Ohme Home Pro vs Wallbox Pulsar Max

£26 apart, two different ideas about what a charger should do

The Ohme Home Pro at £539 and the Wallbox Pulsar Max at £513 sit close enough in price that the gap barely registers against a typical £400–600 install bill. The difference is in what each charger does with your electricity once it is bolted to the wall.

• Ohme Home Pro — talks directly to your energy supplier, chases cheap half-hours on variable tariffs, diverts solar without extra hardware. Three-year warranty, 5-metre cable, single-phase only.
• Wallbox Pulsar Max — the smallest proper smart charger you can buy, five-year warranty, IK10 impact rating, 22kW three-phase option. Schedules charging but does not chase rates on its own.

The Ohme's tariff trick — and when it matters

The Ohme's headline feature is its API link to Octopus and British Gas. On Octopus Agile, where rates shift every thirty minutes, the charger picks the cheapest slots overnight without you touching the app. On Intelligent Go, it is Octopus's officially recommended hardware — the supplier can slot your charge into off-peak windows at 8p/kWh across a six-hour band, hands-off.

The Wallbox Pulsar Max supports Intelligent Octopus Go through the Octopus API too, so on that specific tariff the two chargers end up in roughly the same place. The separation appears on everything else. On Octopus Go — a fixed 00:30–05:30 window at 8.5p/kWh — the Wallbox's manual schedule is fine; both chargers do the same job. But on Agile, EDF GoElectric, or British Gas EV Power, the Ohme adapts and the Wallbox does not. If you are on a variable tariff now, or expect to switch to one, the Ohme earns its £26 back quickly and keeps earning after that.

On a flat rate — no off-peak window, no variable pricing — the Ohme's integration is irrelevant. You are paying £26 more for a feature you will not use, paired with a shorter warranty. That is a poor trade.

Size, warranty, and the physical realities

The Wallbox is fractionally larger on paper — 198 × 201 × 99 mm versus the Ohme's 170 × 200 × 100 mm — but both are compact enough that neither will dominate a wall. The Wallbox's IK10 impact rating is the distinguishing mark here: it is rated to withstand a 5-joule impact, roughly equivalent to a 500g steel ball dropped from a metre. If the charger sits next to a driveway where car doors swing or bins get wheeled past, that rating has value. The Ohme's IP65 weatherproofing is higher than the Wallbox's IP54, though — better sealed against dust and water jets.

Warranty is the Wallbox's clearest advantage. Five years against three. That is two extra years of cover for £26 less money. For a buyer who does not care about tariff integration, the arithmetic is plain.

The Ohme counters with a built-in 4G SIM, active for three years. If your garage or driveway is at the far end of a Wi-Fi dead zone, the Ohme stays connected where the Wallbox — Bluetooth and Wi-Fi only — might not. Both chargers have a 5-metre tethered cable; the Ohme offers an 8-metre option at extra cost, while the Wallbox does not.

Solar and three-phase: two niche advantages

The Ohme has built-in solar diverting. Plug it in, configure the app, and surplus generation goes to the car. The Wallbox's Eco-Smart mode requires the separate Wallbox Power Meter — an added purchase and an added install step. If solar diversion is the priority rather than tariff optimisation, though, the myenergi Zappi GLO at £599 does it more thoroughly; the Ohme vs Zappi comparison covers that ground.

The Wallbox has a 22kW three-phase variant. Fewer than 5% of UK homes have three-phase supply, but if yours does — or if you are installing one for a workshop or heat pump — the Pulsar Max scales up where the Ohme cannot. The Ohme is single-phase only, 7.4kW, full stop.

Which to buy

Buy the Ohme Home Pro if:

• You are on, or plan to move to, a variable or smart tariff — Agile, Intelligent Go, or British Gas EV Power
• You have solar panels and want diverting without buying extra hardware
• Your charger location is outside Wi-Fi range and the built-in 4G matters

Buy the Wallbox Pulsar Max if:

• You are on a flat-rate or fixed off-peak tariff and do not need automatic rate chasing
• You want the longest warranty available under £550 — five years, no contest
• Your property has three-phase supply, or the charger needs to survive a tight, high-traffic spot

For most Tesla owners already on or considering a smart tariff, the Ohme is the £26 that pays for itself. For everyone else — flat-rate tariff, three-phase supply, or simply wanting the longest warranty for the least money — the Wallbox is the quieter, more durable choice.