Crappy new LAP terminals

Dartlec · Apr 29, 2022

Small job including light in a shed so I picked up a LAP LED oval bulkhead which I've used before as cheap and slightly cheerful.

Only to discover that in their never ending journey to 'improve' their products they've 'upgraded' the terminals to these nasty things.

Not only would flex not properly work in them at all - even with solid core they failed my (not that firm) tug test once inserted. I assumed the little holes might be the equivalent of release levers, but no - the cable sits above them and it's purely how firmly you tug them that decides if they stay in place or not.

Not sure if they are meant to be one use only like some of the old E27 fittings were, or what tests they have passed, but I wasn't happy installing it, so the (only slightly) more expensive Aurora BH115 I had in the van went in instead. This will go back and I won't use them again.

Presumably some numpty in marketing decided to save some money to keep them at the same price as the old ones and patted himself on the back for saving 0.002p per fitting.

Teddy Lop · Apr 30, 2022

From what I've seen of LAP it seems more "how cheap is possible" rather than "cheap and cheerful"

If on a tight budget A few more beer tokens on an alternative budget brand like BG is money well spent IMO

littlespark · Apr 30, 2022

And the earth goes where??

I stopped using the LAP LED batons in attics etc. they have a connection at both ends for an ‘in’ and ‘out’ cable, but only two terminals. You can’t loop the cpc through to the second fitting.

pc1966 · Apr 30, 2022

littlespark said:
I stopped using the LAP LED batons in attics etc. they have a connection at both ends for an ‘in’ and ‘out’ cable, but only two terminals. You can’t loop the cpc through to the second fitting.

Good to know to avoid them.

littlespark · Apr 30, 2022

pc1966 said:
Good to know to avoid them.

Fine for a single light, but you can’t daisy chain them together without carrying on the cpc.

Dustydazzler · Apr 30, 2022

The only LAP stuff I buy is the switches and sockets which are fine for the price

Those cheap push fit terminations look garbage , a nice colour coded lever terminal would be nice to see

mattg4321 · Apr 30, 2022

Lap switches and sockets are junk too. Seen so many failures. Would never fit them. I sometimes buy the cat6 euro modules. They are rebranded Philex and decent.

nicebutdim · Apr 30, 2022

littlespark said:
And the earth goes where??

I stopped using the LAP LED batons in attics etc. they have a connection at both ends for an ‘in’ and ‘out’ cable, but only two terminals. You can’t loop the cpc through to the second fitting.

It's a terrible design, having 'linkable' battens with no means of maintaining continuity of CPC, but they're not a bad fitting otherwise and well priced. I've used them a couple of times and just flexed to each from a rose.

Generally the only LAP stuff I buy is lamps. Never have any problems with them (other than G9, but I'm yet to find a decent LED G9 from any manufacturer).

Dartlec · Apr 30, 2022

mattg4321 said:
Lap switches and sockets are junk too. Seen so many failures. Would never fit them. I sometimes buy the cat6 euro modules. They are rebranded Philex and decent.

The problem is that they sometimes seem to change design or supplier, and keep the same model number.

The original version of this fitting I've used before several times and it was serviceable - but either they forced the supplier to cut corners for the next batch of an order, or found a new supplier that would undercut the previous one by using these crappy terminals.

Likewise the sockets were at one point made by BG (even branded BG on the plastic still) and weren't too bad, at least no worse than the BG versions.

The first version of their switches used to be quite flush and neat too - but the new ones just look cheap and nasty to me, so I switched to Click some time back for white accessories.

I still mostly get LAP lamps (particularly GU10s) because I have very few problems with them, while Philips at 3 times the price seem to have lots of issues.

123 · May 2, 2022

nicebutdim said:
It's a terrible design, having 'linkable' battens with no means of maintaining continuity of CPC, but they're not a bad fitting otherwise and well priced. I've used them a couple of times and just flexed to each from a rose.

Generally the only LAP stuff I buy is lamps. Never have any problems with them (other than G9, but I'm yet to find a decent LED G9 from any manufacturer).

I find Crompton more than decent with G9's. I've fitted about a hundred in lighting in a few hairdressers (the type of light fittings that takes about 5 minutes to connect up and screw to the ceiling, then 2 hours to put all the silly hanging down bits on) and to best of my knowledge they are all still all working away and giving very good light output

nicebutdim · May 2, 2022

123 said:
I find Crompton more than decent with G9's. I've fitted about a hundred in lighting in a few hairdressers (the type of light fittings that takes about 5 minutes to connect up and screw to the ceiling, then 2 hours to put all the silly hanging down bits on) and to best of my knowledge they are all still all working away and giving very good light output

Good to know. I've tried G9s from a number of manufacturers and haven't been overly impressed with any. LAP were neither better nor worse than the others, but were considerably cheaper. If Crompton are reliable, that solves a problem.