Andersen A3 vs Simpson & Partners Home 7: design at what price?

Two British brands, £346 apart

Both of these chargers are trying to do the same thing: sell you a premium-feeling box for a wall you care about. The Andersen A3 is £995, the Simpson & Partners Home 7 is £649. That's a £346 gap, and the question this page exists to answer is whether the Andersen earns it.

The shortest version:

• Andersen A3 — 247 finish options and a hidden cable that retracts into the unit. Design is the argument. £995.
• Simpson & Partners Home 7 — British-made, anodised aluminium, 10-year enclosure warranty, optional three-phase. £649.

What £346 actually buys you

It buys the hidden cable system and the finish catalogue. Nothing else.

Electrically, these are near-identical. Both are single-phase 7kW-class units (7.4kW on the Andersen, 7kW on the S&P). Both are IP54, Wi-Fi only, tethered Type 2. Both support smart-tariff scheduling through their own apps — Octopus Intelligent Go, OVO Charge Anytime, the usual list. Neither has 4G. Neither is in the Ohme Home Pro's league for software polish.

What the Andersen has, and nothing else on this site has, is the retractable cable. The 5.5-metre tether lives inside the body of the unit when you're not using it. If your charger is mounted on the front of a house — visible from the pavement, judged by neighbours, photographed for an estate agent — that is a real feature. A coiled cable hanging off a wall is the detail that drags a good-looking house down a notch. The Andersen fixes it.

If the charger lives in a garage, behind a side gate, or on the back of a carport, you are paying £346 for a detail nobody sees. The S&P's Accoya wood and Cotswolds Green finishes are perfectly handsome in their own right. On a garage wall, they are indistinguishable in outcome from a Tesla Wall Connector at less than half the money.

The warranty sleight of hand

Both brands lead with warranty length. The Andersen's seven years covers the whole unit. The S&P's ten years covers the enclosure only — the electronics inside are on a three-year term. On paper the S&P wins; in the bits that actually fail, the Andersen's cover runs longer.

In practice, seven years versus three on electronics is the number that matters. Enclosures don't fail. PCBs, contactors and comms boards do. Read the headline numbers with that in mind.

Three-phase, if you happen to have it

One specification divides these cleanly. The Simpson & Partners Home 7 offers a 22kW three-phase variant; the Andersen A3 does not, at any price. The vast majority of UK homes are single-phase and this is moot. But if you've had three-phase installed, or you're buying for a property that has it, the S&P is the only option in this pair — and at £649 it's a much kinder entry to 22kW than most rivals. The Zaptec Go 2 and Wallbox Pulsar Max are the usual three-phase alternatives to look at.

Installer networks and the quiet risk

Andersen has been selling premium home chargers in the UK for years. There is a reliable installer network, parts pipeline, and a ready pool of electricians who know the product. Simpson & Partners is newer and smaller, and the installer network shows it. Before ordering the S&P, confirm a local fitter will take the job. This isn't a dealbreaker — it's a phone call — but it's a phone call you don't have to make with the Andersen, or with anything on the chargers index from the household names.

Which to buy

Buy the Andersen A3 if:

• The charger is visible from the street and the hidden cable earns its keep
• You want the broadest possible finish catalogue to match a specific house
• You value a seven-year full-unit warranty over a ten-year enclosure-only one

Buy the Simpson & Partners Home 7 if:

• You want British-made premium build without paying Andersen money
• You have, or will have, three-phase supply
• £346 means more to you than 247 finish options

On a wall we had to stare at every day, the Andersen is the right answer — the hidden cable is the one thing no rival matches. For anywhere else, the S&P does 90% of the job for two-thirds of the money, and that is the buy we'd make. If neither quite fits, the Hypervolt Home 3 Pro sits between them on price with tougher weatherproofing, and the Ohme Home Pro beats both on software for £535.