myenergi Zappi GLO vs EO Mini Pro 3: solar brain or smallest box?

A solar computer against a small box

These two chargers don't compete so much as occupy different corners of the same price bracket. The myenergi Zappi GLO at £750 is a solar-diverting specialist that happens to charge cars. The EO Mini Pro 3 at £550 is a schedule-based charger that happens to be smaller than anything else on the UK market. The £200 gap between them buys a completely different philosophy.

The shortest version:

• myenergi Zappi GLO — a £750 bet on solar panels. Eco+ mode is the reason it exists.
• EO Mini Pro 3 — A5-sized, 2.5 kg, £550. The charger you buy when the wall dictates the unit.

When the Zappi GLO earns its £750

If you have PV on the roof, the answer is straightforward. The Zappi's Eco+ mode waits for genuine surplus — solar generation in excess of household load — and sends only that to the car. Eco is more relaxed, topping up from grid where surplus runs short. Nothing else at this price runs that logic as cleanly, and it plugs into the wider myenergi estate: the eddi sends leftover solar to immersion heaters, the libbi stores what's left over after that.

The EO has a CT clamp in the box and will do a creditable job of solar-aware charging. But it's closer to a threshold — "charge when PV exceeds X" — than the Zappi's three-mode arbitration. For a 4 kWp array on a cloudy April Tuesday, that difference matters. The Zappi keeps charging at 1.4 kW when the cloud rolls in; the EO may drop out entirely.

Without solar, the case inverts. £750 for a charger whose headline feature you cannot use is poor value. Solar-less buyers drawn to the myenergi name should look at the Ohme vs Zappi GLO comparison and, frankly, buy the Ohme.

When the EO Mini Pro 3 is the only answer

The EO's pitch is physical. At 215 × 140 × 100 mm it is the smallest mainstream charger sold in the UK — noticeably smaller than the Wallbox Pulsar Max that often gets the "compact" label. If you're mounting beside a doorway, inside a narrow porch, or on a recessed section of brick where a Zappi's 439 mm height won't land, the EO is frequently the only unit that fits without a trim job.

Second reason, smaller audience: British Gas customers on the Hive Power+ version get 25% of their charging costs credited back on the EV Power+ tariff. That's a structural discount nothing else on our catalogue matches, and it can turn the £550 unit price into a net win over several years. Outside the British Gas ecosystem, the discount doesn't exist, and the EO's 7.2 kW output is fractionally slower than the 7.4 kW standard — roughly 90 seconds over a full 50 kWh charge, so don't lose sleep over it.

Where both chargers lose to cheaper alternatives

Neither does smart tariffs properly. Both rely on presets or schedules rather than API-level integration with suppliers. On Octopus Go, with its fixed 00:30–05:30 window, a schedule is fine. On Octopus Agile, where the cheap half-hour moves every day, both chargers are left guessing. The Ohme Home Pro at £535 does this job properly and costs less than either unit here.

For renters and flat owners, the £500 OZEV grant wipes out most of the EO's £550 unit price and contributes to install costs too; against the Zappi's £750 it makes a bigger dent but doesn't change the solar-or-no-solar logic.

The verdict

Buy the myenergi Zappi GLO if:

• You have solar panels now, or they're on a costed plan
• You already own myenergi kit (eddi, libbi) or intend to
• Three-phase 22 kW is available at the property

Buy the EO Mini Pro 3 if:

• The wall cannot physically accommodate a larger unit
• You're a British Gas customer eligible for Hive Power+ cashback
• You need Ethernet as a fallback for flaky Wi-Fi

If neither condition fits, neither is the right buy. For smart tariffs, the Ohme Home Pro. For a Tesla on any fixed-window tariff, the Tesla Wall Connector at £478. For a well-built all-rounder between these two on price, the Hypervolt Home 3 Pro. The Zappi and the EO are specialist tools — brilliant when you need them, expensive when you don't.