Recommendations pls for branded sockets & switches

[u587162]

Hi

could I please have some suggestions for branded sockets and switches to be used I my own home.

Looking for high end rather than cheap maybe in brushed chrome or gun metal colour.

was thinking of Knightsbridge from TLC but should I what about BG a electrical or MK range?

any pit falls I should look out for? Might need about 70 sockets and 30+ switches.

 

[Lectrician]

Click Deco

 

[u587162]

Do screwless face plates make them too easy for kids to pull them off?

 

[wundaboy]

Personally, I think there's nothing nicer looking than the Crabtree Platinum range in black nickel. They are bloody expensive, but can be got cheaper on ebay etc.

Bear in mind though (and this applies to all flat plate accessories, not just Crabtree), that despite what they say in the instructions, you'll need deeper than normal back boxes - 35mm for the sockets and 25mm for the light switches, particularly if you've got a lot of wires to connect e.g. two ring final cables plus a spur. They can also be a pig to fit on pre-existing uneven surfaces.

Edit re question about pulling off flat plate: the ones I've come across clip on very tightly and require a flat bladed screwdriver to remove them, so I wouldn't say it's an issue having children around them.

 

[blup]

MK Logic and Schneider Lisse

Blup

 

[securespark]

Hager are pretty good.

 

[JohnW2]

Do screwless face plates make them too easy for kids to pull them off?

Even if they managed to get them off (which, as has been said, would probably require 'tools') they are surely only just decorative covers, aren't they? - in which case there would be no (electrical) danger resulting from one being pulled off.

Kind Regards, John

 

[sxturbo]

Hager.

My dad's fitted them throughout his house and they are very good and look nice to.

Ive got click sockets in mine, also lovely sockets, but if you have the older stranded core wire then you may struggle to get more than 2x cables in the back of them.

Avoid Knightsbridge, awful products.

BG are ok (I'm convinced they make the LAP stuff for Screwfix)

 

[EFLImpudence]

The wall has to be perfectly flat for screwless face plates.

 

[SUNRAY]

Hager.

My dad's fitted them throughout his house and they are very good and look nice to.

Ive got click sockets in mine, also lovely sockets, but if you have the older stranded core wire then you may struggle to get more than 2x cables in the back of them.

I ike the Click range.

Just don't twist the strands. Simples.

Doesn't only apply to Click.

 

[sxturbo]

I ike the Click range.

Just don't twist the strands. Simples.

Doesn't only apply to Click.

Depends if there is enough cable to strip the wire back further, old installations with stranded cable often don't, and the strands have often been bent and twisted previously. As yet I haven't been able to successfully straighten all the individual strands to warrant not twisting them

 

[sparkwright]

Do NOT NOT NOT use BG.

Their accessories go wrong too quickly.

 

[securespark]

BG are ok (I'm convinced they make the LAP stuff for Screwfix)

They do.

I bought some LAP euro mod stuff from SF and it was BG. It has lasted OK so far, but the intermediates are much stiffer than the others.....very annoying.

 

[Lectrician]

I personally hate the look of flat plate. They never look right.

 

[Mr Chibs]

Schneider/Get flat plate, if you have nice Flat walls.

Had these for the last 20 years+ Never had to replace any of them.

Nice switching action too.