cost of GFCIs

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mopowr steve said:
Supply vs Demand
Gfci breakers are used less than the now arc fault breakers.
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AFCI's were always at least a little less then GFCI's - likely for that reason - they sell at a higher volume (I didn't say it was necessarily by installers choice, he may have been forced by code to use them).
 
Because they can. Kinda like the price of gas. Doesn't have near as much to do with supply & demand as the absolute strangle hold the industry has on the market.

I hate that a $4 single pole breaker became a $35 AFCI breaker that doesn't do what it's supposed to do. Don't mind GFCI breakers so much. At least they accomplish something and you have a reasonable, relatively cheap alternative.
 
fmtjfw said:
I used to buy GFCI breakers and I'm sure I would have fainted if they were priced at $35. Did they used to cost about $20?
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When was last time you bought them? Lowest cost single pole GFCI breaker on HD website is about $35, some are up $65.

Most of the AFCI's on their site average lower then the GFCI's do, highest priced single pole was $49
 
fmtjfw said:
I used to buy GFCI breakers and I'm sure I would have fainted if they were priced at $35. Did they used to cost about $20?
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I don't remember any GFCI breakers for $20.

You may have found some supplier that made you one heck of a deal or something but that was not the going price.
 
growler said:
I don't remember any GFCI breakers for $20.

You may have found some supplier that made you one heck of a deal or something but that was not the going price.
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Also, watch for cheap counterfeit knock-offs. There was an article about counterfeit breakers in Electrical Contractor magazine recently. You get what you pay for.
 
Prices do seem to be changing. I just found out that a certain name-brand LED undercab strip that I've used a lot of went from $22/ft to $31.50/ft my cost since last August when I bought it last. We're still trying to get confirmation that it's not a pricing mistake.
 
PetrosA said:
Prices do seem to be changing. I just found out that a certain name-brand LED undercab strip that I've used a lot of went from $22/ft to $31.50/ft my cost since last August when I bought it last. We're still trying to get confirmation that it's not a pricing mistake.
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Sometimes those kind of pricing changes depend on who at the supply house helps you. The default price in their system may be higher but they may be able to manually give you other prices, I try to always talk to my primary salesman as he knows me reasonably well and usually gives me a good price on any item I get. Some places the items are set up to give you a lower default price if you purchase a certain quantity.
 
I will tell you this.

List prices don't change all that often but when they do it is often up.

Your discount may not change so your actual price goes up.

It is a game distributors of all kinds of things play. The salesmen act like it is some act of God and there is nothing they can do about it.

The reality is that distributors and manufacturers have made parts pricing very convoluted to make it hard for the average buyer. It is even harder for the typical contractor because they often just do not have the understanding of how this game works, and so they lose every time.

A few weeks ago I priced up some MCCBs. Different manufacturers, so not an exact apple to apple comparison, but pretty basic stuff. Nothing real special.

$11k for one brand, $2800 for the other.

Next time the breaker that was $11k a few weeks ago might be $4k. Sometimes pricing seems random to me.

However, your pricing power is very low if you buy at the counter. It is also pretty low if you don't buy that much stuff.
 
kwired said:
Sometimes those kind of pricing changes depend on who at the supply house helps you. The default price in their system may be higher but they may be able to manually give you other prices, I try to always talk to my primary salesman as he knows me reasonably well and usually gives me a good price on any item I get. Some places the items are set up to give you a lower default price if you purchase a certain quantity.
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I should be getting an answer today. My thought yesterday was that the new girl in the lighting department wasn't seeing "my" price correctly, so I went in person and had all four of the lighting showroom associates and the assistant manager working on it by the time all was said and done. They all were seeing the same thing, including what my price was back in August, 2013. The manager will be back in today and she will try and get to the bottom of things. Yesterday's conclusion was that if they were to sell it to me at the old price, someone would lose their job so I suspect this is a pricing change by the manufacturer.
 
Now that I think about it, it may have been a very long time since I bought a GFCI breaker and looked at the price.

The new counter girl has indeed messed up my usual pricing. She ran one order which totaled $170+. I had my usual counter guy run the same order and he got $103. It was worth running it twice:)

I hate to think what she did to me on a previous $820 order, but that is water under the bridge now.
 
fmtjfw said:
Now that I think about it, it may have been a very long time since I bought a GFCI breaker and looked at the price.

The new counter girl has indeed messed up my usual pricing. She ran one order which totaled $170+. I had my usual counter guy run the same order and he got $103. It was worth running it twice:)

I hate to think what she did to me on a previous $820 order, but that is water under the bridge now.
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Have you seen the price of gasoline since 10 -12 years ago?;)
 
Cheapest GFI breaker I've ever seen was $35. I think they're around $40 now at the big box. I don't buy them enough to stock them. That's over the course of the last 12-15 years.
 
jaylectricity said:
Cheapest GFI breaker I've ever seen was $35. I think they're around $40 now at the big box. I don't buy them enough to stock them. That's over the course of the last 12-15 years.
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CH 20 amp sp cost over $50 here, probably been 15 years or more since the last one I bought, somewhere around $35 (when Siemens were under $30).

Pretty good deal considering I'm charging triple what I was then. But I work less hours.
 
readydave8 said:
CH 20 amp sp cost over $50 here, probably been 15 years or more since the last one I bought, somewhere around $35 (when Siemens were under $30).

Pretty good deal considering I'm charging triple what I was then. But I work less hours.
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Do you work less hours or do you spend more time in the office doing planning, billing, estimating.... and less time in the field doing installing??
 
kwired said:
Do you work less hours or do you spend more time in the office doing planning, billing, estimating.... and less time in the field doing installing??
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less hours total, from over 70 average to under 40 average

I suspect I could still work those long weeks if I had to, hope I never have to. One thing I learned about being self-employed is that the 1st 25 years are the hardest.
 
readydave8 said:
less hours total, from over 70 average to under 40 average

I suspect I could still work those long weeks if I had to, hope I never have to. One thing I learned about being self-employed is that the 1st 25 years are the hardest.
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I have only been self employed about 17 years, so you are saying I have about 8 more years before it gets easier?:(

Don't know if I can take it that much longer. Sure there were some good times already but the older I get the more attractive doing something else becomes. And when the weather is hot I can't seem to take it anymore and do put in less hours then I used to. I would rather work in the cold, but not too extremely cold.
 
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