Schumacher SEV1670, reviewed

Buy this one if the socket you will use is on an ordinary 15 amp circuit — which is most sockets in most buildings. Twelve amps is exactly what that circuit permits continuously, the 20.5 ft cable is the longest of any Level 1 cord here, and it is the only one publishing both an IP66 housing and a 3 Year Limited Warranty.

The reservation, stated up front: Schumacher names no UL standard for it. That is a real gap, and it is the one column where the Lectron this unit outranks comes out ahead. Everything below is Schumacher's own published material; 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	Schumacher Electric SEV1670 Level 1 Portable EV Charger (12A, NEMA 5-15)A 12 amp Level 1 charger sized correctly for an ordinary 15 amp household circuit, with a 20 ft cable that reaches further than most.	A 15 amp circuit and a longer reach	Level 1 EVSE	$129.99 · Amazon#ad

#1 · A 15 amp circuit and a longer reach

Schumacher Electric SEV1670 Level 1 Portable EV Charger (12A, NEMA 5-15)

A 12 amp Level 1 charger sized correctly for an ordinary 15 amp household circuit, with a 20 ft cable that reaches further than most.

Published specifications for the Schumacher Electric SEV1670 Level 1 Portable EV Charger (12A, NEMA 5-15), each linked to its source

Charging current	12A continuous, 120Vsource
Output power	1.44 kWsource
Cable length	20.5 ftsource
Plug / connector	NEMA 5-15 plug, J1772 connectorsource
Certification	Published as DOE, FCC Certified and Energy Star; the description says it "meets ETL and Energy Star certification standards". No UL standard namedsource
Enclosure	IP66 housingsource
Warranty	3 Year Limited Warrantysource
Built-in protection	Leakage, undervoltage, overvoltage, overcurrent, over-temperature, ground-fault and relay-fault protectionsource

What those numbers mean

Twelve amps is not a low number for this category; it is the correct one. A 15 amp circuit supports 12 amps of continuous load, and overnight charging is continuous by any definition, so this unit uses an ordinary household circuit right up to its limit and no further.

The 20.5 ft cable is four and a half feet longer than the common 16 ft. At a carport or a curbside socket, those few feet are frequently the difference between reaching the charge port and reaching for an extension cord.

Over-temperature protection is on the manufacturer's list, but the published specification does not say where the sensor sits. Treat it as a backstop, and still feel the plug at the wall during the first few long sessions.

What it does well

• Sized for a 15 amp circuit, the most common household circuit there is
• 20.5 ft cable, longer than the usual 16 ft
• Published IP66 housing and a 3 Year Limited Warranty — both rare at this price
• The manufacturer publishes the full list of built-in protections

What it does not

• J1772 only — a Tesla or other NACS car needs an adapter or a NACS unit
• Names no UL standard — the certifications published are DOE, FCC and Energy Star
• No app or scheduling, and no current adjustment in the published specification
• 1.44 kW will not recover a long driving day overnight

Skip this one if: Your car has a NACS (Tesla-style) port, or you regularly drive more than about 40 miles a day. The first needs a different connector; the second needs more power than any Level 1 unit can deliver.

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Twelve amps looks like the lesser figure next to a 15 amp charger, and for most renters it is the correct one instead. Charging is a continuous load — hours of near-constant current — and continuous loads are capped at 80% of the breaker rating.

What you give up against the 15 amp unit is about 25% of the rate, which on a twelve-hour night is roughly 15 miles of range. Whether that matters is a question about your commute rather than about the hardware, and how long charging actually takes does it against your own mileage.

Schumacher sells this Level 1 cord and a dual-level travel charger, and the second is the one people reach for assuming it is simply the better product. For a renter it usually is not, and the reason is the plug.

Two rows decide this for most renters. The SC1455's Level 2 mode needs a NEMA 6-20P — a 240V 20 amp receptacle that is not a dryer outlet, not a range outlet and not an RV hookup. It is simply not an outlet most rental buildings have, so the dual-level charger frequently arrives and runs at Level 1 anyway. What outlet you can actually reach is the check that settles it, and are dual Level 1 and 2 chargers worth it? covers the category question.

And the warranty runs the wrong way round. The simpler, cheaper Level 1 unit carries three years; the dual-level one carries one. That is unusual enough to be worth saying twice.

IP66 means dust-tight and protected against powerful water jets. It is a specific, checkable figure and it is better than most of this category publishes — the cross-brand audit found that the most complete spec sheet on this site belongs to a Level 1 product rather than a Level 2 one, and this is that product.

Two honest qualifications. The IP66 is quoted for the housing — the box in the middle of the cord — and the connector is covered separately by what Schumacher describes as a rubber cover. There is no mated ingress figure, which is the number that applies while the thing is actually plugged into the car overnight. And no operating temperature range is published at all, which is the same gap every manufacturer on this site leaves. The outdoor and winter roundup ranks on both figures, and leaving a charger outside covers the join between plug and socket, which is where trouble starts.

