Hypervolt Home 3 Pro vs Simpson & Partners Home 7: build, badge, or both?

£41 between them, and two quite different arguments

Both chargers sit in the awkward middle of the market — too expensive to be bargains, too cheap to feel indulgent. The Hypervolt Home 3 Pro is £690 and sells itself on build quality and a support line that picks up. The Simpson & Partners Home 7 is £649 and sells itself on a ten-year enclosure warranty, British manufacturing, and a three-phase option that most of its rivals at this price don't offer.

The shortest version:

• Hypervolt Home 3 Pro — the tougher, longer-cabled, better-supported all-rounder. IP66 + IK10, 10-metre cable option, CT clamp in the box.
• Simpson & Partners Home 7 — the design-led underdog. Accoya wood or Cotswolds Green finishes, ten-year enclosure cover, 22kW three-phase if you need it.

What the £41 actually buys you

The Hypervolt's headline advantage is physical. IP66 and IK10 is the most durable spec in this price bracket — properly weatherproof, properly impact-resistant. The Simpson is IP54, which is fine for a sheltered wall but not in the same league if your charger is going to take weather from the side. Add the 10-metre cable option (the Simpson tethered version is 5m only) and the Hypervolt is the one you pick if the install is awkward — exposed gable end, tight driveway, car parked kerbside.

The Simpson answers back with the warranty. Ten years on the enclosure is the longest figure on the UK market, and the anodised aluminium shell is built to earn it. The caveat — and it's a real one — is that the internal electronics carry a three-year warranty, the same as the Hypervolt's standard term (extendable to five for £100). So the ten years is a promise about the box, not the brains. Still, given how many chargers look tired after five British winters, a decade-long commitment to the shell is not nothing.

Three-phase, and who actually has it

The Simpson offers a 22kW three-phase variant at £649, which is unusual at this price. The Hypervolt is single-phase only. If you have three-phase supply, this ends the conversation — the Simpson is the charger. If you don't (and you probably don't; fewer than one in twenty UK homes do), it's a phantom advantage. Worth checking your consumer unit before the spec sheet seduces you.

Smart tariffs and solar — neither is the specialist

Both work with the mainstream tariffs — Octopus Go, OVO Charge Anytime, EDF GoElectric. Both have apps that do the job without winning awards. The Hypervolt includes a CT clamp for solar diversion, which the Simpson doesn't ship with — a practical edge for homes with panels, though the logic is basic compared with what the Zappi GLO does. If solar diversion is the main reason you're buying, neither is the right charger; the Zappi GLO vs Hypervolt comparison is where to look next.

For pure tariff automation — half-hourly rate chasing on Octopus Agile, or hands-off optimisation on Octopus Intelligent Go — the Ohme Home Pro at £535 is the cleaner answer than either of these.

The installer question

One practical difference that rarely gets airtime: installer familiarity. Hypervolt is a household name with UK fitters; most electricians have put one up before. Simpson & Partners has a smaller network. Before you commit to the £649, check there's a local installer comfortable with it — not because the wiring is exotic, but because an unfamiliar installer will price cautiously, and that can eat the saving. Hypervolt's five-second phone support is a genuine point of difference too; it matters more than brochures suggest the first time something goes wrong.

Which to buy

Buy the Hypervolt Home 3 Pro if:

• The install needs a long cable or sits somewhere exposed
• You want the best weatherproofing in the price bracket
• You value a UK support line that actually answers

Buy the Simpson & Partners Home 7 if:

• You have three-phase supply and want 22kW
• The ten-year enclosure warranty and British-made aluminium matter to you
• The finish options (Accoya, Cotswolds Green) earn their place on your wall

For most homes, the Hypervolt is the charger we'd put up without a second thought — the build, the cable options, and the support line are worth the £41. The Simpson is the sharper choice for a specific buyer: someone with three-phase, or someone for whom the front-of-house finish matters as much as the spec sheet. Both are competent. Only one of them is the easy default.