When you buy an electric car, a home charge point is appealing for plenty of reasons: reliability, cheaper electricity, no queueing and a secure charge overnight. What is less appealing is a long cable hanging off the wall or trailing across the floor beside the unit.
So the question we get asked is whether a retractable reel is the answer. It can be, but only the right kind, and the reason matters more than the product.
Can I wind up my EV charging cable?
Not while it is charging. A charging cable must be fully unwound before you start a charge, every time, without exception. This is not a manufacturer preference or a nicety, it is how the cable gets rid of its heat.
A cable carrying current warms up. Laid out loose, that heat dissipates into the air along its whole length and the cable stays cool. Wound onto a reel or coiled on the floor, each turn sits against the turns above and below it, the heat has nowhere to go, and the temperature in the middle of the coil climbs. In the worst case the insulation softens, the cable is damaged permanently, and it can fail.
There is a performance consequence too. A cable only carries its full rated current when it is completely extended. Charge from a coil and you may not see the speed you paid for, so a cable sold as 32A can behave like something slower and the charge takes longer.
The same rule is why we say never to charge an EV through a domestic extension lead or a cable reel from a DIY shop. Those are built for a lawnmower or a power tool drawing current in short bursts, not for a car pulling several kilowatts for hours at a time.
So what does work?
Purpose built retractable systems exist, and the good ones are designed around exactly the problem above: the cable is uncoiled during the charge and retracted afterwards. It is only ever coiled when no current is flowing, so the heat question never arises. That is the distinction to look for when you are comparing products.
Wall mounted retractors
The most common choice for a home charge point. They sit alongside a wall mounted unit and often include clamps that hold the cable against the wall, so it comes down when you need it and goes back up when you do not.
Pogo style retractors
These hold the cable around ten feet off the ground and out of the way. You pull a short pole down to bring the connector within reach. They are more often seen with industrial vehicles such as forklifts than on a driveway.
Integrated retractors
Spring powered reels that pay the cable out as you need it, like a pogo retractor but freestanding rather than fixed to a wall. Used across industrial, commercial and residential sites.
What a retractor is actually good for
Set against a cable simply hanging on a hook, a well chosen retractor gives you:
- Somewhere sensible to put a long cable, which matters most on 15m and 20m leads.
- Quicker access, because the connector is already at hand rather than coiled in the boot.
- Fewer trip hazards around the car and the charge point.
- Less wear on the cable and the connector, because neither is dragged across the ground or left in a puddle.
What it does not do is change how the cable behaves electrically. A retractor is storage. The cable still has to be fully out while the car is charging.
Using your cable safely
Three rules cover almost everything:
- Unwind the cable completely before charging starts, whether it lives on a reel, on a hook or in the boot.
- Never charge through a domestic extension lead or a DIY cable reel, and never join two charging cables together to reach further. If you need more length, buy a longer cable.
- Follow the instructions that came with your cable and your charge point, and stop using either if the cable feels hot to the touch, looks damaged or the connector is loose.
If distance is the reason you were looking at a reel in the first place, the simpler answer is usually a longer lead. We stock up to 20m.
Talk to us before you buy
We are a family business and we would rather talk you out of the wrong product than sell it to you. Shop our Type 2 to Type 2 charging cables, which fit almost every home and public charge point in Britain, or our Type 2 to 3 Pin cables for charging from a domestic socket.
Any questions, call our team on 01744 886 305 or fill in our enquiry form and we will come back to you.
