Inherited an EVSE held together with extension cords and a splitter — rip it out or trust it?

That’s a level of risk I keep seeing with older houses—no ground and random splitters. Did you see any visible damage at the panel or just the fried breaker after it failed?

Rip it out — this isn't really a judgment call, it's a straightforward code violation on top of the fire risk. NEC 625.44 doesn't allow EVSE to be connected through extension cords or multi-outlet adapters/splitters at all; the equipment has to be either hardwired or plugged directly into a single dedicated receptacle sized for the load. A splitter feeding an EVSE also means you've got an unknown number of other things potentially sharing that circuit with a load that's supposed to be treated as continuous — that's exactly the setup that cooks a receptacle or starts a fire at the weakest connection point, usually one of the extension cord ends, not the panel. Get a licensed electrician to run a dedicated circuit and receptacle sized for whatever the EVSE actually draws continuously (80% rule — a 40A circuit for a 32A charger, etc.). It's a bounded cost, and it's the only version of this that's actually safe long-term.