Rubbish products/materials

[Big n Daft]

Right ho chaps and chapesses,
Its time rat out the rubbish. What have you used recently that has been complete and utter poo.
Lets start with anything that has Proteus on the label, and there is some completely useless swa cable out there as well. You know the stuff, its like a coiled spring sitting on the drum waiting to snare you at first pull.

 

[Hawk81]

The worst suff i have used is Control Gear mcb's and boards. I detest the stuff. Proteus is really bad too.

 

[jeremy]

I hate cheap screws! ( I'm not on another ex-wife rant, she wasn't cheap!) Why would anyone even bother making a screw that wasn't straight, snaps under the slightest amount of torque, doesn't drive into wood etc? Self tapping screws? why make them out of such soft alloy that the slightest slip burrs the head??!! Drives me up the ******* WALL!! ( as opposed to into!) Spax everytime for me. (where's my beer, I need to calm down a bit!)

 

[Knobhead]

solid strand twin & earth.if it's cold it's a nightmare to work with. not a patch on the old 7/029 and 3/029.

Old fart :willy_nilly:

 

[ian]

Proteus C.U, Non branded LED’s, installed 8, replaced 8. neveragain.

 

[Kamikaze]

Not so long ago had the misfortune of screws which unwound and turned themselves into nails while they were being screwed in.

 

[Big n Daft]

Hit a bit of a rich seam with this one.
Next one is conduit boxes with a p!ssed thread, so you give the pipe a tweek and either the spout cracks or the pipe collapses snapping in two.
NEXT........................

 

[Dcf]

ill add mk dual rcd boards to this one

 

[Hawk81]

Robus GU10 LED lamps are pure crap. Eterna vapour proof flouresants are flimsy rubbish. Tower cable clips hate them. B&Q value floodlight, when a customer buys 1 and wants it fitted.

 

[MarkieSparkie]

Magnetic cable guide Magna Mole cheaply made plastic tool, suitable for the DIY market but aimed at professional electricians. Anything tougher than plaster board walls and plastic splits or disintegrates spilling the magnets the tool relies on to work. Utter crap!

 

[Phil]

cheap and nasty cable rods that splinter and leave nasty fibreglass down the finger nails and under the skin.

cheap naff screws

socket sinkers what a load of old tosh

100+ not so fast fix boxes i got stitched up with in Jarrow

a well known large electrical wholesaler that ripped me for £13.50 for a box of penny washers that were £3 in tool station

those 10 lengths of plastic conduit i got stuck with the other week, cracked and split, tbh I thought it was me out of practice but by the previous posts maybe its just naff cheap plastic they are using now.

the rather expensive allegedly dimmable low energy lamp that did not dim

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Tamlight....often poorly thought out and thrown together....Gotta say,despite the slagging off of proteus here,I use it on cheap jobs/temp site supplies etc and have never had a problem with it.
Niglon,stopped using their stuff years ago,after SWA glands which either wouldnt start or pulled off even when wound right down...and 2" locknuts which were so flimsy and loose you could tighten them by hand and they would strip.
RPP IP sockets.....Oh dear.
Marshall tuflex minitrunking....where do you start?
BELL linear T/H lamps...no end of hassle,contacts set too far back in the endcap so they wont meet the pins on the fitting.

Could be here all day!

 

[johnboy6083]

cheap glands, BW glands of any make (i always use CW or E1W), a manufacturer called MCS make our MCC's and control panels, and they are rubbsih in some respects ie- p[anel; trunking that sits dirctly on the gland plate, so that i cant remove it to install cables.

 

[High Tower]

AS said previously

Cheap surface patress' that shatter as soon as you try and open up for a cable
Control gear brand ccu's and breakers......chap tat!
adaptable boxes that have pre determined holes with not enough clearance to get a lock nut on
MK accessories that dont grip the conductor well enough (i only have this problem with MK)
cheap swa with inner insulation that wont strip

ill stop ranting now lol! thank god for the likes of hager, spax etc etc!

 

[telectrix]

AS said previously

Cheap surface patress' that shatter as soon as you try and open up for a cable
Control gear brand ccu's and breakers......chap tat!
adaptable boxes that have pre determined holes with not enough clearance to get a lock nut on
MK accessories that dont grip the conductor well enough (i only have this problem with MK)
cheap swa with inner insulation that wont strip

ill stop ranting now lol! thank god for the likes of hager, spax etc etc!

and adaptable boxes with dual concentric knockouts ( 20mm and 25mm ) when you try and knockout the 20mm, the whole 25mm comes out.

 

[Big n Daft]

Magnetic cable guide Magna Mole cheaply made plastic tool, suitable for the DIY market but aimed at professional electricians. Anything tougher than plaster board walls and plastic splits or disintegrates spilling the magnets the tool relies on to work. Utter crap!

Was that another great idea from Dragons Den, just like the horrible choc block box piece of tat.