Cost of MCBs

[Evans Electric]

Trying to follow the " No rogue MCBs to be fitted "     I ordered a Schneider  20A  Type C    SP  MCB    iC60H   for a commercial board .     It appeared today  priced at  £ 16.56  .   

I've been supplying & fitting  Control Gear  for years ,    breakers less than £5   .    

Its for a  6 way   TP  board    , if I wanted to fill the board with SP breakers it would be  £ 238.56  in breakers alone ............   rip off or what ?    

 

[kerching]

Is that after your discount?

how large a tube of Anusol /KY did it come with ?

 

[Andy™]

good boards but the breakers & RCBO's are expensive. get KQ for far less

 

[Sidewinder]

Trying to follow the " No rogue MCBs to be fitted "     I ordered a Schneider  20A  Type C    SP  MCB    iC60H   for a commercial board .     It appeared today  priced at  £ 16.56  .   

That's list price, you've been given no discount on that, you chose the wrong supplier mate.

 

[Evans Electric]

good boards but the breakers & RCBO's are expensive. get KQ for far less

I'll have a look at them Andy .  

This is my usual supplier for the last 25 yrs  but it was from another branch who offer no discount   .   It must have been off their shelf as it appeared a day later .   I await a new price , lets see what they come up with  .   New manager also at my branch who,s obviously not looking at my discounts .

Lewden have taken over   Control Gear  ,  their version is £5.15   I'll be shoving one of those in if it fits ...sod the  " Rogue  MCB "  rule  .

Same job ....I'm faced with changing  an MCB in a Control Gear  enclosure  but they've changed to Lewden , different style  so anything's going in that fits . 

 

[Andy™]

I'll have a look at them Andy .  

This is my usual supplier for the last 25 yrs  but it was from another branch who offer no discount   .   It must have been off their shelf as it appeared a day later .   I await a new price , lets see what they come up with  .   New manager also at my branch who,s obviously not looking at my discounts .

Lewden have taken over   Control Gear  ,  their version is £5.15   I'll be shoving one of those in if it fits ...sod the  " Rogue  MCB "  rule  .

Same job ....I'm faced with changing  an MCB in a Control Gear  enclosure  but they've changed to Lewden , different style  so anything's going in that fits . 

the MCB's are less here

http://www.discount-electrical.co.uk/section.php/110383/1/schneider-acti9-isobar-type-c-miniature-circuit-breakers

 

[Evans Electric]

good boards but the breakers & RCBO's are expensive. get KQ for far less

Just looked them up ,  I see they are  Schneider  ,  the board looks much like the one I'm going back to   .   

 

[kerching]

Lewden have taken over   Control Gear  

CGD has always been owned by Lewden

I got conned into using a CGD 3ph board once....never again

what a pile of rancid runny festering dogs faeces mixed with a Mc Donald's food offering they are

it comes back to haunt me every time I am on site

MCBs no longer available so I have managed to find them on fleabay

utter

i have no issue with their sngle phase boards...I quite like them , especially the Curve ones. Loads f space in them

just saying

 

[Evans Electric]

CGD has always been owned by Lewden

OK   I didn' t know that  .      I noticed on the side of the £16  Schneider  breaker  the words  " Merlin Gerin "  engraved therein  .       

Going back to the Rogue  MCB  ruling  , it doesn't bother me in the least , if I'm 50 miles away , theres a breaker on the van that fits  I'm making a return trip .  

Its just the cosmetics....... I don't like to see a mixture , it looks really poor .  I've seen the front of the board sawn  out to fit a rogue  breaker  quite often.  

 

[Jono Pashley]

Its not "just cosmetics" and if the exisiting board is Schneider/Merlin by fitting another manufacturers device you may have introduced a device without the correct pollution degree for the area its installed in. Just fit the right thing and charge the customer accordingly.

 

[Evans Electric]

Just fit the right thing and charge the customer accordingly.

Thats what I was trying to do .........its the rip off price I'm objecting to.      Also  the 50 mile  each way trip with the correct breaker needs to be factored in . 

 

[Phoenix]

Just looked them up ,  I see they are  Schneider  ,  the board looks much like the one I'm going back to   .   

It probably shouldn't be done, but if you are caught out with the wrong schnieder breaker, then you can take the plug on bit off the busbar connection off a iKQ device and then you end up with a breaker which is the same as a Active9 device.

Schneider pricing is a bit of a strange one, they like to control the distribution channel and have control of what discounts you are getting as a contractor and you are supposed to have some kind of arrangement in place with them, and your wholesaler then supplies at the agreed price.... what normally happens in reality as long as you are on good terms with the wholesaler, is that, for a smaller customer who only wants a few bits, as far as schneider are concerned, its been sold to one of the bigger schnedier customers....

 

[OnOff]

I go to a site where everything originally installed was Merlin Gerin. There are loads of new, old stock Merlin mcb and rcbo spares. Literally hundreds of mcbs but the rcbos have all pretty much been used up so if one goes or is recommended to be changed to an rcbo it gets replaced with a Schneider. Same kit, just rebranded. Looks weird in the big boards.

 

[Sharpend]

But does that conform? As many breakers are the same just rebranded and apparently they don’t conform? 

 

[ProDave]

Its just the cosmetics....... I don't like to see a mixture , it looks really poor .  I've seen the front of the board sawn  out to fit a rogue  breaker  quite often.  

Which is why I don't touch MK, Wylex etc,  If you fit a new mcb of either make in one of their old boards it looks equally ****e and bodged, yet to the mcb police it is "correct"

 

[Sidewinder]

But does that conform? As many breakers are the same just rebranded and apparently they don’t conform? 

Schneider have issued a statement that they do conform, either way, old in new or new in old.

 

[Sharpend]

Schneider have issued a statement that they do conform, either way, old in new or new in old.

is that in relation to Merlin and Schneider? Or just between Schneider boards? 

 

[Andy™]

is that in relation to Merlin and Schneider? Or just between Schneider boards? 

between square D KQ & iline and schneider KQ & iline

Schneider also continue to make MCB & RCBO's for the older QOE range

think its the same for merlin gerin too but ive not really looked into them

 

[Phoenix]

Schneider also continue to make MCB & RCBO's for the older QOE range

Sit down when you get a price for a QOE RCBO though

 

[Andy™]

Sit down when you get a price for a QOE RCBO though

yep. recently had to get some. £65+ VAT each. which is actually cheaper than the iC60H RCBO's that Deke would have needed for his board