Andersen A3 vs Pod Point Solo 3S: design or done-for-you?

A £4 gap that isn't about £4

On paper, these two are a rounding error apart: the Andersen A3 at £995, the Pod Point Solo 3S at £999 installed. In practice, they're not competing on price at all. One is a piece of British industrial design you pay an electrician to mount; the other is a service — charger, installer and paperwork bundled into a single phone call.

The shortest version:

• Andersen A3 — £995, unit only. You arrange the install. You get a hidden cable, anodised aluminium, and 247 finish options.
• Pod Point Solo 3S — £999 installed. Pod Point handles everything. You get a fixed price and a five-year warranty on the package.

Those are different products dressed as competitors.

What the Andersen A3 is actually selling

Design, and the absence of a dangling cable. The A3's hidden cable system retracts into the body when you're not charging — no other charger in this bracket does that. The front is anodised aluminium, not plastic; it's built to age better than its rivals, and the seven-year warranty suggests Andersen believes it. The 247 colour and finish combinations are not marketing filler — they exist so the charger can match a front door, a render, a brick.

The test is brutally simple: can you see the charger from the street? If yes, the A3 earns its £995. A visible plastic box on a period façade looks like what it is; the Andersen doesn't. If the charger lives in a garage or down the side return, you're buying finish no one sees, and the Hypervolt Home 3 Pro at £690 or the Ohme Home Pro at £535 will charge the car just as well for a lot less.

The software is competent — scheduled charging, Wi-Fi, smart-tariff support for Octopus Intelligent Go and OVO Charge Anytime. It is not why you buy this charger.

What the Pod Point Solo 3S is actually selling

Time. The £999 is installed, and that word is doing most of the work. You don't ring three electricians, compare quotes, coordinate dates, or worry about whether the consumer unit needs an upgrade. Pod Point assigns a contractor from their network, books the day, and hands over a working charger with a five-year warranty on the whole package. For a certain buyer — landlord, time-poor professional, someone who finds tradesman-wrangling unpleasant — that's worth real money.

The catch is captive pricing. You cannot buy the unit on its own, cannot choose the installer, cannot shop the install around. If your property is straightforward, you're probably overpaying for the install by £100–200 versus arranging it yourself. If your property is awkward — long cable run, split tariff, tricky earthing — Pod Point's fixed price starts to look like insurance.

The hardware itself is unremarkable: 7.4kW, tethered or untethered, IP54, adaptive load management so it won't trip your main fuse. It'll do exactly what you need and nothing more. The brand is the reassurance — Pod Point runs the public networks at Tesco and Lidl, which means they're not going anywhere.

Which one suits which buyer

If your problem is aesthetic, buy the Andersen. If your problem is logistical, buy the Pod Point. They barely overlap. Where they do overlap is the buyer who values neither — wants smart charging on a tight budget and doesn't care about the wall — and that buyer should be looking at the Ohme Home Pro or the Easee One instead.

A note for solar owners: both list solar compatibility, but neither is the tool for that job. The myenergi Zappi GLO is, and the Andersen vs Zappi GLO comparison is the more useful page if PV is your driver.

The verdict

Buy the Andersen A3 if:

• The charger will be visible — front elevation, driveway, anywhere a guest sees it
• You want a seven-year warranty and a unit that won't look tired in five
• You have a preferred electrician and don't need the install bundled

Buy the Pod Point Solo 3S if:

• You want one phone call, one price, one point of accountability
• Arranging a tradesman feels like the hard part of this purchase
• You're a landlord or letting agent and need simple, installed, done

On our wall, it would be the Andersen — but only because the charger would be seen. If it lived in a garage, neither of these would be the pick; the Tesla Wall Connector at £478 does the electrical work for less than half the Andersen's price, and the Ohme Home Pro at £535 does the smart work better than either charger here.