EC&M
[...]counterfeit power strips marked for 12-gauge wire have been found to actually contain thin 24-gauge wire and caught fire under normal use. Counterfeit circuit breakers that looked indistinguishable from a name-brand breaker have been found to have nothing but a switch inside.
The direct threat to the health and safety of users of such products is clear[...]
[...]When a man caught by U.S. Customs officials last year importing counterfeit electrical receptacles was questioned about how and where the fakes were made, he told them he went to a home center in the United States, bought a name-brand receptacle, shipped it to a plant in China, said “make this for me,” and they did.[...]
3 comments:
The federal government should start seizing all of these goods and then raising the tariffs on Chinese goods based on the tonnage of counterfeit electronics seized. This stuff is too dangerous to ignore, but who am I kidding? The federal government didn't care too much when the PRC got caught selling weapons to gangs in LA.
Even some of the legit, genuinely UL listed stuff is inferior. I'm not happy with some of the Chinese galvanized rigid conduit nipples and elbows I've been seeing lately. They're obviously using welded/formed pipe with some pretty rough weld seam turds on the inside. The American made stuff used to be mandrel formed and seamless.
Heck, even before the Chinese started flooding the electrical market, quality had been in decline. Just look at the metal boxes in a 50 year old place and compare them to what's available today. The metal was thicker, sharp edges had been deburred, the oldest were even painted.
The quality of workmanship and materials in some of the old fuse boxes was exemplary. Were it not for the pre-plastics intrinsic material limitations of the old cloth/rubber wire insulations, a 70 year old installation would be in fine shape even today.
Why does this not surprise me? I keep noticing more and more that products I've purchased for years due to their quality...are getting smaller, and of less quality...but costs more of course.
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