Wallbox Pulsar Max vs EO Mini Pro 3

Two small chargers, £10 apart

The Wallbox Pulsar Max at £513 and the EO Mini Pro 3 at £523 are both pitched as the charger for tight spaces. They share a 5-metre cable, IP54 weatherproofing, and the same £400–£600 install band. The £10 gap between them is meaningless. What separates them is warranty length, charging speed on paper, and a few decisions about connectivity and solar that matter more than the price tag suggests.

• Wallbox Pulsar Max — 7.4kW, five-year warranty, three-phase capable, IK10 impact rating. The compact charger with the longer guarantee.
• EO Mini Pro 3 — 7.2kW, three-year warranty, the smallest mainstream unit on the market, CT clamp for solar included. The charger for when millimetres count.

Size: the EO is genuinely smaller

Both chargers trade on compactness, but they are not the same size. The EO measures 215 × 140 × 100 mm and weighs 2.5 kg — roughly an A5 sheet of paper. The Wallbox is 198 × 201 × 99 mm at 4.2 kg — squarer and noticeably heavier. If the installation site is a narrow pillar between two garage doors, or a recessed alcove where every centimetre matters, the EO is the one that fits. For a standard wall beside a driveway, either works. The Wallbox adds an IK10 impact rating — useful if the charger sits where a car door or a bicycle might clip it.

Warranty and long-term confidence

Five years versus three. That two-year gap is the clearest material difference in this pairing. The Wallbox Pulsar Max's five-year warranty is second only to the Simpson & Partners Home 7 at ten and the Rolec EVO at five. The EO's three years is average — not poor, but average. For a charger bolted to an exterior wall, exposed to UK weather behind an IP54 rating, those extra two years of cover carry weight.

EO is also migrating its app platform. The charger was sold on EO's own software; owners are now being moved to the ev.energy app. That is not necessarily worse — ev.energy is a capable platform — but it is a change mid-ownership, and a buyer should know the marketing materials may not match the interface they end up using.

Solar, tariffs, and the smart features that matter

Both chargers handle scheduled charging on fixed-window tariffs like Octopus Go or EDF GoElectric. Neither talks to half-hourly tariffs the way the Ohme Home Pro does — if Octopus Agile is your tariff, neither charger here is the right one.

The Wallbox does support Intelligent Octopus Go, which hands scheduling to Octopus's own platform and captures the 8p/kWh off-peak rate across a wider window. That is a meaningful edge if you are on that tariff or plan to move to it.

For solar, the EO includes a CT clamp in the box — plug, configure, divert surplus to the car. The Wallbox's Eco-Smart feature requires a separate Wallbox Power Meter, bought and installed at additional cost. If solar diversion is the reason you are comparing these two, the EO saves you money on day one. That said, neither unit matches the myenergi Zappi GLO for granular solar control — buyers with large arrays and serious self-consumption targets should look at that comparison instead.

One more angle: British Gas customers on the EV Power+ tariff can buy the EO Mini Pro 3 as a Hive Power+ unit and receive 25% of charging costs back. That cashback is locked to the British Gas ecosystem, but for those already inside it, no other charger offers the same structural discount.

The Wallbox Pulsar Max's quiet advantage: three-phase

Fewer than 5% of UK homes have three-phase supply — but if yours does, the Wallbox runs at 22kW. The EO is single-phase only, capped at 7.2kW regardless of supply. For the small number of buyers with three-phase, or those planning a supply upgrade, the Wallbox is the only option here.

Which to buy

Buy the Wallbox Pulsar Max if:

• You want the longer warranty — five years versus three
• Three-phase supply is available or planned
• You are on or considering Intelligent Octopus Go

Buy the EO Mini Pro 3 if:

• The install location demands the absolute smallest unit available
• You have solar panels and want diversion hardware included, not extra
• You are a British Gas customer who can use the Hive Power+ 25% cashback

For the majority of single-phase homes without a British Gas tariff, the Wallbox Pulsar Max is the better buy. It charges fractionally faster, lasts two warranty years longer, and keeps three-phase as a door you can open later. The EO earns its place in a narrower set of circumstances — and in those circumstances, nothing else fits quite as neatly. But £10 more for two fewer years of warranty and 0.2kW less power is a hard trade to justify unless the wall demands it.