We all want the best price & it’s only human to seek it. However we all need to remember that age old rule that we all know “you get what you pay for”. I suggest you look for value for money, so not necessarily the cheapest price but the one in which you feel you are getting the most bang for your buck.
The reason I am mentioning this obvious rule is because the electrical industry is becoming flooded with in my opinion, second rate components. Yes you can now find a power point for under $3 but I stress to you that if you pick up a Clipsal brand and a cheap brand in each hand you will feel the difference in quality straight away.
A new hardware store recently opened up near me, a hardware that is a direct competitor to the big one. I went there one week after its grand opening. I went straight to their electrical section and was amazed at the prices, so low!!! However I started to play with all the display models and I kid you not, nearly every single switch mechanism had become defective, either loose or completely missing. For this to happen after a week was simply alarming. If these were installed in your house I could say that in my opinion they’d be very dangerous.
Another example is that a new importer started to bring single pole safety switches into the country. They went on sale by the thousands. Only problem is, they nowhere near met Australian standards. Some even had the potential of catching fire if installed in multiples. In these instances the customer wouldn’t even know as the electrician probably supplied them. (these safety switches were directed for sale towards electricians, not the general public). So a lot of emergency electricians were not even aware of the dangers.
Brands that have a reputation for quality will usually not want to harm their brand by using inferior quality components. Their products are properly researched and designed.
Please always ensure your electrician(rcd testers) is using quality products it will SAVE YOU MONEY in the long run. Here at TA Electrical we only use quality brands such as Clipsal, Schneider and NHP.
