EV Charging - how to adjust charging amperage?

[California]

Daughter just bought a Chevy Equinox. When she comes up to the ranch I want her to charge here. Last visit we used a 120v 20a outlet.

in my shop I have an old 'dryer' 3-blade 240v outlet and an adapter from that to standard welder outlet. Fed from a 30 amp dual breaker on a 100 amp sub-panel.

I just bought the adapter to plug the modern EV cord into the old 3-blade outlet.

My question is, how to adjust down the amperage that the Equinox pulls? I see the Ultium cord/controller that came with the car can pull 32 amps, but that seems dangerously high for continuous load on the ancient farmer-wired Federal Pacific (!) breakers and circuits here. We charged this afternoon at default settings. An 'infrared' thermometer didn't find any notably warm spots after several hours. 80 degrees on the charger brick and the outlet. 85 degrees at the 30 amp breakers feeding the outlet was the maximum found. Below 80 on this sub panel's input breakers and the house (source) 200 amp input and 100 amp shop (output) breakers. But I unplugged the charger overnight just to be cautious.

Anybody have an Equinox? All I can find online is marketing junk and discussion of Chevy's previous charger, not this 2025 version.

How do I l set the EV (or charger?) to pull 24 amps or less? Any advice?

 

[dougtrr2]

Don't confuse what the cord is rated for, with what is actually being drawn in use.

Doug in SW IA

 

[California]

Don't confuse what the cord is rated for, with what is actually being drawn in use.

Doug in SW IA

True. But the question is how do I define what is being drawn?

 

[ponytug]

@California I think that is a great idea to check the temperature of the circuit! What amperage welder outlet are we talking about? 30A? 50A? (60A?) Do you know the wire gauge and metal?

I think that the Equinox has options in the charging page, but my dim recollection is that it doesn't have the option to down rate the 240V charging. But, the Equinox supposedly maxes its AC charging at 11.5kW (49A, which is at the two/three hour max for a 50A circuit)

There are snazzy wall adapters ($500+/-) that will tell the vehicle that the maximum charge rate is X.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Gale Hawkins]

On our 2016 leaf it can draw up to 26 but I don't haven't gotten away to modify that which is not a problem in my case because I have a 40 amp breaker to the outlet so I'm good up to 32.

Now the Tesla lets me micromanage the current rate.

 

[5030]

...and I just passed up a heck of a deal on a very low mileage Tesla coupe. Wife said no so I passed.

 

[California]

@California I think that is a great idea to check the temperature of the circuit! What amperage welder outlet are we talking about? 30A? 50A? (60A?) Do you know the wire gauge and metal?

When i bought my first welder, and ancient 230A - AC stick welder similar to a Tombstone, I cobbled up an outlet for it using junk on hand. Federal Pacific twin 30A breaker, 12 inches of 10 ga wire down to an ancient dryer outlet, then a used dryer pigtail to a 6-50 outlet. (Photo) This 30 amp circuit has served well for various welders claimed to need 50 amps, but I've never run the 230A welder at full output. So this 30A twin breaker has never tripped.

For welding this has worked fine. An EV draws current continually, a much more severe load than an intermittent welder. So I need to pull less current from this circuit. Maybe 24 A in daytime where I can keep an eye on it, and less overnight.

I think that the Equinox has options in the charging page, but my dim recollection is that it doesn't have the option to down rate the 240V charging. But, the Equinox maxes its AC charging at 11.5kW (49A, which is at the two/three hour max for a 50A circuit)

There are snazzy wall adapters ($500+/-) that will tell the vehicle that the maximum charge rate is X.

The adapter that came with the car is a simple brick. (New version for 2025). I wonder if it responds to an app. Or if the car can be set to draw less.

Daughter, the car owner, has no instructions on how to do this.

 

[ponytug]

This would suggest that the 30A circuit requires the GM 30A dongle (shortie cord) for the brick to turn down the charge current;

https://www.equinoxevforum.com/threads/can-we-lower-l2-240v-charge-rate-down-to-24-amps.2039/

E.g. this shorty cord for her brick;


And of course a new NEMA 14-30 outlet...

All the best,

Peter

 

[scootr]

If the car won't let you limit amperage draw (24a might suit your circuit well for fast charging) then you can get a charger that will on Amazon, big selection there.
I'm using a Seguma brand 16 amps at 220v for the Tesla. That is plenty of input for overnight charging.
5030 your wife doesn't know the fun she is missing

 

[California]

Ponytug, I found that dongle diagram and it's the prior model of charger. The 2025 Equinox OEM dongle goes into an approximately square socket on the charger brick.

Scooter, at $350 to $500 included in her new car price for this charger brick, I'll try to make it work. I've read it pulls 32 amps natively, which I think is too much for this old farm wiring.

The updated Equinox charger brick we have, has a 14-50 dongle so I bought the adapter to get from that to my 10-50 'dryer' outlet. This works great but I still want to reduce the amperage going through it.