MK Screw Terminals

[Iggifer]

Has anybody noticed a drastic decrease in the quality of screw terminals recently?

I fitted a couple of gridswitches recently that had part of the screw missing so were very hard to screw down, a spark friend of mine has had the same problem with numerous metalclad sockets and I fitted a 5amp socket today that, for some reason, had loctite in all 3 threads. Are they that concerned about them working their way out on their own that they now need to lock them in?

Also binned a couple of Logic 2G socket outlets a few weeks back as the L terminal screws were so rubbish the head sheared right off.

Now, I don't fit that many, people must use them on a day to day basis (or perhaps not so much anymore) and given the problem seems to be across the range, not just a bad batch.

 

[Click4]

yep, I had a ceiling rose the other day,

was screwing up the terminals and all of a sudden it went loose.. the head had sheared off the screw thread.. but the wire was secured tightly.

 

[333rocky333]

That is a selling feature of Mk the screws are backed out to save time, if they wernt locked in i would assume they would get lost in transit.

Mk are now back being made in britain so maybe thats the reason they have deteriorated

 

[Iggifer]

Yea i can understand a drop of loctite, and have seen this on various products, even got some machine screws (I think) once that had a drop on ready to go.

This socket though had copious amounts, took a lot of force to break it (didn't know it was loctite at the time) I can think of other ways to stop the screws falling out.

This does't excuse screws with big chunks missing from the body of the screw. If I remember I will take one out and take a photo tomorrow, it's not an insignificant gap

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

Has anybody noticed a drastic decrease in the quality of screw terminals recently?

In my opinion MK went for profit after a good name (although I always preferred Crabtree!!) and I've lost faith in their stuff last two years. Still get Crabtree but I am leaning more and more towards Click stuff (double screws in shower switches, modular design of switch plates, etc. etc.).

I know it's a personal (and a time thing) but at the mo I wouldn't touch MK or Wylex unless the customer thinks it's the best, when I point out that the warranty will be down to them to arrange then.