pricing electrical gear

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Just curious what others' experience is with factory gear orders and pricing. Specifically I am talking about 200-1200 panelboards, safety switches, and circuit breakers.

1. Ever priced out the same brand gear from different distributors and got significantly different prices?
2. Find any brand to be less expensive in general or in a specific category?
3. Any other comments/experiences you would like to share?

I'll go first with a comment/curiosity. I am pricing out a 1200 amp 277/480 panelboard and got a quote from Siemens, and a 3 pole 480 volt 400 amp breaker (JXD63B400) is $825 when purchased with a panelboard vs $2900 purchased separately. A bare P4 1000 A MLO is $650. Now I am well aware of those ridiculous prices for buying solo parts and breakers and that you are often better of buying a panelboard and taking the breaker out, but what I was surprised about was a quick google of the breaker number showed that I could buy it online new for $725. I thought that was quite a discrepancy from the $825 from the local distributor. These online places, do they just purchase panelboards chock full of breakers, take the breakers out and scrap the rest? They are still able to sell it for a $100 less and make a profit - this is mainly what brought up my question number 1.
 

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
People pay widely varying prices for the same exact thing.

The company I work for has multipliers that go as low as 0.11 for certain things. Some people think they are getting quite the deal at 0.90.

I can't tell you how to get the best deal. It sometimes seems random to me what actual price is charged for stuff. Some things cost us more at the distributor than at the hardware store. Sometimes certain values of breakers in the same frame size of the same style of MCCB are radically different prices. I have even see where one rating of a class CC fuse is almost twice what another rating is in the same brand of class CC fuse.

I can tell you that we buy some of our wire off the Internet because it is less expensive that way, even with shipping, but most comes from local distributors.

Most other things come from one of 3 local distributors.

Only occasionally do we get stuff from a hardware store (or big box place), usually for convenience. Often when we do the price is less than what we would have paid at one of our distributors, but we have to pay someone to go get it, and that costs money too. The local distributors deliver to us for free, and it is simpler to account for as we can handle it on a P.O. so it goes directly into our accounting system.

One time I priced up several sizes of boxes in type 12 painted versus type 4X SS. One size SS box was only a few pennies more expensive than the equivalent size box in painted steel.
 
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
I've priced SQ D items from two stores about 40 miles apart. Difference can be half and that from the one I do not do a lot of business with. FWIW, I do not use a lot of SQ D. It is cheaper for me to buy a CH SPA Disconnects from Men***s, throw out the 3R enclosure and use the GFCI, than buy the 50A GFCI alone from my local store. Plus, they are in stock. Most of the time I do buy from my wholesaler because as mentioned it is usually quicker and more convenient.

I have a really nice Siemens panel board with "wrong" breakers because it was cheaper to order all new than breakers alone. Ouch.

Other times the price can be very good, but delivery is weeks from when you need it.
 

cdslotz

Senior Member
If the specs are open to multiple brands, I send out quote requests to 3-4 vendors, all of which carry different brands.
In all cases they are priced "in house" at the distributor by a person whose only job is to price small gear quotes using the software for their brand ( SqD, Siemens, GE, etc), using pre-negotiated multipliers for our discounts.
The local factory reps don't have time and resources to do all of these small quotes.
When a big job is sent to my vendor that includes items like switchboards, bus duct, specialty transformers, etc......these get sent to the factory reps, and usually one salesman work these.
These quote too can vary from one brand or another for many reasons
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
Just curious what others' experience is with factory gear orders and pricing. Specifically I am talking about 200-1200 panelboards, safety switches, and circuit breakers.

1. Ever priced out the same brand gear from different distributors and got significantly different prices?
2. Find any brand to be less expensive in general or in a specific category?
3. Any other comments/experiences you would like to share?

I'll go first with a comment/curiosity. I am pricing out a 1200 amp 277/480 panelboard and got a quote from Siemens, and a 3 pole 480 volt 400 amp breaker (JXD63B400) is $825 when purchased with a panelboard vs $2900 purchased separately. A bare P4 1000 A MLO is $650. Now I am well aware of those ridiculous prices for buying solo parts and breakers and that you are often better of buying a panelboard and taking the breaker out, but what I was surprised about was a quick google of the breaker number showed that I could buy it online new for $725. I thought that was quite a discrepancy from the $825 from the local distributor. These online places, do they just purchase panelboards chock full of breakers, take the breakers out and scrap the rest? They are still able to sell it for a $100 less and make a profit - this is mainly what brought up my question number 1.

my wholesale house stuffs gear with take out breakers.
it's a good idea.

there is a significant gouge factor in all of this.

as snarky as it is, lighting fixtures are far worse.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
When I buy Square D items via a "small job order", the distributor takes my items list and submits it to Square D and they tell the distributor what they will sell it for. It is usually a lump sum price for the entire order and is not broken down into individual items either.

When you have such orders a wise thing to do is to throw items on the order that you use regularly. Need some QO breakers for stock in the shop? They will not add much to your order.

If ordering NF panel and breakers - throw on a few commonly needed breakers as spares. A few extra breakers adds very little to the order, but if you needed 5 or 6 breakers alone they would cost as much or more then a panel full of them does via small job orders.
 
A little while back I inquired to my usual supply house about the cost of an I line breaker and he told me flat out he would just buy a panelboard with the breaker and throw the rest away. I got a quote from both square D and siemens for the 1200 MLO PB in the OP. They were both close. Siemens was actually a bit more at 2300 for the PB and one 300 amp breaker and 5 prepared spaces. Square D was 2200. Siemens was quite a bit less without the other spaces prepared. Whats nice about the square D is the is no bussing prep required for additional breakers and easier to install breakers hot.
 

bradleyelectric

Senior Member
Location
forest hill, md
I was getting best prices for GE gear from my local supply house then any other brands. Surprisingly one house was being very competitive with SQD gear as opposed to others quoting CH. GE has been so poor with their factory reps lately that my supplier quit quoting them though. For individual breakers if I'm not in a rush I usually get them from a broker. If I am in a rush my house will get them from a broker that they can usually get next day with normal shipping. The brokers purchase overstock from factories and that is why you can get such good deals. You can also get reconditioned with warranties.
 
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