What the build actually gives you
Grizzl-E’s reputation rests on a boring-sounding decision: put the electronics in a cast-aluminum box instead of a plastic one, and seal it properly. The Ultimate carries that forward with an IP67 rating, which in the IEC’s code means dust-tight and protected against temporary immersion in water. That is a strong claim for a wall-mounted unit — and worth reading precisely: a 7 in the second position covers immersion, not the powerful water jets that a 6 covers, and NEMA is explicit that you cannot convert IP ratings back into NEMA types. In plain terms: this is a well-sealed box, and the aluminum housing shrugs off physical abuse that would crack a plastic one.
The temperature figure is published at -30°C to +50°C (-22°F to 122°F). Grizzl-E also markets the 25-foot output cable as staying flexible in the cold, and that is the detail winter owners actually notice. In a real January, the charger doesn’t stop working; the cable turns into a garden hose left out overnight, and coiling it back onto the holster becomes a two-handed job. A cable compound rated for it is a genuine quality-of-life difference, and it is what kept the Ultimate on our cold-weather list until the model was withdrawn.
The DIP switch, and what an offline charger really means
Maximum current is set physically, with a DIP switch on the board: 48, 40, 32, 24 or 16 amps. There is no app step, no account, no pairing, and no possibility of the setting being changed by a firmware update. The status indication is an LED.
We want to be careful here, because this is the spec people get wrong about Grizzl-E. The company sells several models, some of them connected. For this SKU, Grizzl-E’s own spec page lists the DIP switch and the LED and does not publish WiFi or app support — so our product entry records app support as “not published” rather than yes or no, and we plan around the assumption that there isn’t one. That means:
- No scheduling from the charger. If you are on a time-of-use rate, you schedule in the car. Nearly every modern EV can do this, and the car’s scheduler is arguably the better place for it — it knows the state of charge, and it works wherever you plug in.
- No energy history. You won’t get per-session kWh or cost tracking from the unit. Your utility bill and the car’s own trip data are the fallback, and our cost-to-charge calculator does the arithmetic.
- Nothing to break in software. No cloud account to lock you out, no firmware update that changes behavior, no WiFi dropout in a concrete garage. For a charger that has to work every single night, that is a real argument — which we lay out fully in smart vs dumb chargers.
Charging speed, worked out
At 48 amps and 240 volts the Ultimate delivers 11.5 kW (48 × 240 = 11,520 watts). Using our standard reference of about 3.5 miles of range per kWh, that is roughly 40 miles of range per hour. Drop the DIP switch to 40 amps and you get 9.6 kW, or about 34 miles per hour — the difference is about six miles an hour, which across an overnight window is usually invisible.
That is the arithmetic; the practical question is whether you can use it. Forty-eight amps needs a 60-amp circuit, and your car has to be willing to accept 48 amps on AC in the first place — plenty cap lower. We work the whole trade through in 40 amps vs 48 amps.
The install: hardwire only
Grizzl-E is unambiguous that the Ultimate is hardwire only, and includes a hardwire kit in the box. There is no plug-in variant. For its full 48 amps that means a 60-amp circuit, because the NEC sizes a continuous load at 125% of the current — and it means an electrician, panel capacity, and a permitted install.
Two practical notes. First, check the panel before you buy: our panel capacity guide walks the load calculation, and if 60 amps isn’t available, the DIP switch lets the unit live happily at 40 on a 50-amp circuit. Second, on GFCI: Grizzl-E’s own manual for its Classic notes that where a GFCI breaker is required, a 20 mA device should be used because a 5 mA breaker may cause disruptions — a useful signal that ground-fault protection is the thing most likely to cause nuisance trips on any EV circuit. We cover the whole issue in why chargers trip GFCI breakers.
The alternatives worth weighing against it
If you want the 48 amps and the absent app: the Lectron Nexus 48A is the closest like-for-like. Same 48 amps and 11.5 kW, same hardwire-only J1772 install, the same deliberate absence of an account or a radio — in an IP66 body, with a 23-foot cable Lectron says is built to stay flexible in freezing weather. It is ETL listed to UL 2594/2231/2251 and ENERGY STAR certified, both of which the Grizzl-E never published. What you give up: two feet of cable, and a stated low-temperature rating, because Lectron doesn’t publish one. It heads our no-app roundup at 48 amps for exactly these reasons.
If you want the Grizzl-E build without hardwiring: the brand’s other answers plug in. The Grizzl-E Classic Connect is the same cast-aluminum, IP67 approach at 40 amps on a NEMA 14-50 plug, with the published -22°F range and the 25-foot cold-flexible cable intact, plus the Grizzl-E Connect app this SKU never had. The Grizzl-E Classic is the same box with no radio at all. And for a two-EV household, the Grizzl-E Duo Connect puts two 25-foot cables on one 40-amp circuit — half the speed each when both cars are plugged in, and one circuit instead of two.
If you want scheduling or energy data from the charger itself — something the Ultimate never offered — the Emporia Level 2 gives you 48 amps with a real energy-monitoring app for similar money, and the EVIQO 48A adds WiFi scheduling and the longest reach in the class. If you rent or might move, note that all of the hardwired options above stay with the house — see our renter picks. And if your panel can only spare a 50-amp circuit, skip the whole 48-amp class: you’d be buying amps you can’t use, and a 40-amp charger would cost less and charge at the same rate.