Why is Wylex so popular!?

Today I had the joys of fitting a Wylex Dual split CU. I always have in the past fitted MK Sentry, but all my local wholesalers seem to now only stock either Wylex or Hager. Unfortunatly I am on a tight price so hager was out the question.

I actually wanted a Split load CU, so had to jig things around a bit..

I know MK is far from brilliant now, but Wylex has several pitfalls too as far as I could see!

1. The numbering system is all over the place! Neutrals on the right and count from the right. CPC's on the left and count the opposite way to how the MCB's are arranged!

2. The supplied links are formed together and are too big to fit into the terminal bars at the top. Even when cut off to single thickness they still wont fit. They also have a large amount of copper sticking out the top of the RCD's!

3. The MCB's supplied in the fully loaded 10way are a bit cr@p, loads of 32A, two 16A and a few 6A. I needed three 20A but hey ho!

4. The busbar comes in cut lengths, so after I re-jigged things to make mine split load and had 6 MCB's on the Main Switch, the busbar wasnt long enough!

5. No linking pieces to connect together the neutral terminal bars. As above after re-jigging and having 6 Non-RCD ways, I had to double up the 5 & 6 neutrals into the same terminal.

I am sure earlier I thought of more things, but thats all I can think of at the minute! I saw a few weeks ago someone put up a thread about the perfect CU - well I think I ought to design one and get it manufactured! I am sure I could do a better job than some of the others out there!!

1. When I have fitted them I have removed the earth numbering strip with a hair dryer and fitted it upside down.

2. They seam to preform them to fit into the N bar.

4. You need the flexible bus bar version if they still do them?

Quality or what

I pay about £60 for a fully loaded 5+5 hager cu at my local independent wholesaler. I would never use anything made by electrium.

Yes - quality!
I even contemplated getting a British General or LAP one from Screwfix!

BG's aren't bad.

Not great, but not bad. Case is a bit bendy and the MCBs have a tendency to lean when you tighten them to the busbar, but once all screwed up tight I haven't had any burny smells.

Proteus and Chint anyone?

OwainDIYer said:

BG's aren't bad.

Not great, but not bad. Case is a bit bendy and the MCBs have a tendency to lean when you tighten them to the busbar, but once all screwed up tight I haven't had any burny smells.

Proteus and Chint anyone?

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May try one in that case. Lewden is another one which is available around here. Cheaper again than Wylex. Main switches are about £2.50!

Re: Proteus, when I did my testing and inspection course recently, the rig I had to work on had a proteus board with some rcbo's in it. I had to take the trip times of these rcbo's. Both of them failed after doing the 5 times test with the meter. In the end the course examiner chap made up results as it wasn't my fault and he had no replacements!

OwainDIYer said:

BG's aren't bad.

Not great, but not bad. Case is a bit bendy and the MCBs have a tendency to lean when you tighten them to the busbar....

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About the same as the MK sentry ones then!

I suspect that one of the answers to the question posed in the title of this thread is a mixture of history and psychology ... some of us are of such an age that we were brought up admiring the superb engineering of the Wylex Standard range (many examples of which are still going strong in service), and therefore got it engrained deeply in our subconscious that Wylex were 'right up there' in terms of quality of design and manufacture. ... and such deeply engrained thoughts are difficult to shake off, even when their products 'change'!

I have to confess that, perhaps for the above reason, I still tend to use Wylex

Kind Regards, John

I've fitted a good few BGs without any issues. Whilst it goes against convention I think they're better quality than wylex. I still fit hager or Schneider where I can but if the price is tight I'll use BG.

Electricfix are doing a deal of buy 5 get one free on CUs at the moment where you get a stamp on your collector card for each one you buy.

I think JohnW2 has hit the nail on the head Wylex were good and we have just continued to use what was a good produce even if now it no longer is.

As to altering a consumer unit to make it do something it was not designed to do then even if just removing label and putting other way up then it's no longer a consumer unit. It becomes a distribution unit as you lose the type testing.