This is where a review earns its place, because it cuts against the ranking. Schumacher publishes this unit's certifications as DOE, FCC Certified and Energy Star, and its description says the charger "meets ETL and Energy Star certification standards". It names no UL standard anywhere — not UL 2594, not UL 2231, which are the two standards written for charging equipment.

• "Meets ... certification standards" is conformity wording, not a listing claim. Saying a product meets a standard and saying a laboratory has listed it to that standard are different statements, and only the second is a thing a third party has checked.
• ETL does not appear in the published certification list at all — only in the prose description. The list itself reads DOE, FCC, Energy Star.
• Energy Star and DOE are efficiency programs, not safety standards, and FCC covers electromagnetic interference. None of the three is the safety certification a buyer is looking for.

Set against the charger it outranks, the two trade places depending on which column you read. The Lectron Level 1 names UL 2594 and UL 2231 and publishes no warranty period at all; the Schumacher publishes three years and a better ingress rating and names no UL standard. Neither publishes a certificate number, which is the thing that would settle it either way. The Lectron Level 1 review works that side of the comparison, and what to look for in a charger explains why a named standard is one of the six criteria in the first place.

What to do about it, practically: check the unit's own label for an ETL or UL mark before first use. That is a minute of your own verification and it beats our reading of a web page from a particular Tuesday.

Schumacher publishes the full list rather than saying "multiple protections": leakage, under voltage, overvoltage, overcurrent, over temperature, ground fault and relay fault. Naming them is genuinely better practice than the category norm, and the ground-fault item matters most — it is the protection that makes a cord safe to leave running unattended for eight hours.

One thing the specification does not say is where the temperature sensor sits. Over-temperature protection inside the control box is a different thing from protection at the plug, and the plug at the wall is where heat actually builds. Treat it as a backstop rather than a guarantee, and put a hand on the plug during the first few long sessions — a hot outlet or a melted plug is what that check is for.

20.5 ft is the longest Level 1 cable on this site, against a category norm of 16 ft. In a carport or at a curbside socket those extra four and a half feet are frequently the difference between reaching the charge port and reaching for an extension cord — which is the purchase this site spends a whole page discouraging.

The costs of that reach are weight and bulk: Schumacher publishes 5.06 lb and a box of roughly 11 by 4 by 14 inches. The published box contents are the charger and a manual — no storage case or bag. If this is going to live in a trunk, that is a bag you will end up buying separately, and a 20.5 ft cable is a lot of cord to coil loose.

1. 1Can a tenant put it into service unaided? Completely. It plugs into a receptacle that already exists, needs no electrician and no permission, and leaves with you. This is the one criterion this site treats as absolute.
2. 2Is the current matched to a circuit the reader can actually reach? This is where it wins. 12A is exactly what the most common household circuit permits continuously, and it is also correct on the next size up. Nothing else here is right on both.
3. 3Reach. 20.5 ft, the longest Level 1 cable on the site, and the specification renters most often get wrong.
4. 4Are the safety standards named and checkable? This is where it loses. No UL standard is named; the published certifications are efficiency and interference programs. No certificate number either.
5. 5Are the specifications governing outdoor life published? A published IP66 for the housing, which beats most of the category — but no mated figure and no operating temperature range.
6. 6Warranty. Three years, published, against a category where one brand publishes nothing at all and Schumacher's own dual-level unit publishes one.

• Buy it if your socket is on a 15 amp circuit, or you do not know which circuit it is on. At 12 amps it cannot be the wrong size, and that is worth more than a faster number you cannot use.
• Buy it if the distance from socket to charge port defeats a 16 ft cord. 20.5 ft is the longest Level 1 reach available here and it is the cheaper fix than anything added afterwards.
• Buy it if a published warranty matters. Three years is the top of this category, and the nearest Level 1 competitor publishes none.
• Do not buy it if your car has a NACS port and you have no adapter. This is a J1772 cord; the NACS Level 1 options are covered in the roundup.
• Think twice if you want a named UL listing on the page before you buy. Schumacher does not give you one here, and the Lectron alternative does — at the cost of its warranty and a weaker ingress figure.
• Think twice if you have confirmed a 20 amp circuit and want every mile you can get overnight. A 15 amp unit is about 25% faster and that circuit supports it.
• Skip Level 1 entirely if you can reach a 240V outlet. Is a Level 2 charger worth it? is the honest version of that calculation.

Every specification above is Schumacher's own published product page for this model, plus its EV charger range page for the SC1455 comparison, 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 — whether the IP66 housing stays sealed after two winters of being coiled and uncoiled, where the temperature sensor actually sits, and whether Schumacher honors a warranty claim in year two are all things this page cannot tell you.

Two registry corrections were made while writing this and are recorded rather than made quietly: this product's cable length read 20 ft against Schumacher's published 20.5 ft, and its certification row read "ETL and Energy Star", which implies a listing Schumacher does not claim in those words. Both now match the source. The editorial policy covers how corrections are handled here.