The short answer
Buy the Grizzl-E Classic unless you specifically need the charger itself to run a schedule. The charging hardware is identical: 40 A, 9.6 kW, a 24 ft cable and the same cast-aluminum NEMA 4 enclosure. The Classic Connect adds Wi-Fi scheduling and energy reporting — genuinely useful on a time-of-use tariff, but almost every EV sold since 2020 schedules its own charging from the car's screen, which makes the feature a duplicate for most buyers.
| Classic | Classic Connect | |
|---|---|---|
| Max output | 40 A / 9.6 kW | 40 A / 9.6 kW |
| Adjustable output | 16, 24, 32, 40 A via internal switches | 16, 24, 32, 40 A via internal switches |
| Breaker | 50 A two-pole | 50 A two-pole |
| Cable | 24 ft, 8 AWG | 24 ft, 8 AWG |
| Connector | J1772 | J1772 |
| Enclosure | NEMA 4 cast aluminum, IP67, fire resistant | NEMA 4 cast aluminum |
| Wi-Fi | No | Yes |
| Scheduling | No — use the car | Yes, in the app |
| Energy reporting | No | Yes, per session |
| Certification | UL tested and certified, ENERGY STAR | UL tested and certified, ENERGY STAR |
| Warranty | 3 years | 3 years |
| Price | Lower | Higher |
What you are actually paying for
One thing: a radio. The Connect is the Classic with Wi-Fi and a companion app, and the app does two jobs — it starts and stops charging on a schedule, and it reports how much energy each session used.
Both are real features. The question is whether you already have them somewhere else, and most people do.
Check your car before you pay for scheduling
This is the part of the decision buyers skip. Scheduled charging has been standard in the car for years, and the car is the better place for it — it knows the state of charge, it knows whether preconditioning is running, and it does not depend on the charger's Wi-Fi reaching a detached garage.
| Vehicle | Schedules charging from the car? | So the Connect's scheduler is |
|---|---|---|
| Tesla Model 3, Model Y, Cybertruck | Yes — scheduled charging and departure | Redundant |
| Hyundai Ioniq 5 and 6, Kia EV6 and EV9 | Yes — scheduled charging and departure | Redundant |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning | Yes — in-car and in the app | Redundant |
| Chevrolet Bolt, Equinox EV, Blazer EV | Yes — in-car scheduling | Redundant |
| Rivian R1T and R1S | Yes — in-app scheduling | Redundant |
| Older plug-in hybrids and early EVs | Sometimes, with limited controls | Potentially useful |
| A shared or rented car you do not control | Not reliably | Useful |
If every row that applies to you reads "redundant", the Connect is money spent on a second way to do something you can already do — and our time-of-use rates guide covers doing it from the car.
Where the Connect genuinely wins
- Per-session energy reporting. The car tells you kWh added; the charger tells you kWh delivered at the wall, which includes charging losses. If you are reconciling against a utility bill or splitting costs with a tenant, that is the number you want.
- A car with no usable scheduler, which in practice means older plug-in hybrids and some early EVs.
- A household where the person plugging in is not the person paying. The schedule lives in the wall, not in a driver's phone.
- Submetering for a rebate or tariff that asks for charger-side data rather than vehicle data.
Where the Classic genuinely wins
Beyond price: nothing to fail. The Classic has no radio, no account, no firmware update path and no cloud dependency. Its amperage is set by physical dip switches inside the enclosure, so the setting survives an app outage, a new phone, a changed Wi-Fi password and a change of owner.
On a driveway post in a cold climate that matters more than it sounds. The cast-aluminum NEMA 4 body with an IP67 rating is the most physically robust enclosure in this price class, and it is why the Classic is our pick in best outdoor EV chargers and best cold weather EV chargers.
If you want the app and finer adjustment
The alternative at the same output
If app control is the reason you are looking at the Connect, there is a 40 A unit that does it better — and adds output adjustment in 1 A steps plus a -40 degF lower temperature limit.
Cold climates and 1 A output tuning
Autel MaxiCharger AC Lite (40 A)
The widest output adjustment range here — 6 A to 40 A in the app — plus an operating range down to -40 degF, which makes it the practical pick for an unheated garage in the north.
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The Autel MaxiCharger AC Lite is the same 40 A output with a 25 ft cable, a NEMA 4 enclosure, integrated surge protection and 6-40 A adjustment in the app rather than behind a switch. Its enclosure is not cast aluminum, so it loses to the Grizzl-E on pure physical robustness, but it wins on adjustability and on published cold-weather rating.
