HOLY SHIT!!, Such things exist?

[AngryHorse]

https://youtu.be/2TJEzdqtXlQ

[Ash]

Well you know that you can get everything from that place...

If you right now open Amazon and search something like "16A breaker" you can find some things there that have unreasonable prices. A closer examination shows that most of them seem to be intentionally faking the appearance of Chint (the biggest circuit breaker manufacturer in China), tho they are not actually made by Chint. A month or so ago (after finding this vid myself) i searched Amazon jsut to make a point, and found something like an 1P C16 for $0.65 (I have now searched for it again to bring here and couldn't find it, apparently it was taken down allready - and guess why)

All of the Chinese breakers, including Chint, are knockoffs of 1980's Merlin Gerin breakers. Some have minor cosmetic differences but internally they are identical in design to the MG's

Well, identical except some being made of inadequate materials (Steel instead of Copper, unknown flammability plastics, ...), with undefined tolerances, corner cutting and no QA. Therefore everything that looks similar in appearance to MG and isn't actual MG, is a Chinese breaker, and can be assumed to be of unknown quality and dangerous

The breaker featured in that video does not have any "specially faked" components in it. All the components and case are the exact same ones that go into "real" breakers (of the worst quality, but nevertheless "real"), they just left out everything beyond what makes it into a switch. It was likely made on the exact same production line too, by the exact same workers

[Slyspark]

Yes, such a thing sadly does exist ad has done so for a while - some even found their way into the reputable supply chain..... It goes to show that there are maybe some things (particularly safety related) that you really shouldn't be buying from online auction sites...

[Ash]

The problem with your suggestion is, some of the very same breakers are imported by local importers (some of which are names that existed for years and you'd assume are reputable), from the same Chinese factories, and sold in real world stores close to you. Well, they normally get the ones that are functional and not downright fake, but.....

1. You are one underpaid warehouse employee mistake away from getting a box of the fake ones shipped straight to you (since they are made at the same factory, and supposedly stored at the same warehouse)

2. You are one executive manager whim away from some further "improvement" to the design saving another 0.01p foeach unit

3. Even as-is they are of absolutely asinine quality

I mean, i have a 3xC25 one right here (a real one, not fake), branded NISKO (that's a well recognized name here that's been around for some 40 years), which lost a phase (a very common problem with those). I removed it 2 months ago from a restaurant owned by a friend of mine. He came after the weekend to find the walk in freezer flooded, half of the lighting not working, and no breakers tripped

Thanks to an overload relay that worked correctly, it hadn't taken out a big 3 phase compressor of said freezer

Thanks to sheer luck, it lost the phase "cleanly", without developing an arcing fault at the bad contact point (in series with the compressor as a load), that would have set the breaker and rest of the restaurant on fire

[FrontSideBus]

Yeah seen that a while ago. Fuckin dangerous!

[fluorescent]

Crazy dangerous as MCBs don't even get tested in a similar way an RCD or RCBO does (or should)

[Slyspark]

No, it;s not something we test as part of an EICR......

[Ash]

And i just get the ones that are made by a proper manufacturer, like Eaton-Moeller or the REAL Merlin Gerin (Schneider)