I know we've had a lot of discussions around the charging cord but I'm not sure if this question has been asked before. It's raining out now and that got me thinking. For the first three months while I have my volt, I'm going to have to plug it in while it sits outside in my driveway. Does anyone have or has heard of any concerns about plugging the car in while it's raining?

Do NOT lick the contacts in the end of the plug while standing in an ankle deep puddle!!

Sorry... couldn't resist. It really shouldn't be a problem unless you and the plug are just totally soaked.

Shouldn't be a problem on the car end. The AC contacts aren't energized in the J1772 connector until after the charger sees a vehicle on the low voltage control line, and the vehicle requests power.

If you're using the 120V charge cord, you'll have the same concerns you'd have plugging anything into a socket in the rain. The charge cord shouldn't pull much power initially, so I wouldn't think there'd be a big spark.

I'll be using the 120v plug. I didn't realize that the car needs to request power after pluging it in, so that's good to know.

The car also requests that AC power be terminated once it's charged. So unplugging it after a full charge should also be safe in the rain.

But if you pop either end of the cord *WHILE IT'S CHARGING*... Ummm, I think I'd want to tell the car to stop charging first. This all assumes, of course, that both the car and the cord are J1772 compliant.

The car also requests that AC power be terminated once it's charged. So unplugging it after a full charge should also be safe in the rain.

But if you pop either end of the cord *WHILE IT'S CHARGING*... Ummm, I think I'd want to tell the car to stop charging first. This all assumes, of course, that both the car and the cord are J1772 compliant.

Yes, you would. And that functionality may be tied in to the theft alarm. Even if you don't, it shouldn't be a big deal for several reasons:

* The ground conductor makes first and breaks last due to the connector design, so if you just yank it out the live contacts disconnect while the car is still grounded.

* The design of the J1772 connector makes it very difficult to accidentally touch the energy-carrying contacts.

* There is a built-in sneak current protector (GFCI) in the EVSE ("charger") that will immediately kill power if there is contact between a live wire and an external ground like a wet driveway, a frayed or damaged cord, or dropping the connector in a puddle while energized (see next point).

* The J1772 spec calls for opening the contactor within 100 milliseconds seconds maximum after loss of pilot communication with the vehicle so the plug becomes harmless relatively quickly after it's disconnected. This probably happens before you get the plug completely out of the socket, for sure before it hits the aforementioned puddle.

And that, boys and girls, is why they didn't use a plain old extension cord.

You *will* want to take care handling the plug of the level 1 120V unit when plugging or unplugging from the wall, just like any other outdoor appliance.

Plug layout (via http://www.tuer.co.uk/charge-connectors.htm ) :
http://www.tuer.co.uk/datastore/media/saeplug.jpg

What Rusty and Marty said above is correct. The plug is not energized until the charger sees a valid signal (low voltage) from the car. Go ahead, stick your tongue in there.

Plugging and unplugging in the rain is precisely the scenario that the J1772-2009 committee was designing around. And dropping it in the mud and then plugging it in anyway. And your kid sticking his fingers into the end of the plug. And plugging and unplugging through 10,000 cycles. Try that with your dryer plug.