electrium mcb recall ?

[John Bunning]

had a letter from electrium [wylex/crab/volex mcbs] .whats the crack.
apprecate any info advise before calling on all my customers and checking the mcbs
cheers jb

 

[morph]

you tell us , what did the letter say?

 

[Sintra]

Phone the number on the letter and register the number of properties that you have used these particular MCB's on.
They will send you an info pack out and basically you replace all of the affected MCB's and they pay you £75.00 per property if you are a registered contractor.
You then send the dodgy MCB's back to them.

 

[morph]

that recall was ages ago , are they still asking peopl to check? , or is this a new one?

 

[Sintra]

Indeed they are morph.

 

[pennywise]

got a letter today too

 

[daveede]

Hey

It was basically a manufacturing fault on the 6a, 10a & 16a breakers, afaik other sizes aren't affected, think the fault was that they were all made to break way to high & have a risk of burning

Afaik they are coving the cost to inspect all properties that may have them installed and you just need to check the serial number on the mcb and replace if it was from the bad batch

Google "electrium recall" for info

 

[John Bunning]

thanks guys

 

[AA410]

Hi all had a 16a wylex burnt out not long ago is this the problem ?

 

[morph]

most of my jobs were miles away and £75 WOULD NOT COVER the cost of travel and time and mcb , so i reported all jobs, so a local spark could do it, because of this i never got to see the dodgy batch numbers and so i have loads of van stock i am unsure of, does any one have the batch codes please?
thanks

 

[dazz]

Last four letters on breakers
6/10 amp:
RIRA
RTRA
RCRA
RHRA
RGRA
RERA
RARA
SRRA
SSRA

16Amp:
RIRA
RTRA
RCRA
RHRA
RGRA
RERA
RARA
SRRA

 

[morph]

thanks for that,
will check them out

 

[Sintra]

Neweys site gives details Electrium Recall Miniture Circuit Breakers & Consumer Units With MCB's Fitted

 

[morph]

thanks Sintra
think i saw that site before , but does not have batch numbers,

 

[timo1]

Interesting thread....just to be sure this is a second recall? Bit of a blow as I've got a couple of new Wylex boards which I bought a couple of months ago. Just spoke to Screwfix direct who didn't know anything. Off to Electrifix tomorrow I think. Thanks for posting.

 

[dazz]

Not new recall mcbs sold Between apr 09 and march 2010. Ive been checking intalls upto sep 2010 due to van stocks being used and unsure what has been installed where

 

[slingshot2000]

It doesnt just apply to Wylex mcbs, the ones they made for others and badged up, ie;Newey and Eires 'Newlec' are also included in the recall.

Regards
Jon

 

[cbw]

Surley this is old news??????

Not another recal????

 

[RWJ]

Surley this is old news??????

Not another recal????

Naaah just electrium churning out more paperwork, shifting the responsibility on to the spark if you happened to miss a recalled unit.

They sent us a recorded letter!!

 

[pennywise]

According to there very helpful girl on the helpline they will pay you £75 pounds for every site inspection of works you have performed, regardless of what manufacturers breakers are installed just to be sure if you can't remember where you put them in. I've got a pad of 50 job submission sheets being sent out from them. This is according to the helpline, may need clarification as it wasn't me who spoke to them.

 

[Engineer54]

Sounds like Electrium's insurance company(ies) covering there behind against future injuries, fires or deaths etc!!!...

 

[peteinen8]

Naaah just electrium churning out more paperwork, shifting the responsibility on to the spark if you happened to miss a recalled unit.

They sent us a recorded letter!!

has anyone else got this letter who does not use Crabtree Wylex or Volex

 

[John Bunning]

guys just sent of a letter to electrium ref the duff mcbs supplied. i am requesting a payment of £200 to revist each customer. i dont think this is out of order .i have found a lot of products lately of poor quality [jcc fire rated down lighters// aurora outside lights //jcc t4 linkable fluorescents now crabtree and wylex //. wylex was all ways the standard for consumer unit. not easy for us guys at the sharp end what with part p, healty and safety etc etc and now crap products
i would be interested to see other poor quality products listed on the site. cheers jb

 

[RWJ]

Your likely to get £75 and no more.... One of our guys had to travel to southampton and they would only pay 75

 

[John Bunning]

thanks for that, but i will be happy to let them sort out there own cock ups. £75 is no good to me.if a can extract more from them i will report back

 

[RWJ]

thanks for that, but i will be happy to let them sort out there own cock ups. £75 is no good to me.if a can extract more from them i will report back

Good luck.... Hopefully they'll play ball.

 

[morph]

thanks for that, but i will be happy to let them sort out there own cock ups. £75 is no good to me.if a can extract more from them i will report back

its £75 no more no less
i told them to sort it out as i had some boards with 6-9 mcb's in the range affected and it was an hours drive each way, they arranged for a local sparks to go there ( bet he was gutted to have to change 9 at a cost of about £30 before labour)

 

[TomandLesley]

Myunderstanding is that Electrium have recalled MCBs with 17 date codes across 7different brand names that they produce. It is mainly MCBs that have beenrecalled not CUs. Just 3 types of NEWLECCUs have been recalled. Ifyou found out about the recall from your wholesaler they probably only told youabout the 2 or 3 brand names that they actually sell, not all 7. Are there morebrands? I wonder… Thedate codes relate to manufacture between April 2009 and Feb 2010. This does notmean that MCBs fitted after Feb 2010 are not affected, any 6A,10A or 16A MCBfitted since April 2009 to today could be affected. Some suppliers were slow topick up on the recall and were still selling the individual MCBs after Feb2010. Also, I keep a stock of MCBs for extra circuits like alarms, boilers,etc. As well as buying individual MCBs, I bought loads of cheap Wylex boxes inthat period and mixed and matched the MCBs to the particular job. Hence some ofthe duds end up in the stock box. Since they don’t have a sell by date they getused at any time. It is even possible that electricians still have them instock. I think that you need to check every CU installed since April 2009unless you know you bought the CU well after Feb 2010 from a reputablewholesaler and didn’t swop out or add any 6, 10 or 16A MCBs to the CU. Can you remember?? Electriumtell me that for their Crabtree brand, “only Loadstars are affected”. I don’tuse Crabtree, but I think that Loadstar MCBs fit into other plug in typeCrabtree boxes like the Starbreaker. Imay be wrong here. Someelectrician friends of mine have retired; one has gone to work as an in-houseelectrician in a large company. They are not involved in the recall!!Somecontractors tell me that they don’t keep a record of the manufacturer when theyfit CUs or extra MCBs for showers, alarms, etc. They only way forward here isto visit every job the check the CU.
I am not sure what the actualproblem is with the MCBs, some overheating? Some catch fire? Some don’t complywith the B curve? I guess this saga will be with us for a while yet.