What's happen do dear old Crabtree ?

[deadshort]

Have just fitted some 2G Crabtree sockets and could not believe the poor design and quality of the terminals which have no depth to them. The FCU earth terminal for the load is directly in line with the feed earth terminal making it bloody difficult to tighten the screw on the load earth, the terminal does move (due to the poor quality of the brass). Crabtree were never the best looking products (the 80's shoe box cooker unit with the small orange switch! springs to mind)., that said, the build quality was good then

Have never used Hager or BG accessories but i think it's time to try them

Rant over,

DS

 

[Iggifer]

Hager accessories have quickly become my favourite.

It's lots of little things like, neutral loops on switches, all the terminals face the same way so when you're doing a 3G light switch you don't have to keep turning the switch to do the screws up, cooker switches have MASSIVE terminals (rated up to 16mm²).

Only complaint is that the terminals on the sockets are a little shallow for my liking, but I'm getting used to it

 

[deadshort]

SOLD !

DS

 

[Iggifer]

I managed to sell my boss on them as we were just using GET as the 'standard white plastic' range, but our wholesaler does Hager for between 20p&50p more per point. They're as good, if not better than MK and half the price.

Neutral loop in switches is my favourite bit

 

[deadshort]

And they look good !

DS

 

[Iggifer]

Yea, easily one of the best looking ranges out there currently.

 

[Echo the husky]

Crabtree really turned to rubbish when they became part of Electrium. The most recent Crabtree sockets are even worse as you can't plug things in them without forcing the plugs in. I'd like to know what 3rd world country their stuff is made in. Gone are they days of Crabtree UK.

 

[Lectrician]

Had several Crabtree sockets fail out the box, with only one side working.

 

[sparkwright]

Crabtree stuff is a bit rubbish at the moment.

Though the faceplate design has hardly changed in the last 30 years, the terminals and other bits and pieces at the back have changed.

I heard a rumour that the company that made all the terminals and bits and pieces wanted more money, so Crabtree found another company. Don't know how true that is.

The common problem I've experienced very frequently is that the terminal screws strip and go round and round. So they are useless at that point.

Also, I don't like the new square terminals. Thin earth wires are prone to drop out if not doubled over.

It's impressive that Crabtree haven't felt the need to alter the basic design of most of their front faceplates after 30 years. The only significant changes are the faceplate screws on sockets and spurs are recessed in slightly further, and the slot on the fuse carrier of a fused spur is slightly shorter.

Their pattress design dates back to the 1960s I would estimate. Also, their single pattress mould has been re-used for a green PVC box for 'push to open' buttons on door opening systems.

 

[Echo the husky]

The newer pattresses have less knockouts than the old ones which had knockouts right up to the corners. The square terminals are awful, especially so on the switched fused spurs where they are so small. The old terminal layout on the switched fused spurs was brilliant, supply in at the top load out at the bottom, now it's all over the place.

When the sockets first changed the local electricians gave the Crabtree rep so much abuse when he visited the local Denmans, that he had to leave the branch!

 

[333rocky333]

A few years back all the B+Q stores round here experimented with crabtree, it never took off and they stopped.
apparently crabtree is more popular up North for some reason whether its because Mk were london based I dont know.

 

[Lectrician]

I always use GET for bog standard work, but have used Crabtree for years on "posher" domestic installs. MK for commercial.

Recently, having had several Crabtree double sockets not work on one side out the box, and over this weekend, a two gang switch fail on one side, I am not going to be using them again. I can't be the only one, so wonder how long before something is done, or they vanish.

 

[Iggifer]

We've had many problems with GET, hence why they've been binned as the standard range. Too many failed light switches.

We did 5 new builds, all basic as you like, maybe 15 sockets per house, 8 switches & some FCUs. I think we returned 5 failed switches in total. The screw threads strip super easily.

 

[Echo the husky]

I've been using the new Eaton stuff on a job that already had a load there, silly small square terminals again and even worse the terminal screws are the dreadful combination type.

I've also used Click for a bit but had several failed switches and have had to replace a number of failed sockets that were less than 12 months old. Plug contacts didn't seem to grip properly and caused several burnouts.

Varilight are usually OK but their sockets can't seem to cope with continuous loads greater than 1.5KW without the switch contacts overheating and jamming the switch on, have had to replace a few in their Kilnwood range with this fault.

MEM was probably the most notable for huge numbers of fails from new, we had boxes of faulty sockets and switches on one site where they specified this range, against our advise. A number of the homeowners replaced all the accessories with another brand as they were fed up with all the faults. The terminals didn't grip the conductors at all well. Many people commented on how odd the sockets looked with the socket holes much lower down than other manufacturers.

These issues weren't here when I started. We had Tenby Polar, Legrand Aztec, MK logic, Crabtree Capital without the cost cutting, all were excellent. I'd love for any one of these to be available today.