Model Railway Forum

IanS wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2019 10:20 am I have no intention of anything more than 12-24v going through them so think they will be fine. I did wonder about them for 240v but as I don't foresee a need for electrocuting myself or anyone who ventures into the 'train room' there is no danger of 240v being connected

Likewise. Anyone who uses a spring type push connector for connecting mains wants their head examined (IMHO). My only reason for posting was for low voltage use on your MR. See the price back down to £7.20 today, it was up over £11.00 yesterday.

I though only birds go cheap.
Most things which are cheap, are cheap for a reason.

Reminds me of some LED bulbs bought on the bay which were expected to have very long life. (IT SAID) Not one of them lasted longer than 1 month in our front room standard lamp. One only lasted a week. Get what you pay for. Now where have I heard that before.

footplate1947 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2019 12:14 pm I though only birds go cheap.
Most things which are cheap, are cheap for a reason.

You are correct John, almost.

The reason this sort of thing (mostly electronic but not exclusively) comes "cheap" is you are buying directly from the country of manufacture ie no middlemen. They were probably made in the same factory, possibly on the same assembly line as the ones you may call "not cheap" or expensive. The difference is that the expensive ones are so are because some buyer in the UK/USA/Europe has gone over there bought a bunch up, brought them home, put them in fancy packaging and added a whopping profit.....oh and some VAT too.

I've yet to be disappointed in anything I have bought direct from China or Hong Kong.

Thats called business terry. Trouble is sometimes things get imported which are not quite the same standard of quality which we have become used to in this country. That is why Trading standards and the customs and excise are kept so busy trying to track down those who import some things which can be dangerous. Or even deadly in serious cases. Now if the items in question in this post may be fine but it is a fact that things which are poor quality and in some cases are simply dangerous are being brought into the UK. E legally, I might add. And sold on places like eBay. That is not business, that is criminal.

To be fair to the Chinese not everything produced out there is cheap and cheerful. Numerous UK and US and EU companies eg. Apple, Hornby etc take advantage of the lower production costs some even having their own manufacturing facilities and produce quality products. It is hard to find products that do not have "made in China" stamped on them somewhere. In my youth "made in Hong Kong" used to be a byword for cheap and cheerful but not anymore.

For use in UK mains electric installations devices need to be type approved. Wago (a German company) certainly quote the relevant BS numbers in their documentation they also state the connectors are manufactured in Germany. If so then the Chinese versions are "knock offs". Type approval then probably does not exist. As TWD has stated anyone not wishing to solder under a baseboard and wanting a Wago type connector could probably do worse than using these after all low voltage wiring on a layout is not safety critical.

Just in case some months down the line someone's layout goes up in smoke, the usual disclaimer - I am not recommending these connectors

Richard

Looks like TWDs "cheap" connectors have hit the UK with Toolstation selling them. Notably they are selling them in smaller 10 packs as well as in the normal 50 pack, however the unit price is only pennies different to the genuine article and they are current rated at only 24A compared to Wago at 30A. So they do not appear to be that much of a bargain other than the ability to buy them in smaller quantities and making savings that way.

Most of the "sparkies" are not recommending them saying the spring levers are weaker than the genuine ones but then they are talking about mains voltage circuits and the same safety criteria do not necessarily apply to low voltage circuits.

Usual disclaimer.

Richard

They probably got them from Banggood El Oh El

I did my shopping this week and was surprised to see that a large jar of coffee was priced at £4.00 in the coop.
In the shelf above it was half the size of the same make at £4.60!
I got two jars . Yes there is a reason why things are cheap - a mistake by the pricer-upper ? I would normally pay £8.00 odd for the larger jar.
Jim.

No mistake Mijj, supermarkets will often have a large size of something or other priced lower than a smaller pack. It’s all about marketing and ‘hooking’ the shopper with a ‘too good to be true’ offer.
When you go back to buy more, only the smaller, more expensive pack will be available.