New consumer unit

Ken68

Whatever the cost,Raider, I read FUD . Stock in trade, unfortunately for some electricians and the like.
I had a bloke round here recently fitting a new socket, a free job courtesy of British Legion. Even then the fear he put into me was way out of order. He did a neat job though, checked earth etc, but even then didn't expect his attitude. More Rogue Trader aggresive than qualified workman. So take care.

eamon

Possibly the most common brands are MK, Wylex and Hagar.

zax47

eamon wrote: »

Possibly the most common brands are MK, Wylex and Hagar.

It's Hager, Hagar is a newspaper cartoon character... It's what I fit most of the time now. MK quality has gone downhill for the money and Wylex have a bad reputation now coz of the faulty MCB recalls last/this year.

northernsoul

I am looking at the 'Curve' range of comsumer units. They have lots of space so very good for fitting RCBO's. Not many reports on electricians using them in electricians forums though. They are very good value eg 10 way board with 6 RCBO's, about £80+vat (from Denmans) , 14 way board with 14 MCB's £65 inc VAT (i think, from allaboutelectrics). They are sold in the 'Denmans' chain of shops and in 'all about electrics' on the internet (google curve consumer unit). Wish there was more reports about them, the quality and whose fuses they use.

eamon

Leaving aside the materials cost (although RCBO's do cost more than MCB's) for any install the biggest expense will be labour then VAT @20% unless its new build. If the device is sold in the UK then by default it must meet the appropriate standard and hence the brand name is almost irrelevant. They will do the job as stated. There is a lot of brand preference out there but little or no statistics to say which is better or worse. For what its worth Wylex did identify a production issue and raised a product recall on their website and that the wholesalers etc would offer credit notes & swaps when & where appropriate.

tlh858

eamon wrote: »

If the device is sold in the UK then by default it must meet the appropriate standard and hence the brand name is almost irrelevant. They will do the job as stated.

'Doing the job' is not the only consideration.
Plenty of boards are poorly designed and will be a right bother to fit, therefore taking longer and costing more.
If the devices fail after a short time (or are failed out of the box), they will need to be replaced at further cost.

A lot of these cheap-o-matic brands only exist for a short time, which means obtaining replacements or additional items difficult or even impossible.
You then have the situation when after a year or two an additional circuit is needed, yet can't be fitted because the relevant MCB or whatever isn't available. Options then being to shoehorn some other similar sized item in there (not technically permitted), or replace the entire board once again.

eamon wrote: »

For what its worth Wylex did identify a production issue and raised a product recall on their website and that the wholesalers etc would offer credit notes & swaps when & where appropriate.

That is true - but the unforgivable element was that it took them nearly a full YEAR to identify the problem, by which time millions of the defective things had been sold.
It wasn't limited to Wylex items either - Volex, Crabtree and several wholesaler own brand items were also affected, as they were all made in the same place by the same company.

Exactly how their factory could be turning out defective rubbish for 11+ months has not been explained.

Crediting or swapping the device is all very well, but there is still the time and cost involved in replacing it.