Ohme Home Pro vs Ohme ePod: same brain, different body

Same brain, different body

These are not two chargers. They are one charger — Ohme's smart-tariff engine, the direct API links to Octopus Intelligent Go, OVO and British Gas, the built-in SIM, the dynamic load balancing — housed in two different boxes. The Ohme Home Pro is £535 with a cable attached and a display on the front. The Ohme ePod is £409, weighs 1.48 kg, has no screen, and expects you to bring your own lead.

The shortest version:

• Ohme Home Pro — tethered, 5-metre cable, colour display. The default choice.
• Ohme ePod — untethered, pocket-sized, cellular-only. The one you buy when the Home Pro doesn't fit the wall or the lifestyle.

Is the ePod £126 cheaper?

On the receipt, yes. In practice, not quite. The Home Pro is £535 and arrives with a 5-metre Type 2 cable bonded to it. The ePod is £409 and arrives with a socket. A half-decent 5- or 7-metre Type 2 cable is £100–£200, so by the time you can actually charge a car the gap has closed to somewhere between £26 and nothing.

That changes the conversation. The ePod isn't the budget Ohme. It's the untethered Ohme — the one you buy when you have a reason to want a portable cable or a smaller box, not when you're trying to save money. If pure price is the priority, the Easee One at £405 or the Sync Energy Wall Charger 2 at £362 undercut both of these.

When the ePod is the right Ohme

Three scenarios, and they are specific.

First, the wall. At 1.48 kg and 230 × 140 × 100 mm, the ePod is the smallest and lightest smart charger on sale in the UK. If you're mounting inside a narrow porch, on a fence post, or anywhere the Home Pro's bulk looks wrong, the ePod disappears where the Home Pro would dominate.

Second, the cable. An untethered socket means you take the lead with you. For anyone who charges at destinations — holiday cottages, a relative's drive, the occasional on-street post — keeping the cable in the boot is useful. A tethered charger leaves you buying a second cable anyway.

Third, connectivity. The ePod is cellular-only — a built-in multi-network SIM, no Wi-Fi. That's a feature if your router's signal dies at the back door, and a problem if you live somewhere with weak mobile coverage. Check the signal at the mounting position before ordering. The Home Pro has both Wi-Fi and 4G, which is the safer bet if you haven't checked.

When the Home Pro is the right Ohme

Everywhere else. The tethered cable is one fewer thing to buy, store, and forget in the boot. The colour display tells you what's happening without reaching for a phone — small thing, matters more than you'd expect on a weeknight. IP65 against the ePod's IP54 means the Home Pro can live fully exposed; the ePod wants some shelter. And for a household running a variable tariff, the Home Pro's slightly more generous weather rating plus Wi-Fi fallback makes it the quieter, more forgiving install.

The £126 gap — or the £0–£25 gap once you've bought a cable — buys you tidiness, a screen, and belt-and-braces connectivity. On most drives, that's the right trade.

Which to buy

Buy the Ohme Home Pro if:

• You want one box, one cable, one install, and no cable to store
• Your mounting spot is fully exposed to weather (IP65 matters)
• You'd rather glance at a display than open the app

Buy the Ohme ePod if:

• Wall space is tight or visual footprint matters
• You want to take the cable with you for destination charging
• Home Wi-Fi doesn't reach the drive but mobile signal does

For the typical UK driveway, the Home Pro is the answer. It's the charger you bolt on and forget, and the smart-tariff engine — the reason anyone buys an Ohme in the first place — is identical to the ePod's. The ePod is the better buy only when one of its specific advantages applies to your house. If you're not sure which camp you're in, you're in the Home Pro camp. Solar households should look at the Ohme Home Pro vs Zappi GLO comparison before deciding either way.