Easee One vs Ohme ePod: £4 apart, different philosophies

£4 apart, worlds apart

The prices are almost identical — £405 for the Easee One, £409 for the Ohme ePod, a £4 gap that decides nothing. The real choice is philosophical. Easee builds a competent, self-contained charger and lets you drive it. Ohme builds a smaller box and wires its brain directly into your energy supplier.

The shortest version:

• Easee One — the cheapest mainstream charger on the UK market, with integrated protection that takes labour off the install bill.
• Ohme ePod — the same tariff-aware brain as the Ohme Home Pro, shrunk into a 1.48 kg pod. No display, no Wi-Fi fallback.

Does the ePod's smart-tariff link matter to you?

This is the question. The ePod has a direct API into Octopus, OVO and British Gas — so on Octopus Intelligent Go it charges in the cheapest half-hourly slots without you opening an app. The Easee One has no such link. Its scheduling is manual: you set a window, it charges inside it.

On a flat tariff, that difference is invisible. On Octopus Go, with its fixed 00:30–05:30 window, manual scheduling on the Easee does the same job. But on Intelligent Go, or Octopus Agile where prices move every thirty minutes, the ePod quietly saves you money the Easee cannot. Over a year on a smart tariff, it's easily more than £4.

The flip side: if you're on OVO Charge Anytime, the ePod's integration is the whole point — OVO's rate is only 14p/kWh when the charger manages the session. On that tariff, the Easee is the wrong tool.

The install bill, and what each saves you

Both units sit at almost identical sticker prices, but what happens at install differs. The Easee One includes a Type B RCD and open-PEN detection in the box. That's protection your electrician would otherwise add as parts and labour — roughly £100–£200 less on the final invoice. The ePod has PEN fault protection too, but no integrated Type B RCD, so depending on your consumer unit, the saving is smaller.

Neither includes a cable. Budget £100–£200 for a Type 2 lead on top of either. The ePod is listed at £949 fully installed as a bundle; the Easee One usually lands close to £700 on a clean job. On paper, that makes the Easee cheaper installed — but the ePod bundle includes the cable, so compare carefully.

Connectivity and the wall it hangs on

The Easee One has a built-in eSIM with lifetime 4G and Wi-Fi as backup. The ePod is cellular only — 3G/4G multi-network, no Wi-Fi. If your driveway has patchy mobile signal, that's a real problem the Easee sidesteps. Check the bars at the mounting position before you buy an ePod.

Physically, the ePod is smaller (230×140×100mm, 1.48 kg) than the Easee (256×193×106mm, 1.5 kg) — both are among the lightest on the market, but the ePod is pocket-sized. Neither has a display; both live in their respective apps. Both are IP54, which is fine under an eave and marginal in full weather.

For solar households, the ePod has Solar Boost and Solar Only modes via a CT clamp. The Easee One has dynamic load balancing but no native solar diversion. If PV is the reason you're buying a charger, neither is the right answer — the myenergi Zappi GLO or the comparison at Ohme ePod vs Zappi GLO will serve you better.

The verdict

Buy the Easee One if:

• You're on a flat-rate tariff and won't switch
• Your Wi-Fi signal at the charger is patchy and you want a second radio
• You want the lowest installed price on a clean job

Buy the Ohme ePod if:

• You're on Octopus Intelligent Go, OVO Charge Anytime, or Agile
• Wall space is tight and weight matters
• You want solar-aware charging without a full Zappi

For most readers on a smart tariff, the ePod is the charger to put on the wall — the £4 premium is a rounding error against the automation you'll use every night. For everyone else, the Easee One is the honest, cheaper choice. If you want the same Ohme brain with a built-in cable and a display, spend the extra on the Ohme Home Pro and be done.