Thread: Circuit breaker!

Bit of a worry:
Inside a fake un-trippable circuit breaker. - YouTube

I only buy from reputable Australian electrical store sellers, but this shows how sometimes you can get caught out

That's why you buy your electrical gear through a reputable elec wholesaler rather than direct from China or via ebay.

Not putting the poo on DIY electric people, but if you want to do it, at least use products from reputable brands and suppliers that actually do have a significant investment in product and reputation that they need to protect to stay in business. I recall the Chinese cable scam from 10 years ago when lots of sparkies and DIYer's went outside their normal supply lines to buy Chinese sourced cable that was embossed as being to standard but had dodgy insulation that deteriorated within 10 years, so lots of houses needed a full rewire once the stuff started breaking down. If I recall, the Importer/distributor disappeared very quickly when the issue became known.

Did you hear a reputable company had a counterfeit batch come through unknowingly?

I don't claim to be an expert in this field (or probably any field come to that) but my understanding is that electrical products for general sale in Australia have to be submitted to an Australian authority for testing and approval.
Once the approval number is granted there are no spot checks by the authority that the spec of the approved item is maintained.
Unscrupulous makers know this and submit 'sample quality' specimens to the authority after which they start supplying the identical in external appearance rubbish they always intended to supply.
There were a number of solar panel related house fires in Queensland which were traced back to dodgy isolators which had come onto the market via the above route.

As usual if you are buying directly from the usual overseas suspects you are on your own.

Originally Posted by bob ward

but my understanding is that electrical products for general sale in Australia have to be submitted to an Australian authority for testing and approval.

Not sure that they are tested here in Australia, but rather approved on the basis that they have certified testing results....which can be easily falsified.

We have seen approval given to bigger international companies, then most of these small fry fly by nighters in China, only to get caught later

Volkswagen comes to mind.... VW

not saying they carried out their certified testing tho..lol

Plenty of dodgy stuff out there these days.

I have a cheap stick welder. One a large supplier of cheap stuff sells. I ran it flatout 4mm rods after 4mm rods and started to melt the plastic front panel off and the thermal cut out has still not clicked in.