Ohme Home Pro vs Pod Solo 3S

Price

Pod sells the Solo 3S direct for £999 untethered or £50 more tethered with a 6.5m cable, with standard installation included. Pod says about 90% of customers qualify for the standard job, and refunds you if it cannot fit the charger. Ohme sells the Home Pro from £999 including installation, for the 5m tethered version. Both are entry prices for a standard job, so a long cable run or a new consumer unit adds cost. Our installation cost guide explains what.

Pod also offers Pod Drive, a subscription at £34 a month for 36 months. That totals £1,224 by our arithmetic, £225 more than paying outright, in exchange for no large payment up front. Ohme offers PayPal Pay in 3 on direct purchases. Our EV charger finance guide compares the routes.

Smart features and tariffs

This is where the two diverge. Octopus lists the Ohme Home Pro as generally available for Intelligent Octopus Go, with charging controlled in the Ohme app. It lists the Pod Solo Smart Charger as not available. A Pod owner on that tariff has to rely on an IOG-compatible car, which Octopus then controls, or on Pod’s own scheduler for fixed windows. See our Intelligent Octopus Go explainer for how the car route works.

Pod has its own incentives. Pod Rewards pays up to £100 a year in cash for smart charging at home, and Pod Power by EDF is an EV tariff exclusive to Pod charger owners. Its off-peak rate is 6.18p/kWh for seven hours from 23:00 to 06:00, the lowest published off-peak rate in our tariff data. EDF’s GoElectric, which takes any charger, is 6.66p/kWh for the same hours, so Pod Power is 0.48p per kWh cheaper. Rates assume VAT at 0% until 31 March 2027.

On connectivity, Pod is Wi-Fi only, while the Ohme has a 4G SIM and a colour screen. Neither publishes a user-facing OCPP option.

Solar

Both have solar modes. Pod’s lets you charge from surplus only or combine solar with grid power, and Pod says the Solo 3S is solar compatible. We could not confirm whether it needs an extra CT clamp, because Pod’s datasheet was not accessible, and charging from solar does not earn Pod Rewards. Ohme’s Solar Only mode starts at 1.44kW of surplus and Solar Boost from 0.72kW plus grid power, with a CT clamp in the box. If solar is your priority, neither is the specialist; see the myenergi zappi comparison.

Installation and safety

The Pod is the larger unit, at about 330 x 290 x 112mm and 6kg tethered, against 170 x 200 x 100mm and 4kg for the Ohme. It is rated IK10 but only IP54, while the Ohme is IP55 and IK08. Both have built-in PEN fault protection and 6mA DC detection. The Ohme also has a Type A 30mA RCD built in, while Pod does not mention one, so plan for an upstream Type A RCD on a Pod.

Reliability and owners

The What Car? 2025 owner survey is brand-level and the page is marked as sponsored by Pod. Pod’s own site claims a What Car? “Best Value Home Charger 2025” award. It ranked Ohme fourth of 11 with a 13% fault rate and 27% of faults unresolved. Pod came joint fifth, with 4, 4, 2 and 3 stars for installation, reliability, fault repairs and overall. Its fault rate was 17% and 29% of faults were not fixed. Neither fares well on repairs, and Pod’s repair score was the weaker of the two.

Warranty

Pod advertises up to five years on the charger and installation with 24/7 support. At launch the five years applied if you bought direct from Pod and had it installed by Pod, and we could not verify the terms for units bought elsewhere. Ohme gives three years covering parts and labour including on-site help. Pod is owned by EDF, which completed its acquisition on 4 August 2025, so the company behind the warranty is large.

Verdict

We score the Ohme Home Pro 7.4 and the Pod Solo 3S 5.8 out of 10. The Ohme wins on smart features, size, 4G and the fault-repair record. Pod wins on warranty length, an installation-included price and no-deposit plans.

Choose the Ohme if you are on Intelligent Octopus Go. Choose the Pod if you are an EDF customer who can use Pod Power, you value a longer warranty, or you want the installation sorted in one purchase. Pod runs an affiliate programme through Awin and Ohme does not, and the ranking is the same either way. Read the Ohme Home Pro review and Pod Solo 3S review, or see our best home EV chargers.