EO Mini Pro 3 vs CTEK Chargestorm Connected 3

A pocket charger and a car-park unit walk onto the same wall

These two products share a product category and almost nothing else. The EO Mini Pro 3 costs £523, weighs about 2.5 kg, and measures 215 × 140 × 100 mm — roughly the footprint of an A5 notebook. The CTEK Chargestorm Connected 3 costs £1086, weighs up to 24 kg, and arrives with OCPP 2.0.1, a MID-approved energy meter, and built-in Type B RCD protection. The gap is £563. Whether that gap is justified depends on a single question: how many phases feed your home?

• EO Mini Pro 3 — £523. The smallest mainstream charger in the UK. 7.2 kW single-phase, tethered, smart-tariff scheduling via ev.energy, CT clamp for basic solar diversion included. Three-year warranty.
• CTEK Chargestorm Connected 3 — £1086. A 22 kW three-phase unit in a domestic shell. Untethered socket, OCPP 1.6-J and 2.0.1, ISO 15118 plug-and-charge, IK10 impact rating, five-year warranty. No first-party tariff app.

What single-phase buyers actually get for £563 more

On a standard UK single-phase supply — which covers the vast majority of homes — both chargers deliver about 7 kW. The EO runs at 7.2 kW; the CTEK at roughly 7.4 kW. That 0.2 kW difference adds perhaps two minutes to a full overnight charge. It is not a reason to spend £563.

The CTEK does bring hardware advantages that survive even on single-phase: a built-in MRCD Type B (saving £100–£200 on the consumer unit), a MID-approved meter for accurate billing, and IK10 impact resistance. These matter in commercial or shared settings — a landlord who needs Eichrecht-compliant billing, a workplace with multiple bays. For a private driveway, they are features you pay for and forget about.

The EO, meanwhile, does something the CTEK cannot: talk to your energy supplier's tariff. Through ev.energy, it schedules charging around Octopus Go's 00:30–05:30 window or EDF GoElectric's 23:00–06:00 slot. The CTEK relies on third-party OCPP platforms like Monta for any scheduling at all, and has no direct integration with Octopus Intelligent Go or OVO Charge Anytime. If saving money on overnight electricity is the point — and for most home charger buyers, it is — the EO does it out of the box. The CTEK requires extra configuration and a separate app.

When the CTEK earns its price

Three-phase power changes the arithmetic entirely. At 22 kW, the CTEK charges roughly three times faster than any 7 kW single-phase unit. A Tesla Model 3 Long Range goes from 20% to 80% in about two hours rather than six. If you have a three-phase supply — common in rural properties, new-builds with heat pumps, or homes that have upgraded — the CTEK becomes a different proposition.

Its OCPP 2.0.1 and ISO 15118 support also future-proof it for plug-and-charge authentication, which matters if you plan to let others use the charger or if you want it to survive a backend migration. The five-year warranty (versus the EO's three) adds confidence for hardware that costs this much.

The natural rival here is the Zaptec Go 2 at £638 — also three-phase capable, also OCPP-compliant, and £448 cheaper. The CTEK's advantage over the Zaptec is the built-in Type B RCD and MID meter; whether those justify the premium depends on your installer's quote for adding them externally. For a direct comparison, the Zaptec Go 2 vs CTEK page covers that ground.

The EO's limits — and who should look elsewhere

The EO Mini Pro 3 is not the strongest single-phase charger on the market. It is the smallest. Its solar diversion via CT clamp is basic compared with the myenergi Zappi GLO's Eco+ mode. Its app situation is in flux — EO is retiring its own platform and migrating users to ev.energy, which is competent but not the software you saw in the original marketing. And at £523, it sits in a competitive band: the Ohme Home Pro at £539 offers half-hourly Octopus Agile optimisation that the EO cannot match, and the Tesla Wall Connector at £475 does more for less if you own a Tesla and use Intelligent Go.

The EO's case is strongest when physical space dictates the choice — a narrow pillar, a recessed alcove, a wall where anything larger looks absurd — or when the British Gas Hive Power+ 25% cashback applies. Outside those scenarios, the Ohme Home Pro vs EO Mini Pro 3 comparison is worth a look.

The verdict

Buy the EO Mini Pro 3 if:

• You have single-phase power and want a compact, tariff-aware charger for £523
• Wall space is tight — nothing else on the market fits in 215 × 140 mm
• You are on British Gas and the Hive Power+ 25% cashback applies to you

Buy the CTEK Chargestorm Connected 3 if:

• You have or are installing a three-phase supply and want 22 kW charging
• You need MID-approved metering and built-in Type B RCD — for billing, compliance, or shared use
• You are comfortable using Monta or another OCPP platform instead of a supplier-integrated app

For the majority of UK households — single-phase, one car, an off-peak tariff — the EO Mini Pro 3 does the job at half the cost. The £563 you save buys a year of cheap overnight electricity and change. The CTEK is a fine piece of engineering aimed at a narrow audience. If you are in that audience, you already know.