IMPORTANT! Wylex, Crabtree (Loadstar) Volex - Electrium

[accordfire]

If any of you guys have purchased or fitted

Crabtree Loadstar
Volex
Wylex

6,10,16 Amp MCBs

See this:

Product Recall

Click on the RED more information link at the top.

 

[telectrix]

and who is going to pay for the time taken to trace any of these and replace them. ? certainly not electrium!

 

[pennywise]

Is this the recall that is already widely known or a new one?

 

[accordfire]

Is this the recall that is already widely know or a new one?

No idea to be honest - it came through in a Cities "newsletter" this past week or so.

So, knowing Cities, probably the already widely known one.......

 

[accordfire]

and who is going to pay for the time taken to trace any of these and replace them. ? certainly not electrium!

Agreed. Not Electrium, as usual, I have no doubt.

 

[Mr Mark Sparks]

i am sure this is from earlier in the year 2010 it was for mcbs bought early 2009 jan to may i think

 

[SX2]

Hi all! Electrium DO PAY as i have just completed two recalls for them and they pay £75 per consumers unit you check all you need is to provide supply invoices for that installation! even bigger plus is that even if you have more than one consumers unit per installation you get paid per c/u!!

 

[telectrix]

sweet times

 

[nickblake]

down side to that is that you have to pay for the replacement MCB's ive come across one its got 10 recalled MCB's in it and at 3.50 an MCB its going to cost me to replace them as its 45 miles from my home so time and fuel i also have no certs for the property so im not testing it for £5.00 !!! , the recall was from april last year , but i would check any MCB's you purchase from the electrium brands as last week i was sold a sector MCB which was on the recall list so chaps be warned

 

[nickblake]

For those who have not come across the recall ,

If you ring the number they will send you out a contractors pack ,this includes a form which you fill in a checked sticker which you date ,when you have inspected all the installed boards and replaced any recalled mcb's you invoice them for £75.00 per CDU you have checked snend a cert for each as well and then you will be paid within 60 days get the pack all is explained in it

 

[SirKit Breaker]

I thought all this had blown over. Not had any problems at all with Wylex kit.

 

[Mrs Murphy]

Hello, l am not an electrician but a home owner (and mother) who almost lost my family over this last weekend due to a house fire. I am writing here because this issue needs to be taken seriously. We had a fire starting in our fuse box. I have had 3 electricians to our home since the fire and all have said the fire looks to be caused by the breakers (these were Crabtree Loadstar) the same ones that were recalled.
I am pregnant and also have 2 year old twins. The fire happened early in the morning (only time l will say this but...luckily l have small children who wake early) - had it happened at night, a few hours earlier l am certain it would have caused fatality. My family survived but please, please take this seriously and follow up and change any breakers you believe to be faulty as this can cause serious fire. I understand its your time and money/ business but life is much more valuable. thank you.

 

[accordfire]

Hello, l am not an electrician but a home owner (and mother) who almost lost my family over this last weekend due to a house fire. I am writing here because this issue needs to be taken seriously. We had a fire starting in our fuse box. I have had 3 electricians to our home since the fire and all have said the fire looks to be caused by the breakers (these were Crabtree Loadstar) the same ones that were recalled.
I am pregnant and also have 2 year old twins. The fire happened early in the morning (only time l will say this but...luckily l have small children who wake early) - had it happened at night, a few hours earlier l am certain it would have caused fatality. My family survived but please, please take this seriously and follow up and change any breakers you believe to be faulty as this can cause serious fire. I understand its your time and money/ business but life is much more valuable. thank you.

Wow.

That's the second fire in an hour relative to this forum over the last little while.

I'm glad you and your family are ok.

But be assured, safety and inspection are things pretty well every electrician in this forum takes very, very seriously.

It is helpful (not to you, I know) but to member of this forum, and others, that real feedback is gained from this kind of incident as it reminds us all EXACTLY what can be at stake, and the reality of having insurance cover against incidents like this can never justify the potential loss of life, as you say.

It's exactly for reasons like this that these recalls, and tech bulletins get reposted from time to time, I think, and rightly so too.

It might reassure you to know that most of us feel the same way you do about things like this, and the problem for us often, as professional electricians is in awareness, and helping the public to understand there is a good reason we promote things like periodic inspection and testing.

It isn't just about business to most of us, but also about safety - and that's the key reason periodic inspection was devised, for safety.

Again, I'm so glad you and yours are safe, if suffering from the loss, and thank you for letting us all know.

Please, however, when you get back into your house/new house - insist on working interlinked smoke detectors too.

 

[cbw]

I must say that I did check EVERY install I did around said period, They did not require eic's for the work I had done, just an invoice and a copy of my invoice for replacement MCBs

I earned £450 a day for 2 days as a result of the recall! Was not paid for the ones that did not require replacements, but later found out I could have invoiced for these to!

The last 2 CU 'fires' (Smouldering really) were down to shoddy workmanship and loose neutrals

 

[malcolmsanford]

I'm so pleased Mrs Murphy and her family are safe and well, though with Christmas approaching it will be stressful for her.

It is good to see a manufacter paying for these recalls, but I remenber something like this happening a few years back, and having to change protection devices. I will always remember the attitude of customers as you called them to tell them that the CU you fitted a while back had to be modified, as invariably they ask why, and hear the silence when you tell them that the manufacter as advised this.

When you arrive it's then the look they give you and again 9 times out of 10 they seem to think it was your fault that you fitted a potentially dangerous piece of equipment. No explaining ever seems to change their mind, and in some cases the good will lost is quite large

 

[accordfire]

I'm so pleased Mrs Murphy and her family are safe and well, though with Christmas approaching it will be stressful for her.

It is good to see a manufacter paying for these recalls, but I remenber something like this happening a few years back, and having to change protection devices. I will always remember the attitude of customers as you called them to tell them that the CU you fitted a while back had to be modified, as invariably they ask why, and hear the silence when you tell them that the manufacter as advised this.

When you arrive it's then the look they give you and again 9 times out of 10 they seem to think it was your fault that you fitted a potentially dangerous piece of equipment. No explaining ever seems to change their mind, and in some cases the good will lost is quite large

It does seem to go that way more often than not.

I've found that bringing a copy of the recall notice and letting the customer read while we fit helps some.

Then again, we've also found lately that where we've had to replace faulty kit, we've generally had to offer something for nothing ourselves, to "add" value to the mistake recovery, though it wasn't our fault.

Extending maintenance contracts a month or so usually restores goodwill.

I think a "workable idea" might be, for those replacing faulty CU kit - to leave a leaflet offering a discount on a full PIR in twelve months time from fix date. Good source of future work, 5% discount isn't much of a loss, considering, and there's restoration of goodwill when the customer sees you take their safety seriously.