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Cheap RCBO
- Thread starter maltaron
- Start date
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I'd have thought the first consideration is: What make is your CU?
I'm always distrustful of these cheap Chinese copies of western products. My advice would be to forget ebay, go to your local electrical wholesaler, and ask them to supply an established brand like Schneider, Hager, MK, or similar.
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My apologies for jumping to the wrong conclusion!!
But as stillp says. It could be your life (or someone else's) all to save what? A tenner maybe.
But as stillp says. It could be your life (or someone else's) all to save what? A tenner maybe.
That is obviously the 'safe' view, which most of us would take, and probably the advice we need to give. However, whether the 'western' (branded) products are necessarily any better/different (rather than just being more expensive because one is 'paying for the name', and a higher margin) is a much more difficult question to answer. In practical terms, if one goes for an 'established western brand', and least one knows where to go, and how, if/when things go wrong! Gambling-wise, an 'established western brand' in undoubtedly a 'safer' bet.
Kind Regards, John
Take the advice and buy from a known reputable supplier.
There was that incident a few years ago where protective devices bought from an internet supplier with lots of positive feedback were found to have no mechanisms in them.
There was that incident a few years ago where protective devices bought from an internet supplier with lots of positive feedback were found to have no mechanisms in them.
Thanks for all the replies. I will heed the advice and go for an acceptable brand. I was mainly interested in seeing if anyone has used these cheapo's and found them OK, as most of the recognised brands are now made in China, possibly to better standards.
That is very true. There was also, of course, an incident not that long ago when a major 'established/reputable western brand' had to recall a lot of protective devices because they were catching on fire ... so it's not all totally straightforward!
The danger of the 'scam' you describe (or,indeed, of undetected functional defects) is obviously a lot less with RCBOs (as being discussed here) than with MCBs - since there has to be enough mechanism (probably the major part of an RCBO mechanism) present for the test button to work as expected. Since they are effectively 'untestable', the risk is much greater in the case of MCBs.
Kind Regards, John
Probably the right decision. At least some of the cheap brands may well be fine (hence very good value), but .....!!
Kind Regards, John
I have used Niglon before and they are okay, CEF did used to sell them, can't remember the price though.
The others I can offer no comment on.
The others I can offer no comment on.
I suspect that many of them are, in fact, 'OK'. Indeed, it wouldn't surprise me if some were manufactured in the same factories, to the same spec and for the same ex-factory price as many of the so-called 'western' branded ones - the primary difference being the price to the end user. However, one can never be certain. It's tempting to believe that if one pays more, and has a 'western brand', then it's more likely to be OK - but that's no certainty, either. It would certainly be interesting to know how much of the difference in price to the end-user is attributable to higher materials/manufacturing costs (hence perhaps a better product) and how much to the higher margins/mark-ups applied to the 'western'-brand products (hence more wealthy shareholders!).
Kind Regards, John.
Counterfeit products are, of course, a whole different problem, in many senses more worrying. If the counterfeiting is good enough, the end-user, maybe also retailer/wholesaler and/or others in the supply chain may genuinely believe that what they have are genuine products from 'established/reputable western brands' - altough what they actually have is (possibly dangerous) rubbish (maybe even just empty enclosures, in the case of things like MCBs).
If the counterfeiting is done well, that's a much more difficult problem to detect and deal with than is pointing fingers at 'unknown' (but probably mainly legitimate) manufacturers of (quite probably legitimate/'OK') products.
Kind Regards, John
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