Andersen A3 vs Simpson & Partners Home 7

The £251 between two British aluminium chargers

Most EV charger comparisons pit plastic against plastic. This one doesn't. The Andersen A3 at £900 and the Simpson & Partners Home 7 at £649 are both UK-designed, both built around anodised aluminium enclosures, both offer premium finish options that would embarrass the rest of the market. The question is narrower than usual: what does £251 extra buy, and do you need it?

• Andersen A3 — £900. Hidden cable, 247 colour combinations, seven-year full warranty. The charger people buy when the driveway is the front garden.
• Simpson & Partners Home 7 — £649. Anodised aluminium, Accoya wood and heritage colour options, 10-year enclosure warranty, 22kW three-phase. The one that matches the A3's build without matching its price.

What the Andersen's £251 actually buys

Strip away the shared ground — aluminium body, Wi-Fi, smart tariff scheduling, IP54 rating — and the A3's premium rests on two things. First, the hidden cable system: a 5.5-metre tethered cable that retracts inside the unit when not in use, leaving a clean face on the wall. No other domestic charger does this. Second, the sheer breadth of customisation — 247 combinations of colour, material, and finish, including bespoke colour-matching to a front door or window frame.

Both are aesthetic arguments, not electrical ones. The A3 delivers 7.4kW on single-phase. The Simpson delivers 7kW on single-phase — or 22kW on three-phase, an option the Andersen doesn't offer at all. The Simpson also comes in tethered or untethered versions, giving buyers of multiple EVs (or those who prefer their own cable) a choice the A3 can't match.

If the charger sits on a visible front wall, the hidden cable is a genuine differentiator. A dangling Type 2 cable is not a pretty thing. But if the unit goes on a side wall, in a car port, or inside a garage, the retractable cable is solving a problem that doesn't exist — and you've spent £251 doing it.

The warranty question is more complicated than it looks

The headline numbers favour the Simpson: 10 years versus seven. But read the detail. Simpson's 10-year figure covers the enclosure only — the aluminium housing, essentially. Internal electronics carry a three-year warranty. The Andersen's seven years covers the full unit, electronics included.

For a charger that lives outdoors in British weather, the enclosure warranty matters — aluminium corroding or seals failing would be a slow disaster. But electronics failures are the more common worry across the industry. Seven years of full cover from Andersen is arguably more useful than three years of electronics cover plus a decade on the box. Neither position is wrong; they protect against different risks.

Finding a fitter for the Simpson

This is the practical caveat. Andersen has been selling premium chargers in the UK for years and has a well-established installer network. Simpson & Partners is a smaller operation with fewer approved fitters. The charger itself is sound — UK-manufactured, OZEV-approved — but confirming a competent local installer before ordering is essential. If the nearest approved fitter is two counties away, the install cost may climb above the typical £400–£600 range, and any warranty claim becomes more of a logistical exercise.

For buyers in areas well served by Simpson's network, this is a non-issue. For those in more remote spots, it's worth a phone call before committing. The Andersen Quartz at £672 — Andersen's more affordable model — is worth a look if you want the Andersen installer network without the A3's price, though it drops the hidden cable system.

Smart features: competent on both sides, class-leading on neither

Both chargers support Intelligent Octopus Go, which hands scheduling to the supplier and chases cheap slots automatically. Both work with basic timer scheduling on tariffs like Octopus Go and EDF GoElectric. Neither offers the half-hourly tariff-chasing of the Ohme Home Pro or the solar diversion sophistication of the myenergi Zappi GLO. If software is the priority, this isn't the right pair to be choosing between — the Ohme Home Pro vs Andersen A3 comparison is a more honest fight on that front.

Which to buy

Buy the Andersen A3 if:

• The charger will be visible from the street and kerb appeal matters
• The hidden cable system solves a real annoyance on your driveway
• You want seven years of full-unit warranty, electronics included

Buy the Simpson & Partners Home 7 if:

• You want premium aluminium build without paying £900
• You have or plan to install a three-phase supply
• You'd rather have tethered or untethered options and a 10-year enclosure guarantee

For most buyers, the Simpson is the more rational purchase. It matches the Andersen's material quality, undercuts it by £251, and adds three-phase support the A3 simply cannot offer. The hidden cable is clever — but £251-clever, only if the wall in question faces the neighbours.