Wondering what you settled on after all this time and how the setup is holding up for you. I was in the same boat with my EQS and decided to skip the branded chargers since things are changing so fast.

To make sure everything was up to code, I just had Wolf River Electric swing by to wire up a universal station and it's been working perfectly. It's honestly a lifesaver having a reliable home charge instead of constantly hunting for public stalls.

 

In my garage, I have both a hardwired to the MB wall charger for the EQS, and another run for the EV heavy duty NEMA14-50 outlet for an additional plug in (future car, but current used for a 3 burner electric cooktop). Should I need to NACS, I probably just get an adapter head while still maintaining 11.5kW each due to two 60 amp breakers.

 

I encourage everyone to hardwire if at all possible. I used a Nema plug for a few months until the wall outlet shorted and smoked. Thankfully the circuit breaker worked as intended and there was no other damage to the house, or EQS. Search online and you will find many similar stories.

For EVSE, YouTube channel State of Charge has a lot of reviews and comparisons. I settled on a refurb Grizzl-E Classic 40a and have been very happy with it.

 

When I had my plug installed, I made sure to watch the entire installation. I caught several mistakes the contractor made:

1. Wrong breaker type (requires GFCI breaker for outlets in garage - this was a somewhat recent change to NEC, but they should have known)
2. Wrong outlet type, they tried to use a standard, light duty outlet instead of one designed for continuous load.

The initial design of the system and the person handling the building permit application was a licensed contractor who knew what he was doing, but the people that showed up to do the install were non-licensed employees not familiar with code and the particulars of a continuous duty circuit. I forced them to call the boss about the two issues above, and in both cases the boss backed me up, requiring them to go back to the electrical supply house and buy the right parts.

If you had a plug overheat, then the most likely cause was a $10 standard grade outlet, not an EV rated continuous duty outlet at $40 - $100. I made them install a Leviton EV outlet (https://www.homedepot.com/p/50-Amp-1...-R10-1450R-0B0). A standard grade outlet is good for a dryer, oven, or stove that do not draw power continuously, but will overheat and melt over several hours of high current draw when charging an EV. The vast majority of electrical hardware commonly available is designed for the intermittent use that is the norm for household electrical circuits and if you look at those Youtube videos and reports, you will see that they used a standard NEMA outlet, not one designed for continuous duty.

Until EV charging came along, there has been no need for continuous duty capable components in households, and there isn't any standard marking for components that can take continuous duty. Leviton's EV mark on this outlet is an attempt to distinguish that this outlet is capable of charging an EV. Don't assume that those contractors or installers know the particulars of an EV charging circuit either - most of them don't know, or want to cut their costs, so will install an under capacity outlet if they can get away with it.

 

The standard until now was the 80% rule (nominal ratings are downrated by 80% for "continuous" loads; lasting >3 hours).
But I agree, apparently that isn't enough for the cheaply made outlets.

 

I had a 50 amp circuit with a NEMA 14-50R heavy duty outlet installed in anticipation of buying a 2027 E class EQ later this year.
I opted for a plug-in because the car comes with a Mercedes-Benz Mobile Flex Charging Cable so there is no need to buy a wallbox charger.

 

Well, it is a bit more complex than just 80% as you need to take into account service length run, temperature and other environmental conditions, etc. for the breaker and wiring selection. However, you can use tables for a lot of it. The design tables are pretty conservative, so almost all the issues I see with an EV charger are basically either:
1. Cheap outlet components that cannot take a continuous load, this is the most common failure I see on the internet.
2. Incorrectly configured hardwired chargers where the charger is set to draw more current than the circuit supports (given the 80% rule and the installed wiring/breaker).

 

I'm no electrician, but my licensed electrician ran 4awg wiring inside metal tubes, j-box, and hardwire to the charger. For the other outlet, he torqued the screws to specs on the Hubbell industrial grade outlet. Technically speaking, what typically cause the fire is arching. What caused the arching is improper wiring connection (it takes a lot to tighten 4 awg wires), and finally outlets with low grade plastics and metals that cannot withstand repeated plug and unplug, and the prolonged heat on the connections.

And if you want to be really safe, put a wifi data logger (temperature sensor) at the connection/outlet. During peak charging, the surround box will get up to about 95-97 degrees F max. I know because I have one, and looking at the data logger, I know how long it takes to charge my car bases on the rise and fall of the temperature. Set an alert on the temperature sensor app to alert if it gets to 100. That's probably has safe as you can get without standing there and watching it.

 

For your 2023 Mercedes EQS most owners use a standard Level 2 J1772 home charger at 40 to 48 amps on a 50 amp circuit. Options like ChargePoint Home Flex Emporia or Wallbox Pulsar Plus all work well. Your EQS already charges at its max AC rate around 9 to 11 kW so any good Level 2 charger will give full home charging speed. The Tesla plug change does not affect your current car so just buy a reliable J1772 Level 2 charger.

 

A quick correction, you can charge at 40A on a 50A circuit, but you must have a 60A circuit to support 48A charging.

 

I haven't bought an EQS yet, but have a general home charger question. In my garage, I would need to mount the charger on the wall in front of the car. As the charge port is on the right rear of the car, do these chargers come with cables long enough to reach the port or would I need to back the car into the garage?

 

The cable length depends on the specific charger model. Most are about 20' to 25', but my neighbor's charger is over 30' long. Best Home EV Chargers for 2026

 

My ChargePoint flex is mounted on the wall in front of my car and the cable reaches to the back of my 23 EQS sedan with room to spare.

 

I'm setup to use the Level 2 Mercedes Mobile Flex Charging Cable that comes with the car. It is 23' long and plugs into a NEMA 14-50 receptacle. No wall box is needed.

 

Thank you for the responses. Now onto finding the right car.

 

Is there any sort of interlock in those adaptors to prevent you from using it with a Tesla Supercharger (DCFC) station accidentally?

 

Because these adaptors plug only into the circular J1772 plug, and not also into the (oval) CCS plug that's below it, it seems unlikely that a Tesla Supercharger would do any harm. The Supercharger would likely recognize that it's not plugged into a high-voltage CCS plug, and would just not do anything. (I've never tried this, though - nor do I want to - so I can't say for sure.)

 

I strongly recommend you not try this as I don't think there is any way for the adaptor to communicate its type to the charge station. Thus you would potentially deliver 400V into your AC inverter which we certainly destroy it and the associated wiring in the car. The NACS cable and plug deliver one of 120VAC, 240VAC, or 400VDC over the same pins. If you use the wrong adaptor, you risk sending AC on the DC direct battery connections which would damage the battery (most likely blowing the internal safety fuses and damaging cells if the fuses don't blow fast enough) or high voltage DC into the onboard AC inverter.

From the documentation I see, there are temperature and arc protections but not anything that would prevent accidentally charging in the wrong mode. When used with a vehicle with a NACS port, the car will be informed of what charging voltage and mode is used, allowing the car to configure itself for AC or DC charging from the shared pins. That isn't needed in a car with CCS as the AC and DC connections are different, leaving you potentially vulnerable if you use the wrong adaptor for the charge type you are doing.