What actually made you decide Level 1 was (or wasn't) going to work for you long-term?

Honestly nothing ever pushed me off it. 7+ years on a 20A outlet in the garage with the Bolt, and there were stretches where I was doing ~400 miles a week over a mountain highway. I kept expecting to hit the week that made me cave and call an electrician... it just never really came. The closest was a couple times getting home from LA nearly empty and needing to leave again early the next morning. I ended up stopping at a DCFC on the way out and that was that. Two things probably made it easy for me, to be fair. The garage never gets very cold (we're just outside Silicon Valley, so "winter" means mildly chilly), and it's a 20A circuit, not 15A, so I get a bit more each night than people quoting the 15A numbers. Also, it's a townhouse. Getting a 240V run out to my spot would have meant dealing with the HOA, and every time I thought about it I asked myself whether it was worth it. It wasn't, so I never did it.

Still on 120v with a 70+ mile commute in a cold climate, using the outside outlet that was already there. What almost made me switch was the first winter. Range went from about 220 to 180, and if I forgot to plug in one night I was sweating it at work the next day... Never actually got stranded though, so it's still 120v.

Also, with a 75 mile day and the outdoor outlet on a shared circuit, converting it to 240 doesn't really make sense. So I'd be paying for a whole new run, and I just keep putting it off.

@tobiasr82 Was it a worn outlet or a cheap one? Loose plugs are how receptacles start to overheat.

One more thing, since you asked about the actual deciding factor. I think a lot of people decide before they've even tried it. They read the range math, assume it won't be enough and install L2 on day one. If I'd done that I'd never have known that the slow trickle was enough for basically everything we do. And it's our only car, which surprises people.

I charged off a regular wall outlet for the first few months with a 60 mile round trip commute, mostly interstate. Never had a problem. The only reason I put in L2 was future proofing, since we figured the next car would be an EV too. If that wasn't in the plan I probably still wouldn't have bothered.

I went L2 pretty early. In Connecticut winter my Ioniq 5 gets around 3 mi/kWh on the highway, and L1 loses something like 21% vs about 8% on L2... with our electric rates that gap actually stung. $400 for the electrician plus the JuiceBox and I never thought about it again. That said, I'm retired now and some weeks I barely drive. If I'd known that ahead of time I might have just stayed on the 120. Paul's point is a good one, a lot of us bought the L2 before we ever tried L1.

@paul_nakamura the only car part is what surprises me too. I've mostly been reading from people who have a second car to fall back on.

6-20 is the sweet spot. Cheap to add if there's panel space, way better than 120.

To be clear, I'm not recommending this for anyone with a real commute in Minnesota. Joel doing 70+ miles a day on an outdoor outlet in the cold is braver than me.