Easee One vs Cord Zero

£16 and a cable between them

The Easee One costs £489. The Cord Zero costs £473. That £16 gap is close enough to be irrelevant — the real decision sits elsewhere, in what each charger removes from your electrician's job sheet and how it stays connected to your home network afterwards.

• Easee One — 1.5 kg, untethered, built-in RCD and open-PEN detection. The lightest mount on the market, designed to cut install labour on awkward walls.
• Cord Zero — tethered, 5-metre cable, the fullest built-in safety suite in this price bracket. Dual Wi-Fi + 4G with automatic failover. Schedule-based tariff integration out of the box.

The install saving is the whole argument

Both chargers build protection into the unit itself, which means your electrician doesn't need to add components to the consumer unit. The Easee One includes a Type B RCD and open-PEN detection — enough to knock roughly £100–£200 off a typical install. The Cord Zero goes further: RCD, PEN fault detection, surge protection device, and overvoltage protection, all inside the housing. That fuller suite usually saves £150–£250 on labour.

Run the numbers. The Cord Zero is £16 cheaper to buy and saves an estimated £50 more on installation. On a straightforward single-phase job, the all-in cost gap could be £60–£70 in the Cord Zero's favour. Not dramatic, but not nothing — and it widens if your consumer unit is already crowded with no spare ways.

The Easee One's counter-argument is physical. At 1.5 kg it is extraordinarily light — roughly a third of the Cord Zero's 5 kg — and its compact 256 × 193 × 106 mm footprint suits narrow walls, pillars, or garages where space is tight. If the mounting location is the constraint, the Easee earns its keep.

Connectivity and tariff smarts

Both chargers carry a built-in 4G SIM with no ongoing fee, and both connect over Wi-Fi. The Cord Zero layers automatic failover on top — if your broadband drops, 4G takes over without you touching anything. The Easee One offers Wi-Fi with 4G backup too, though failover behaviour is less explicitly documented.

The larger gap is tariff integration. The Cord Zero's app supports schedule-based charging across Octopus Go, Intelligent Go, OVO Charge Anytime, British Gas EV Power, and EDF GoElectric. Set your tariff, and the charger handles the off-peak window. The Easee One has no direct tariff API — scheduling is manual. You can still set a timer to charge during Octopus Go's 00:30–05:30 slot, but if you switch supplier or your off-peak window changes, you update it yourself.

For anyone on a variable tariff like Octopus Agile, neither charger chases half-hourly prices. That job belongs to the Ohme Home Pro at £539 — and the Ohme vs Easee comparison covers that trade-off in detail.

Tethered versus untethered — the daily question

The Easee One is untethered: a Type 2 socket on the wall, no cable dangling when the car is away. Clean, tidy, and you supply your own cable. The Cord Zero ships tethered with a 5-metre cable (or 8 metres for £570). There is an untethered Cord Zero variant at the same £473, though the tethered version is the default.

Tethered wins on convenience — grab the plug, connect, walk away. Untethered wins on aesthetics and flexibility if you own multiple EVs with different cable lengths. Neither is objectively better; it depends on whether you'd rather store a cable in the boot or on the wall.

The warranty question

Both chargers carry a three-year warranty as standard. The Cord Zero currently ships with a promotional upgrade to five years at no extra cost. If that promotion is still running when you buy, it tilts the value further — five years of cover on a £473 unit is generous. The Easee One stays at three years regardless.

Which to buy

Buy the Cord Zero if:

• You want the lowest total cost of hardware plus installation in this bracket
• You are on a named EV tariff and want the charger to handle scheduling automatically
• You value the promotional five-year warranty while it lasts

Buy the Easee One if:

• Your wall is narrow, awkward, or exposed — the 1.5 kg body and compact dimensions matter
• You prefer an untethered socket for a cleaner look or multi-car flexibility
• You already own a compatible Type 2 cable and don't want to pay for another one bundled in

The Cord Zero is the more complete package. It costs less, saves more on install, integrates with more tariffs, and — for now — carries a longer warranty. Its app is less polished than the competition from Ohme or Tesla, but functional is enough when the hardware underneath is this well specified. For the majority of buyers comparing these two, the Cord Zero is the one to fit.