Cost of MCBs

Talk Electrician Forum

Help Support Talk Electrician Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Evans Electric

TEF LINUX ADMIN™
Supporting Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2008
Messages
23,509
Reaction score
527
Location
Birmingham
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 ?    

 
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.

 
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 . 

 
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

 
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

 
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.  

 
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.

 
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....

 
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.

 
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"

 
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

 
Top