lets have some opinions

[sparkwright]

The earth and neutral bars are across the top of the Hager boards.

I used to hate that SquareD Quickline (sic) board, where the outgoing lives went in the bottom of the MCB.
I think they used to have neutral bars in the most inconvenient place.

 

[flameport]

Details for the Hager consumer units:
http://www.hager.co.uk/energy-distribution/surface-consumer-units/6971.htm

The plastic is still the soft kind so cuts easily, and if cables enter from the top, the entire top panel can be taken out, holes cut as required and put back in again.

 

[Risteard]

Have the hager boards still got the MET down the left side

The earth bar in a distribution board may not necessarily be the MET.

 

[1john]

Have the hager boards still got the MET down the left side

The earth bar in a distribution board may not necessarily be the MET.

How stupid of me

 

[Christhescott]

I like to use the Hager boards aswell. Nicer quality than wylex and MK. most of Mk.s gear is over-rated In my opinion. The only thing that I find annoying is you have to use hager blanks as the universal type dont fit and the lid of the fusebox overlaps the main body by about 10mm, which if you don't happen to notice when butting trunking up to the top and bottom of the board can be a PITA to sort out!

 

[sparkfish]

I would always fit square d domae boards myself. I only really work in commercial and industrial environments and our company always uses schneider group distribution equipment (Square d, Merlin Gerin). Never any problems very good quality.

 

[Lectrician]

I have switched back to MK from MEM since they released MEMSHEILD 3.

I have never been a fan of the wylex stuff, although have used it on certain jobs.

Wylex have changed their breakers recently. More a cosmetic change to try to break from the recall.

 

[securespark]

Details for the Hager consumer units:
http://www.hager.co.uk/energy-distribution/surface-consumer-units/6971.htm

The plastic is still the soft kind so cuts easily, and if cables enter from the top, the entire top panel can be taken out, holes cut as required and put back in again.

Even better, the top of the unit has rubberised entry points so you can easily let a cable in without having to worry about sealing to the correct IP rating.

Better still, though, bring everything in from the rear!

 

[1john]

Better still, though, bring everything in from the rear!

Thats what the misses said when we met, I am still unsure how i knocked her up

 

[ban-all-sheds]

You didn't.

 

[Taylortwocities]

You didn't.

Another plus for Hager is the incoming tail connector option. This goes at the side of the main switch so you bring your chunky 25mm straight up from the bottom. The adaptor then provides a flexy connect to the top of the main switch.

See it here

 

[LiamPope]

Went for Hager on my rewire. I'm really nitpicking here, but what I didn't really like was the circuit numbering being moulded into the top wall rather than there just being a flat area to attach labels to. That meant when I reconfigured the board to give unprotected ways for RCBOs and had to add another neutral bar and shuffle the rest around it was impossible to be anal about numbering all the circuits nicely . Also whilst the link cables are nice and flexible for easy installation and routing, the downside is they dont hold a shape and the loose sleeving wrinkles up so you just can't make quite such a pretty looking final result as some I've seen pictures of on here.

The devices all seem great quality though. Whenever I see wylex CU stuff on display in Screwfix it looks cheap and tacky in comparison.

 

[toasty]

I'm going for a Merlin Gerin in my next house.

They make some lovely kit.

If you can be bothered to hunt around on ebay then new Merlin Gerin accessories do crop up from time to time for really nice prices.

It's not all 3phase 20+ way units either, you can find 15ish SP way ones too.

All metalclad though, so probably no good if you have a TT supply etc..

Anyway, that's my 2p

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Would an external 100mA delayed RCD in an insulating enclosure before the CU deal with the metalclad issue?

Could also be an isolator if you wanted.

 

[toasty]

Would an external 100mA delayed RCD in an insulating enclosure before the CU deal with the metalclad issue?

Could also be an isolator if you wanted.

I like your thinking BAS, yep that is an option.

Whoever started this topic will be unpopular with my wife! All this talk of CUs has got me back on ebay... I've just been contemplating a Merlin Gerin 24way 3P + N distribution board. With a single phase conversion I'd have 72 ways!!

I have to keep telling myself that I don't need 72 ways, but future proofing isn't a crime is it? Plus I need somewhere to keep all the MG RCBOs that I've been collecting, and if I'm going to run the fridge and freezer radials in pyro/micc then surely a metal CU is the best thing to gland it into? A couple of SWA submains out to a garage and shed too.... Plus I love the idea of putting all the test results into a plastic envelope and double sided taping it to the inside of the CU door, that's not going to work on a plastic 12way CU now is it?!