Bench power supply cost UK: what £50 to £300 buys

You have two amazon.co.uk tabs open. One variable supply is £39.99. Another, described as linear, is £299. The bench power supply cost UK buyers meet in this comparison sits between those numbers, and the title on the cheap unit is the part that usually misleads. In the captured amazon.co.uk listings behind our laboratory power supply comparison, shelf prices fall into three bands: about £40 to £60, about £100 to £220, and about £300.

The extra money sometimes buys a wider voltage range or a front panel with a meter. It does not buy a lab report. The Products Compared editorial team did not measure ripple, accuracy or efficiency. Stars and pounds are the listing lines stored from amazon.co.uk for this set, and Amazon can change a shelf price after that capture. A qualifying purchase through a link on this site can earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

In short

A workable bench supply for digital work under 30 V, in this amazon.co.uk set, costs about £50 to £60 when the watt rating allows the volts and amps together. From about £100 to £220 you mostly pay for a higher voltage ceiling, a meter or a programmable panel, still inside a few hundred watts. Around £300 the set contains an unverified linear claim at 5 A, and a 400 V unit that a first bench should leave on the shelf.

Three price bands in this set

The captured amazon.co.uk shelf prices fall into three groups. From £39.99 to £59.99 the rows are the RUZIZAO SPS-E3010 at £39.99, the Wanptek 30 V 5 A at £49.98, the Nankadf WPS305H at £49.99, the Jesverty SPS-3010V at £50.99, the Wanptek 30 V 10 A at £50.92 and the Nankadf WPS3010H at £59.99. The larger samples are 4.6 from 915 on the Jesverty, 4.5 from 1,045 on the Nankadf 5 A, and 4.4 from 1,517 on the Nankadf 10 A. A star line records satisfaction, not ripple.

The middle group is thinner. The Abestop AT6301 is £99.99 with 4.5 from 56 reviews. The OWON SPM6103 is £143.99, listed at 0–60 V inside 300 W, with 4.6 from 70 reviews. The page titled SPE8205 is £217.99 with five ratings, and the body also names the SPE8105.

Around £300 the listings are different tools. StonyLab at £299 claims a linear 30 V 5 A supply and has no review line. The RUZIZAO R-SPS4001S at £319.96 is titled 0–400 V at 1 A, with two ratings. A 12 V board belongs with the £50 group. An open terminal at 400 V can shock you, which is why BS EN 61010-1 treats an enabled output as a live part.

These figures are October 2026 shelf prices. Amazon shows them to a UK shopper with VAT included. Read the live listing before you pay, because a coupon can move the total. How the watt ceiling cuts the title down to size is in the buying guide.

What the entry band buys

About £50 buys a compact switcher, roughly 1.1 to 1.5 kg, with one output, encoder knobs, and a USB socket that is not the laboratory output. The Jesverty SPS-3010V at £50.99 is the strongest general 30 V case in the set: 0–30 V, 0–10 A, switching, about 1.53 kg. The OUTPUT button holds the rail off while you set it, unless OPN is on. Leave it when you need a second rail or a published linear noise figure. The conditions are on best bench power supply.

Watts decide whether £39.99 is enough. The RUZIZAO SPS-E3010 is 150 W, so 10 A is available only to 15 V, and 30 V allows 5 A. The Wanptek 30 V 10 A at £50.92 and the Nankadf WPS3010H at £59.99 are 300 W, which means 30 V and 10 A can occur together, at the ceiling. The Nankadf WPS305H at £49.99 is the value row when 5 A is enough.

Owner checks on the cheap 10 A switchers sit around 80–200 mV peak-to-peak. One UK owner measured about 100 mV on the Wanptek 10 A unit at 7 A. Digital boards often cope. Audio and radio often do not. Products Compared did not repeat the tests. See linear versus switching.

Jesverty's bullets say 115/230 V selectable while the table says 115 V. UK mains may reach 253 V under the Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002, and a mark of 220 V plus or minus 10 per cent stops at 242 V. Confirm the rear panel and a BS 1363 plug with a BS 1362 fuse. The order for the current limit is in how to use a bench power supply.

What the mid band adds

From £99.99 to £217.99 you are usually buying voltage above 30 V, still inside about 300 W. The Abestop AT6301 cannot combine 60 V and 10 A, because that pair is 600 W. At 60 V the ceiling is 5 A. At 10 A you are back at 30 V, which the entry band already sells. The extra pounds earn their place when the circuit needs the higher voltage at a modest current.

The OWON SPM6103 at £143.99 is the clear step: 0–60 V, 300 W, a meter, and 4.6 stars from 70 reviews. You pay about £90 more than £50.99 for that range and meter, with far fewer reviews than 915, and still only one rail. This article has no measured ripple for it.

Leave the £217.99 page on the shelf. The title says 0–80 V and 0–20 A, the body also says SPE8105, and five ratings cannot decide. Eighty volts at 20 A would be 1,600 W. Pay for presets only when a listing states them.

What the top of this set does not prove

£299 buys a claim, not a measured quiet rail. StonyLab's listing says linear, 30 V and 5 A. A genuine linear supply is larger than these switchers and, when the design is real, much quieter. Keysight puts that premium on noise and size. GPS LTD quotes about 1 mV rms on its own linear range, outside this set, so the number is not a StonyLab specification. There is no review line, the attribute table contradicts itself, and 5 A is half the current of the £50.99 Jesverty.

A higher price does not thicken the paperwork. A CE or UKCA cell is a line in the table. The Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016 cover equipment placed on the Great Britain market from 50 V to 1,000 V AC. Traceable calibration is a different purchase.

The RUZIZAO R-SPS4001S at £319.96, 0–400 V at 1 A with two ratings, is a poor first bench. Open terminals at that voltage can throw you off a stool. Earth remains mains earth, the USB port remains a charger, and a lit CC lamp means the limit you set is doing its job, not charging a lithium cell to a proper end point.

A rule of thumb for a first buy

Write the load down before you sort by price. Digital work under 30 V, in this set, sits around £50 to £60. Take the Nankadf WPS305H at £49.99 when 5 A is enough. Take the Jesverty SPS-3010V at £50.99 when you may want 10 A, after the mains selector is confirmed. The Wanptek 30 V 10 A at £50.92, 4.5 from 379 reviews, is the other 300 W bench.

Move to £100–£220 for a reason you can name. That reason is voltage above 30 V that 300 W still allows, or the meter on the SPM6103 at £143.99. The £217.99 page waits for one model name. The StonyLab waits for a noise figure. The 400 V unit waits until that voltage is the actual job.

Multiply volts by amps at the point you will use, and compare the product with the watt rating. Read the rear panel where a table still says 115 V. Check for a BS 1363 plug and a BS 1362 fuse, then set voltage, set the limit, and enable the output. If a scope shows that about 100 mV of hash is too much, the next buy is a specialist linear supply, which these files do not price. A hobbyist still checks the plug, the fuse, the lead and the case.