Counterfeit Electrical Products

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Rick 0920

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Location
Jacksonville, FL
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Electrical Instructor
The prices of electrical products are rising every day. With this, counterfeit products are becoming more prevalent. Bridgeport announced this week that all steel fittings will go up 20% and die cast fittings 13% on 02/01/2022. Since they are the major manufacturer of conduit fittings, we can expect others to follow suit. Watch out for counterfeit products like breakers, panelboards, etc... If you see a price that is very low compared to what you've been paying, look at the packaging. Look for misspelled words, blurred words on the label. Continue shopping at your reputable distributors. These fake products will not likely have UL labels on them. Stay safe out there guys. Unfortunately this is yet another one of the dangers we must deal with in our trade.
 
Why do you think a faked product would not have a UL label on it?
Several years ago, counterfeit Square-D breakers even had the listing number on them IIRC.
 
retirede said:
Why do you think a faked product would not have a UL label on it?
Several years ago, counterfeit Square-D breakers even had the listing number on them IIRC.
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Misspelling is pretty common in a lot of the literature anymore as well.

One, nobody seems to care.

Two, many that don't really speak the language are tasked with publishing this information and if anything composition of sentences is generally poor to begin with.
 
Rick 0920 said:
The prices of electrical products are rising every day. With this, counterfeit products are becoming more prevalent. Bridgeport announced this week that all steel fittings will go up 20% and die cast fittings 13% on 02/01/2022. Since they are the major manufacturer of conduit fittings, we can expect others to follow suit. Watch out for counterfeit products like breakers, panelboards, etc... If you see a price that is very low compared to what you've been paying, look at the packaging. Look for misspelled words, blurred words on the label. Continue shopping at your reputable distributors. These fake products will not likely have UL labels on them. Stay safe out there guys. Unfortunately this is yet another one of the dangers we must deal with in our trade.
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Counterfeit and used stuff has been in the marketplace for a long time.

Even reputable suppliers have gotten stuff that is not real or not new mixed in with the good stuff.

The tells that used to work at identifying such products are not real reliable anymore as the scam artists have gotten better at their trade.
 
I cant tell the board who my wife works for, but she told me a bunch of fake micro processors mad it into their products and it is a rather big deal. I assume most people would be familiar with who she works for as the organization is a major supplier in the petro-chem industry.
 
MrJLH said:
I cant tell the board who my wife works for, but she told me a bunch of fake micro processors mad it into their products and it is a rather big deal. I assume most people would be familiar with who she works for as the organization is a major supplier in the petro-chem industry.
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Reportedly a lot of Chinese substitutes for the real thing are showing up in the supply chain and it is a real mess. The real parts are the ones that are spec'd as 1 part in a million failure and the Chinese substitutes have failure rates that are much, much higher.
 
petersonra said:
Reportedly a lot of Chinese substitutes for the real thing are showing up in the supply chain and it is a real mess. The real parts are the ones that are spec'd as 1 part in a million failure and the Chinese substitutes have failure rates that are much, much higher.
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The fake circuit breakers with improper AIC ratings are blowing up under fault conditions. It's a huge industry problem.
 
petersonra said:
Counterfeit and used stuff has been in the marketplace for a long time.

Even reputable suppliers have gotten stuff that is not real or not new mixed in with the good stuff.

The tells that used to work at identifying such products are not real reliable anymore as the scam artists have gotten better at their trade.
Click to expand...
I would think if a supplier buys direct from manufacturer that shouldn't be too likely.

If there is some other middle man in the chain then the risk of this would go up.
 
kwired said:
I would think if a supplier buys direct from manufacturer that shouldn't be too likely.

If there is some other middle man in the chain then the risk of this would go up.
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This reminds me of when my 6th grade teacher asked all of the students what profession they want to be when they grow up. After others replied baseball player, actor, doctor, etc., I said I wanted to be a middle man. The teacher looked puzzled and asked me why, and so I said it's because they say the middle man makes all of the money. After reflecting on it during a short pause, the teacher said I was probably right. ;)
 
retirede said:
Why do you think a faked product would not have a UL label on it?
Several years ago, counterfeit Square-D breakers even had the listing number on them IIRC.
Click to expand...
About the counterfeit Sauare D circuit breakers from lying cheating communist china Square D could not tell theirs from the counterfiets until they opened them up.
 
garbo said:
About the counterfeit Sauare D circuit breakers from lying cheating communist china Square D could not tell theirs from the counterfiets until they opened them up.
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Some lying, cheating SOB in the US got them into the supply chain, regardless of the source. The Chinese are good at such things, but they would not get far in selling them if they could not find buyers readily.

There have been cases where legitimate products that failed QA somehow got into the supply chain.

If there is money to be made, some unscrupulous person will take the opportunity.
 
Just got quoted $800 for a Siemens BQD 330 breaker at a local supply house, went to another and got it for $130. Don’t have an account with either one, but that’s kinda high for a walk in price! Both were Siemens dealers.
 
hillbilly1 said:
Just got quoted $800 for a Siemens BQD 330 breaker at a local supply house, went to another and got it for $130. Don’t have an account with either one, but that’s kinda high for a walk in price! Both were Siemens dealers.
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Happens to me, I only deal with one supplier normally, spend a lot with them. Normally I don’t care about a few bucks over priced, but had some items double to triple the price.
Makes me mad, if I lived in a big town I would go somewhere else.
My supplier is cutler hammer dealer and there Prices sometime beats the square D supplier in my area.
 
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