Lectron Level 1 15A charger, reviewed

Buy this one only if the socket you will actually use sits on a 20 amp circuit. On that circuit it is the fastest Level 1 charging a renter can get — roughly a quarter more energy per night than the 12 amp units it competes with. On an ordinary 15 amp household circuit, which is most of them, buy a 12 amp charger instead.

That is the entire review in two sentences, and it is why the Level 1 roundup ranks this unit third rather than first. Everything below is Lectron's own published material and the listing itself; Renter Volt has not had this charger in its hands and says so plainly.

Quick picks

Ranked, with the reasoning underneath. Tap any row to jump to that write-up; tap the price to check it on Amazon. Prices come from the live layer, never from this page.

#	Product	Best for	Type	Price
1	Lectron Portable Level 1 J1772 Charger (15A, NEMA 5-15)The unglamorous answer that covers most commutes: an ordinary 120V socket, overnight, and no conversation with anybody about electrical work.	An ordinary wall socket	Level 1 EVSE	$159.99 · Amazon#ad

#1 · An ordinary wall socket

Lectron Portable Level 1 J1772 Charger (15A, NEMA 5-15)

The unglamorous answer that covers most commutes: an ordinary 120V socket, overnight, and no conversation with anybody about electrical work.

Published specifications for the Lectron Portable Level 1 J1772 Charger (15A, NEMA 5-15), each linked to its source

Input	120V, 15A maximumsource
Output power	1.8 kWsource
Cable length	16 ftsource
Plug / connector	NEMA 5-15 plug, J1772 connectorsource
Certification	UL 2594 / UL 2231 certified, and separately described as ETL-certified; no certificate number publishedsource
Ingress rating	IP65 weather-resistant, stated in the specification textsource
Manufacturer charge-rate claim	45+ miles of range overnight; 3-5 miles of range per hoursource

What those numbers mean

1.8 kW sounds trivial next to 9.6 kW, and for a road trip it is. For a commute it usually is not: the average US driver covers well under 45 miles a day, and this replaces that overnight while the car sits anyway.

The honest ceiling is the circuit behind the socket, not the cable. This unit draws 15 amps for hours, which a 20 amp circuit supports continuously and a 15 amp circuit does not — so check the breaker before the first overnight session, and on a 15 amp circuit choose a 12 amp unit instead.

This is the only category of EV charging that is genuinely invisible to a landlord. It draws less than a hair dryer and plugs into a receptacle that already exists.

What it does well

• Works with a socket that already exists, everywhere, with no permission needed
• UL 2594 and UL 2231 certified rather than a generic cordset
• Cheapest possible entry into home charging, by a wide margin

What it does not

• 1.8 kW will not recover a long driving day overnight
• 16 ft cable, and the nearest 120V socket is often not the nearest thing to the car
• Its 15 amp draw needs a 20 amp circuit behind the socket; an ordinary 15 amp circuit supports 12 amps continuously

Skip this one if: You regularly drive more than about 45 miles a day. Level 1 will fall a little further behind every night and you will spend the difference at public chargers.

$159.99 · View on Amazon

$179.99 · 11% off

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This charger draws 15 amps. That sounds like it belongs in a 15 amp socket, and that is exactly the trap. Charging is a continuous load — hours of near-constant current — and continuous loads are limited to 80% of the breaker rating.

What you gain when the circuit does support it is real, though smaller than the amperage difference suggests, because the gap is 15 against 12 rather than anything dramatic.

Lectron sells several Level 1 chargers and the listings read similarly. Getting the wrong one is the most common way this purchase goes wrong, and two of the three mistakes are not returnable-by-Tuesday mistakes — they are the wrong connector or the wrong current.

Two consequences worth stating plainly. The app belongs to the WiFi unit, not this one — Lectron's page says "Lectron App Control (WiFi version ONLY)", and the 15A J1772 charger reviewed here has no app. And the adjustable Explorer is a different product entirely: it is the one to buy if you might move to a place with a 240V outlet, and which direction your car needs settles the connector question before any of it matters.

This is the finding worth the page. Lectron publishes IP65 for this charger in its specification text. Its 40 amp flagship — the unit this site recommends more than any other — publishes no ingress rating in its spec text at all; round 8's review of it found IP65 appearing only inside the alt text of a product image, with the FAQ saying only "weather-resistant for indoor/outdoor use".

So within one brand, the inexpensive Level 1 cord has the better-documented spec sheet on the specification that governs outdoor life. That inverts the assumption people bring to this category — and it matches what the cross-brand audit found across every maker on this site, where the single most complete spec sheet belongs to a Level 1 product rather than a Level 2 one.

Lectron's page names "UL2594 / UL2231 Certified" and, separately on the same page, describes the unit as "ETL-certified" — without saying which body issued which mark. The Amazon listing leads with ETL: its title reads "Lectron Level 1 EV Charger - ETL Certified, 120V, 15 Amp".