Fitting a distribution unit where the installation is in the charge of an ordinary person is really something open for debate. 530.3.4 is the regulation but to work out what is permitted and what is not BS EN 60439-3 would need reading to find out at what stage of alterations the BS EN 60439-3 would no longer be complied with.

I am sure my house does not comply with 530.3.4 but I am not an ordinary person the same with my son and father-in-law and my dad would have also not have been considered as an ordinary person. But on my father death do we say to my mum you can't live there your not an ordinary person? Clearly not.

But for a customers house where they are clearly ordinary persons then modifying consumer units raises the question does it comply with 530.3.4?

RF Lighting said:

Quality or what

I pay about £60 for a fully loaded 5+5 hager cu at my local independent wholesaler. I would never use anything made by electrium.

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Better than Siemens where the RBCO and the MCB switched in opposite direction since mounted horizontal keeping to down for off was not a problem but where the bus bars run down centre having left for off one side and right for off the other is far enough but to have to read each MCB / RCBO to see which way to switch is silly and dangerous. I stopped using Siemens and went to Merlin but now both same firm.

ericmark said:

As to altering a consumer unit to make it do something it was not designed to do then even if just removing label and putting other way up then it's no longer a consumer unit. It becomes a distribution unit as you lose the type testing.

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Are saying the CU only works properly if the CPCs are installed in the reverse order to the MCBs?

Suffice to say I disagree.

ericmark said:

I stopped using Siemens and went to Merlin but now both same firm.

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Not true Eric. What gave you that idea? Merlin (Gerin) are now branded Schneider.

EFLImpudence said:

ericmark said:

As to altering a consumer unit to make it do something it was not designed to do then even if just removing label and putting other way up then it's no longer a consumer unit. It becomes a distribution unit as you lose the type testing.

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Are saying the CU only works properly if the CPCs are installed in the reverse order to the MCBs? Suffice to say I disagree.

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As you imply, there is definitely a need for some common sense here. I have to say that, speaking personally, I would apply common sense to far more true 'changes' than merely reversing a label!

More generally, I don't really understand why a DB which, because of (internal) modifications does not fully qualify as a 'type-tested CU' would be any more safe/acceptable under the control of people who are not 'ordinary persons'!

Kind Regards, John

stillp said:

ericmark said:

I stopped using Siemens and went to Merlin but now both same firm.

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Not true Eric. What gave you that idea? Merlin (Gerin) are now branded Schneider.

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Thank goodness for that Siemens is cheap rubbish.

As to type testing clearly non type tested gear is not necessary dangerous and in real terms if one manufacturers gear fits into another manufacturers box then really no problem with using it as the whole idea of DIN rail was to allow one to mix and match.

But in some cases different hole levels with MCB's means using a bus bar can give false readings with the torque screw driver so heat can result and with that damage to the MCB.

As a result any unauthorised alterations or modifications automatically mean the type testing is not valid.

Some faults are not easy to identify. The Merlin (Gerin) had sliders so unused bus bar connections for the MCB's were dead. Using push in blanks was OK even if you could remove without a took because there were no live parts exposed. However used the same blanks with other boards and they did not comply. However where blanks were missing it is so much easier to use push in ones then open the board and insert the twist type and try and stick them into place while the cover is replaced so they don't all slide to the bottom.

I hold up my hands I did use push in blanks but again where the door is lockable that's again OK. That is until HSE points out you have left the key in one of the doors so people can move the key around and get access.

It is easy to make errors. I remember fitting Loadmaster Isolators thinking they were 100A MCB's same size same shape the isolator had a red link on the three switches the MCB's had black link easy mistake to make. So to try to adapt is not always a good idea. With the Loadmaster Isolator I was an in house electrician and easy to go around swapping 100A isolator for 70A MCB but do you really want to knock a customers door and say sorry I have made a mistake. In the main type tested gear will not allow you to make the errors. There will be a bit of plastic stopping you from fitting an isolator instead of a MCB but curse the manufacturer and remove this bit of plastic and it's so easy to make errors.