Good old wylex...

[RF Lighting]

I got called out tonight to a customer who said something was wrong with his fuse box.

When I got there he said he'd noticed an acrid burning smell and noticed that one of his circuit breakers had tripped but it was still burning and getting hotter.

Fortunately he is a retired fireman and knew what to do and had isolated the supply to make things safe by time I got there.

Here's what I found.



All the connections in the CU were good and tight.

It was a recalled wylex circuit breaker.

I managed to bodge his power back on with some bits I had on my van but it's really shaken him as he's got his daughter and granddaughter living with him at the moment and the thoughts of what my have happened if this hadn't been during the day when someone was there to notice it.

New Schneider acti9 board going in next week, and a phone call to electrium tomorrow....

 

[bhm1712]

Very lucky family there. Good job somebody with some brains was there to knock everything off in time. Could have been a far worse story if not. Just goes to show.

 

[securespark]

Taken from "ELECTRICS SAFETY" sticky:


ELECTRIUM MCB RECALL NOTICE FOR THE ATTENTION OF ALL QUALIFIED ELECTRICIANS:


IN CASE ANY ELECTRICIAN OR CUSTOMER HAS SLIPPED THROUGH THE NET:

6A MCB and 10A MCB codes:


RIRA, RERA, RTRA, RARA, RCRA, SRRA, RHRA, SSRA, RGRA.



16A MCB codes:


RIRA, RERA, RTRA, RARA, RCRA, SRRA, RHRA, RGRA.



Please note, these codes represent the last four characters of the code printed on the side of the MCB.

As far as I know, these codes apply to all Electrium breakers, ie not just the Wylex ones, but Crabtree and Volex too.

 

[deadshort]

My ideal consumer unit would be the Hager build quality with a Crabtree starbreaker busbar nice bit of cross breeding! HAGERSTAR.
How many other x breeds would you have ? MKLEX !

DS

 

[Iggifer]

You couldn't pay me to have wylex or MK in my house, don't know why on earth you'd want MKLEX?

Shnager? Or Shaton ??

 

[bhm1712]

Same for me. Schneider or Hager - schnager

 

[securespark]

An unholy marriage between CGD Proteus and Chint, anyone??

Cchitteus?

Runs screaming into the woods...

 

[deadshort]

Proteuschint

DS

 

[Iggifer]

Think you added a C and an N by mistake in that name!

 

[RF Lighting]

My wholesalers have a special offer on proteus consumer units at the moment. They still haven't sold any

 

[Spark123]

What's the offer, free fire extinguisher?

 

[gman76]

Sorry if it has been asked already, but could these dodgy Crabtree breakers be found in a Starbreaker consumer unit?

TIA

 

[flameport]

Yes they could. Same codes as previously posted.

 

[gman76]

Ok, thanks FP - better check mine out!

 

[RF Lighting]

I've now phoned wylex three times on three separate days and left three messages on an answer machine. No one has rung me back.

Today I phoned wylex technical and spoke to someone. I explained what had happened. He offered to check my customers serial numbers against the list of recalled breakers. I told him that I'd already done this and that's why I was phoning, and what were they going to do about it.

He said in that case I needed to phone the recall number. I told him I'd done this three times and not had a reply. He said oh no you won't. The guy that deals with this is on holiday and I'd have to wait till he gets back.

Absolutely stunning customer service from wylex.

I certainly will never fit any more of their tat ever again. Even if it's on offer at wickes

Shiny new Schneider acti9 board going in tomorrow. Pics to follow....