Ohme Home Pro vs Andersen A3

The £361 question

The Ohme Home Pro costs £539. The Andersen A3 costs £900. Both push 7.4kW through a Type 2 tether into the same car at the same speed. The £361 gap is not buying you faster charging, more power, or a fundamentally different experience at the socket. It is buying you something else entirely — and whether that something else matters depends on where your charger lives.

• Ohme Home Pro — the tariff optimiser. Direct API links to Octopus, British Gas, and others. Built-in 4G. £539.
• Andersen A3 — the one people photograph. Hidden cable, 247 finish combinations, anodised aluminium. £900.

What the Ohme does with its £361 advantage

Software. The Ohme's direct integration with Octopus Intelligent Go — where it is the officially recommended charger — means it receives half-hourly price signals and shifts your charge window automatically. On Octopus Agile, where rates move every thirty minutes, the difference is sharper still: the Ohme chases 5p/kWh slots; the Andersen schedules a fixed window and hopes for the best.

The Andersen does support Intelligent Go and OVO Charge Anytime, so it is not dumb. But its tariff features are competent rather than leading. If your electricity bill is the thing you think about — and for most EV owners it should be — the Ohme earns back its lower price and then keeps going.

There is also the 4G SIM, included for three years. The Andersen relies on Wi-Fi alone. If your driveway is at the far end of the house from the router, this is not a minor detail — it is the difference between a connected charger and a disconnected one.

What the Andersen does with its £361

It disappears. The hidden cable retracts inside the unit when not plugged in. No other domestic charger on the UK market does this. The body is anodised aluminium — not painted plastic — and the 247 colour-and-finish options mean you can match it to a front door, a rendered wall, or a piece of oak cladding. It looks like something an architect specified, because architects do, in fact, specify it.

The seven-year warranty is the longest available on a UK home charger. The Ohme offers three. Over a decade of ownership, that gap matters — a failed board at year five costs nothing on the Andersen and potentially hundreds on the Ohme. If you plan to stay in the house and keep the charger on the wall for a long time, the warranty narrows the effective price gap considerably.

The trade-off is a 5.5-metre cable with no option to go longer. The Ohme's standard 5-metre cable is shorter, but an 8-metre version exists. If your parking spot is more than a couple of metres from the mounting point, the Andersen's fixed length could force a less convenient install position.

IP rating and build — a quiet difference

The Ohme is rated IP65: fully sealed against dust and water jets. The Andersen is IP54 — protected against splashes, not directed water. Both will survive British weather on a sheltered wall. On an exposed, south-west-facing gable end taking horizontal rain, the Ohme's rating provides more margin. The Andersen's aluminium body is tougher than most plastic enclosures, but the ingress rating is what it is.

Who should look elsewhere

If the Andersen's design appeals but £900 is too steep, the Andersen Quartz at £672 carries the same family look at a lower price — though it is not OZEV-approved. If you want the Ohme's smart features but prefer an untethered socket, the Ohme ePod at £499 runs the same software. And if warranty length is the deciding factor, the Simpson & Partners Home 7 offers ten years at £649 — longer than the Andersen, for £251 less.

Which to buy

Buy the Ohme Home Pro if:

• You are on, or plan to move to, a smart tariff — especially Intelligent Go or Agile
• Your charger mounts in a garage, a side wall, or anywhere not visible from the street
• You want the most capable software for the least money

Buy the Andersen A3 if:

• The charger sits on a front-facing wall where you and your neighbours will see it daily
• A seven-year warranty matters more to you than the £361 saving
• You care enough about finish to choose from 247 combinations — and would feel it every time you walked past a plastic box instead

For most households, the Ohme is the right charger. It costs £361 less, it is smarter with your tariff, and it has a 4G fallback the Andersen lacks. The Andersen's argument is aesthetic, and it is a good one — but it is an argument about the wall, not about the car. If you are not sure which matters more, you already have your answer.