None of that is a contradiction. UL 2594 and UL 2231 are the standards that apply to charging equipment; ETL is a testing laboratory that certifies products to those same standards. A product can legitimately be built to a UL standard and listed by ETL. What is missing is the thing that would let you check any of it: a certificate number, which refers to a specific file held by the issuing body and can be looked up. Naming the right standards puts Lectron ahead of the listings that say "safety certified" and stop; publishing no number keeps it behind the handful that do. Lectron against A2Z compares the two brands on exactly this habit.

Lectron's page carries three different statements about what this charger returns: "45+ miles overnight", "an extra 40-50 miles of overnight charge", and "adding roughly 3-5 miles of range per hour of charging" — the last with the caveat that it depends on the vehicle, state of charge and temperature.

The caveat Lectron attaches is the correct one and worth repeating: the car's onboard charger, its state of charge and the ambient temperature all move this number, and none of them is under the cord's control. Why charging is slower than expected covers the cases where even the modest figure does not materialize.

Lectron's page for this charger publishes 30-day returns and no warranty period at all — the same gap round 8 found on the 40 amp unit, which makes it a brand pattern rather than an oversight on one listing. A return window covers a unit that arrives faulty or wrong. A warranty covers one that fails in month fourteen. They are not substitutes.

For context on how unusual that is: across every product on this site, three years is the category standard, and the competing Level 1 cord from Schumacher publishes a 3 Year Limited Warranty along with an IP66 rating and a longer cable. How long a portable charger lasts sets all of them side by side, and Lectron is the only brand in that table with no period at all.

The Amazon title describes this as a "16 ft Extension Cord & J1772 Cable", which reads as though an extension is supplied alongside the charger. It is not. The 16 feet is the charging cable itself — the same phrasing that appears on Lectron's 40 amp listing and causes the same misreading.

Measure before you order: from the socket to where your charge port sits with the car parked as it will actually be parked, not as you would like to park it. If 16 ft does not reach, the Schumacher's 20.5 ft is the cheaper fix than anything you can add afterwards — and if you are tempted to add a household extension cord instead, whether an EV extension cord is safe sets out why the car side is the only side worth extending on.

1. 1Can a tenant put it into service unaided? Yes, more completely than anything else in this category. It plugs into a receptacle that already exists, draws less than a hair dryer, needs no electrician and no permission, and leaves with you. This is the only criterion this site treats as absolute.
2. 2Is the current matched to a circuit the reader can actually reach? This is where the unit loses its ranking. 15 amps continuous requires a 20 amp circuit, and a renter frequently has 15. Nothing is credited for drawing more than the circuit permits.
3. 3Are the safety standards named and checkable? Named correctly, from two angles, and not accompanied by a certificate number.
4. 4Are the specifications governing outdoor life published? An IP65 rating in the spec text — better than its own 40 amp sibling — but no operating temperature range.
5. 5Reach. 16 ft, which is shorter than the main Level 1 alternative and decides more purchases in a carport than amperage does.
6. 6Warranty. None published, against a category standard of three years. This is the clearest reason to buy a competitor at a similar price.

• Buy it if you have confirmed a 20 amp circuit, your car takes J1772, and 16 ft reaches. On that description it is the fastest overnight charging available without touching the building's wiring, and it is inexpensive.
• Do not buy it if the breaker says 15. The charger asks for more than that circuit permits continuously, and a 12 amp unit is the correct purchase — not a preference.
• Do not buy it if your car has a NACS port and you have no adapter. This is the J1772 unit; Lectron's NACS Level 1 charger is a different listing at a different current.
• Think twice if a warranty matters to you. Lectron publishes none for this charger, while a direct competitor publishes three years at a comparable price.
• Think twice if 16 ft is marginal. Cable length is the specification renters most often get wrong, and the alternative gives you 20.5 ft.
• Skip it entirely if you can reach a 240V outlet. The right move then is Level 2, and is a Level 2 charger worth it? is the honest version of that calculation.

Every specification above is Lectron's own published page for this charger, plus the wording of the Amazon listing where that is what is being described, plus the continuous-load rule from the National Electrical Code. There is no test bench behind this site, no loaner hardware and no hands-on durability claim — how the housing survives a winter, whether the IP65 rating holds after two years of being coiled and uncoiled, and whether Lectron answers a complaint are all things this page cannot tell you.

One correction made while writing this, recorded here rather than quietly: this product's registry entry previously cited Lectron's adjustable Level 1 and 2 charger page for every one of its specifications — a different unit that publishes 12A, 1.4 kW and a 20 ft cable. The values shown were correct for the 15 amp product; the citation was not, and it has been pointed at this charger's own page. The editorial policy covers how corrections are handled here.