Blast from the past Screwfix catalogue

[Dartlec]

In my regular 20 year clear outs of the garage I found a Screwfix catalogue from Autumn 1999...

10 whole pages of electrical items, including half a page of CUs...

Interesting to see that their price point hasn't really changed that much - and that they claim whatever board they are selling will take Contactum, Proteus, BG, Wylex, Ashley & Rock (no idea?), GE & AEG - bit of a big claim...

 

[loz2754]

Interesting find. They were actually promoting the mixing of different manufacturers products!

 

[baldelectrician]

Met an electrician I used to work with outside the wholesalers yesterday- a industrial estate with CEF and Screwfix next door to each other.

He was going in to SF to buy a BG board and he charged £130 less than me, no certificate, no testing, no bonding etc.

On the point of the above thread- I actively point out the customers that I do not buy boards from Screwfix as many (such as the ones above) no longer have parts available and are not of the best quality.

 

[Dustydazzler]

I have an old ALTO catalogue (WFs own brand) from the late 90s and various old screwfix catalogues etc
anyone remember when you actually had to phone screwfix to place your order and it was free delivery if you spent over £45 (no click n collect shop fronts in them days)

 

[Dustydazzler]

About a year or so ago I threw away a whole heap of old eddys hand written receipts

£11 + vat for a roll of 1mm t&e
£18 + vat for a roll of 2.5 t&e

dam cable was expensive back then

 

[brianmoooore]

Interesting find. They were actually promoting the mixing of different manufacturers products!

In an ideal world, a DIN enclosure would be a DIN enclosure and all manufacturer's DIN devices would fit, mixed and matched, without problems.
If the exact position of the lower terminals was standardised, then this would largely be achieved.

 

[Rockingit]

In an ideal world, a DIN enclosure would be a DIN enclosure and all manufacturer's DIN devices would fit, mixed and matched, without problems.
If the exact position of the lower terminals was standardised, then this would largely be achieved.

Interesting issue, this. We buy a Consumer Unit and it has to adhere to all the stuff we know, yet if we buy a DIN Enclosure, empty, we can populate it however the heck we want and achieve the same result.

 

[Dartlec]

I have an old ALTO catalogue (WFs own brand) from the late 90s and various old screwfix catalogues etc
anyone remember when you actually had to phone screwfix to place your order and it was free delivery if you spent over £45 (no click n collect shop fronts in them days)

The phone number (05000 414141) is in much bigger type on the front page of this catalogue than the website address - definitely a sign of times changing...

They also list FREEPHONE - FREEFAX - FREEPOST - INTERNET so maybe that showed the order of their expected customers usage...

 

[Dartlec]

Interesting issue, this. We buy a Consumer Unit and it has to adhere to all the stuff we know, yet if we buy a DIN Enclosure, empty, we can populate it however the heck we want and achieve the same result.

Type testing to get 16kA pfc protection is the biggest issue of course - but if 10kA switchgear was chosen that would cope with most domestic cases...

 

[Dartlec]

Met an electrician I used to work with outside the wholesalers yesterday- a industrial estate with CEF and Screwfix next door to each other.

He was going in to SF to buy a BG board and he charged £130 less than me, no certificate, no testing, no bonding etc.

On the point of the above thread- I actively point out the customers that I do not buy boards from Screwfix as many (such as the ones above) no longer have parts available and are not of the best quality.

Screwfix do seem have learned their lesson by no longer making LAP branded stuff. I suspect companies like BG can only continue to develop their range by pre-selling a large number of units to companies like Screwfix in advance (at a good price) to pay for tooling etc.

The truth is that there are probably still too many makes out there (even current ones), for anyone to carry a suitable stock to cover every circumstance...

But some of the larger problems with part availability over time were partly caused by the other wholesalers wanting their own 'brand' - leading to confusion over multiple brands that are technically exactly the same product, made in the same factory, but labelled differently...

I assume that is the case with many of the brands listed in the catalogue - although Wylex can't even manage compatibility with their own ranges, let alone others!

 

[Dartlec]

In an ideal world, a DIN enclosure would be a DIN enclosure and all manufacturer's DIN devices would fit, mixed and matched, without problems.
If the exact position of the lower terminals was standardised, then this would largely be achieved.

Crabtree are presumably one major reason why standardisation isn't likely to happen any time soon.

The other part is the variety of 'normal' busbar design - standardising that might encourage bottom terminals to be more compatible...

The final part would be companies keeping to their own standard over time, rather than deliberately changing things to ensure people have to buy whole new setups cough Wylex cough