New consumer unit? Hope it's not Wylex, Crabtree or Volex

[baldelectrician]

There have been mentions about Wylex product recalls

Wylex are in the same group as Crabtree and Volex (they are all Electrium brands)

This is not good news if you have had a new consumer (of this brand) fitted since April 2009.

I have heard rumblings on this, but it now apprears official

Source http://www.theiet.org/forums/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=205&threadid=35380&enterthread=y

Product notice link

 

[martinxxxxxx]

Does this mean that they will go and retrofit replacements to all affected premises?

I mean they are going to send a person out to do the work? Are they?

Martin

 

[skenk]

ffs that will be a lot of work for them if they are!

not good

 

[AndyPRK]

do they have a date code on them ?

 

[kai]

Hanve you noticed the Premium Rate phone number beginning 0844? - it's chargeable at up to GBP 1.50. per minute from a mobile phone!

 

[Steve]

0844 is not premium rate. Its local rate from a BT landline. And O2 only charge 25p/min on PAYG. You must be on a crappy tarrif mate. 09 numbers with O2 start at 80p.

 

[Click-Sure]

Thats going to be fun.

Thankfully I've been doing all-rcbo installs for about 9 months now, most of the time anyway.

 

[Click-Sure]

I dont really want their electricians going around snapping up my repeat custom, where does that leave me?

 

[17thman]

think about it, that is an impossible commitment they have made if they are going to send their own sparks, people to sort it out, 10's of thousands will have been supplied. just an excercise on their behalf to be absolved of the blame. Is a house holder going to know about a recall and is a sparky going to go through his records and contact each customer in turn and tell them to contact electrium and then allow their bond with customer to be broken. I have often wondered why we are obliged to test and record rcd performance but not mcb performance.maybe if comes from old school reliance of rewirable fuses that we need not to test mcb's Maybe there is or could be a peice of equipment developed for this.

 

[17thman]

what about all the ones in the warehouses and in suppliers stores, are they doing a full product replacement program?. what about the ones on my van?

 

[skenk]

I have thought about MCB load testing before, I think the average domestic spark would need more training to be let loose with whatever equipment would be required for that!

 

[17thman]

Skenk, i know it would be live testing, but isn't it weird how we just assume that mcb's work and rcd's may not. Especially as we should not rely upon rcd's as an only protection. why do we test rcd's and not mcb's?

can any one come up with a safe method of testing mcb's?

An Instrument capable of connecting line across neutral with capable leads and letting 5 times the current through in the case of b type and measuring disconnection time. In the case of overload though it could be a long wait

 

[skenk]

I imagine there would be issues with damage to the cabling etc. with repeated overload testing?

I imagine it would be safe enough for a socket circuit (plug in the 'current sucker!', turn the dial to xxx amps?) but other circuits dont fancy putting normal test leads with croc clips on to say a shower circuit and turning the dial to . . . . 200+A! Surely massively overloading a circuit would be in breach of EAWR, HSE legislation or something.

 

[martinxxxxxx]

They are asking for a database of your customers in CVS format. I have filled the form out with one customer detail on so far - just to see what happens when you submit it. I got the following reply;

I'm currently out of the office, I'll deal with your eMail when I return on Tuesday 6th of April.


Bespoke flyer and image requests should be directed to [email protected]

Literature and standard flyer requests should be directed to [email protected]


Thanks

Carl Kimberly

looks like Carl is going to have a lot of emails to come back to after the easter break

Martin

 

[mfarrow]

can any one come up with a safe method of testing mcb's?

I guess you could use a secondary injection testing piece of kit. It wouldn't test anywhere near 240V, but would it matter?