1772 or a J3400 connector, as well as adapters that can convert one type of plug to the other.

Despite costing less than any other J1772 EV charger in our testing pool at this writing, the United Chargers Grizzl-E offers many of the same capabilities and features seen in pricier models. It’s rated for a maximum current of 40 A, which we were able to reproduce in our testing, allowing it to charge much faster than the Level 1 chargers that come with most EVs. The three-year warranty is as long as any we’ve seen, so you’ll have plenty of time to make sure the charger works properly and meets your needs.

It’s available in two plug-in configurations and can also be hardwired, whereas many of the models we tested have just one or two installation options. This charger is also fairly compact, so it won’t take up much garage space, and it’s lightweight enough to lift into a trunk or mount onto a wall with relative ease. Also, it has a long, slim cord that can be neatly wound around the included cable organizer.

If you’d like the option of installing your charger outside, the Grizzl-E has the most weatherproof exterior of any we tested, with a rating that shows it can shield the charger from superficial dirt, dust, oils, moisture, and even heavy rain or snow. It’s also rated to operate safely in temperatures between -22° to 122° Fahrenheit, and its plug has a protective rubber cap.

Our main gripes with this model are that its packaging isn’t especially protective, so we worry that it could be more easily damaged in transit, and its painted metal exterior attracts fingerprints and smudges more than most models we tested. But in light of the Grizzl-E’s other great qualities, we think the majority of people will overlook these minor quibbles.

Max current rating: 40 A
Weatherproof rating: IP67 (fully dustproof and waterproof)
Installation options: three (hardwire, NEMA 14-50 plug, NEMA 6-50 plug)
Warranty: three years

Advertisement

Not surprisingly, our testing showed that the best charger for a Tesla EV is Tesla’s flagship charger, the Tesla Wall Connector. It’s not our top pick for all drivers, because connecting it to a J1772 EV requires a pricey third-party adapter that isn’t designed for everyday use. (Plus, since Tesla sells more EVs than the other car companies combined, its chargers are in high demand and often out of stock.) But if you drive a Tesla, or you’re planning to buy an EV with a J3400 port, it’s the best option available with that type of connector. Its maximum current rating of 48 A is among the highest of those we tested, and at this writing its price is one of the lowest.

The Tesla Wall Connector is even slimmer and lighter than the Grizzl-E. It has a super-sleek look, and it’s backed by Tesla’s two-year warranty. This charger has a 24-foot cord, just like the Grizzl-E, and its built-in cable organizer is elegantly designed. It’s not quite as weatherized as our J1772 pick, but it’s still rated to provide ample protection against dirt, dust, oils, splashes and sprays of water, and temperatures between -22° to 122° Fahrenheit.

The biggest downside to this charger is that it lacks plug-in options, so you have to hardwire it into your home’s electrical system. That’s less convenient if you want to be able to move your charger without calling an electrician. But since hardwiring is generally preferable to plug-in installation anyway, we don’t consider this a fatal flaw.

Max current rating: 48 A
Weatherproof rating: IP55 (highly dustproof and waterproof)
Installation options: one (hardwire)
Warranty: two years