MARBRO

[NozSpark]

Was doing a job today in a small bungalow and using customer supplied switches (MARBRO) :yellow card

Testing My R1+R2 at a fititng and it was reading something like 1.42ohms.. now I know that it's well within limits for a B6 circuit, but I thought I'd investigate so I took did the same test at the switch on both the supply side and the load side (different!), so I took the switch off and measured the contact resistance.......

It varied between 0.6ohms and 1ohms on the same switch:red card:red card:red card

so I replaced them with Crabtree (0.00ohms contact resistance)

and YES my meter leads were zeroed and I'd also only just put in new batteries...

 

[Lurch]

Marbo.

Part of the same crowd as Crabtree, all probably end up being the same internals before long anyway, probably the Marbo interiors in the Crabtree housings no doubt.

 

[Theorysparky]

im suprised

i like marbo,,,nice ,neat, square and never replaced a faulty one or been called back to a customer

customers like the plain square type i find not the fancy styles like MK

could be that the QC at marbo has been ditched hence the failure

 

[NozSpark]

Thing is it wasn't 1 switch...

in all there were 7 of which I tested 2 and they were both the same so they all got replaced

Initially I thought that maybe it was my tester or that maybe all switches had some inbuilt resistance, but on testing several others I had in the van I found that all mine had a contact resistance of 0ohms.

 

[Evans Electric]

I thought Marbo were one of the cheapo crapo brigade.

 

[SteveH37]

Still and MK person myself, quality has slipped a little in recent years but still fit and forget items.

 

[Evans Electric]

Interesting thread Noz , I would not have thought to measure across a light switch TBH

Deke

 

[superspark]

MARBO recently did a new build with this gear have been back to 3 sockets with 1 side not working. and the batton holders are very poor quality.

lesson learnt for me only to use quality from now on,what i saved on parts in the first place has now been eaten away by going back to faulty items.

 

[batty]

I generally only use Contactum as I don't get call backs and they are not that expensive anyway

 

[superspark]

will have a look at those m8 i won,t be using marbo again cheers,

 

[Lurch]

I generally only use Contactum as I don't get call backs and they are not that expensive anyway

 

[maselec]

Hi everyone, new to the site and first post so here goes,

I used Marbo on 2 jobs last year, on the first job the lights in 2 rooms were flickering on and off due to poorly manufactured rockers in the switches, and on the 2nd job one of the switches had smoke bellowing out within 3 seconds of being energised. Ive also found that the internal gubbings of thier sockets mean they won't sit in the backbox properly (this can obviously be remedied by chopping out a littler deeper, still...). The job with the smokey switch had the customer pulling up floorboards and checking cable routes, connections, showing him my test procedures etc before he would pay me so defo didn't save any money there, is it worth it for the hassle anyway? Won't use again thats for sure. :red card

 

[batty]

Welcome to the forum Maselec. I would imagine sf give them away as nobody will buy them.