Dimmers - Rip off

How do you like paying retail ? my price is a little better .(29 , 27 , 24 )

Hi Trevor,

It is a few years since I bought a few halogen lamp dimmers and I can't recall what I paid. However, I checked the Clipsal trade catalogue for 2002 and here is the pricing for standard wall mounting dimmers at the time;

Sweep fan controllers were about the same price.

I doubt that their pricing has dropped since then so perhaps you got a good deal.

Ross H

"Trevor Wilson"

The Atco " Possum" series of electronic 12 volt halogen transformers is and very nicely too.

Altronics sell the 60 watt model for $22.50.

....... Phil

Hint: Don't buy from the big wholesalers, Turks TLE etc. Try Gemcell group.

We renovated in 2000 and I bitched about the price of dimmers then, and was told at L&H "the old dimmers caused too many EMI problems and had to be completely re-designed subject to new regulations". It seems possible that regulation was used as an excuse, because they couldn't just use the cheapo imports they'd been palming off onto us and had to actually do some *work* for a living (by designing a quality product) so they wanted to get their money back - which they've certainly now done, and then some :-).

From a point of complete ignorance about what standards and regulation actually apply, in this case it would seem best if Australia had just adopted whatever most stringent standards apply in a large global market - maybe Europe? - and then the local suppliers wouldn't have to get off their butts, except perhaps for packaging reasons. Either way, it's clear that inappropriate regulation is often a reason, or an excuse, for raising prices beyond what's justifiable.

you could do a little better , I buy mine in Brisbane from some guys in Salisbury on Orange grove Rd , best prices on switch there is , lousy and hungrys are a little cheaper than your price , did you know the buzz here is Turks are closing branches.

for the average customer probably ok. I got some the other day, $61.60 incl GST.

There are retail prices, trade prices and discounts on trade prices.

Get some more at that price. Copper has just gone through the roof about a 350% hike

I bought a pallet this morning of two pair twisted , its going up around

Yes that surely is a rip-off. If you look on the UK Farnell website, the cheapest 400W ones cost £6.31 + 17.5% VAT, delivery would be free in the UK so the total would be about AU$18.56, and I'm sure there are cheaper places than Farnell. It's a pity that the Australian Farnell doesn't stock any. I bet that the safety / EMC standards in Australia are not more difficult to meet, though probably different. It is possible that the Australian ones are more tolerant of lightning, though I doubt that because they seem to fail without much provocation. The screw holes are probably in different places on the UK ones.

Chris

Clifford Heath wrote in news:4483d268$0$26629$afc38c87 @news.optusnet.com.au:

The Australian EMC standards are based on CISPR and IEC standards and are generally exactly the same technical limits as EU standards, with a different and more anal compliance regime, that's all.

The R&D for a compliant dimmer I don't think will be difficult at all. I don't know if the modern ones are still phase controlled. I designed a filter addition to a 12kW single phase SCR a few years back, and got it to pass Class B so it ain't hard.

In other words, the regulation *was* just a pretext. Figures.

some RG6 quad is all steel and aluminium, unless you count the thin plating on the centre conductor.

Bye. Jasen

The Farnell units are for UK style wall boxes so they wouldn't fit directly into ours. The range of dimmers they have are shown here

(watch for line wrap)

You will notice that while some units are quite cheap the 375W low voltage units are at more expensive than ours. ie. UKP31.54 = AUD79.23 currently.

Also, CPC Farnell in the UK are quite happy to ship at very reasonable rates to Australia if you want anything from them. I recently bought some items from them and their service was excellent.

Ross H

A few years ago the UK branch used to refuse to deliver things to my Australian address which were also available in their Australian catalogue. (I was trying to get some expensive surface mount ICs from Farnell UK because it was about half the price.) I had to get someone in the UK to buy the parts instead.

Chris

On Mon, 5 Jun 2006 09:19:50 +1000, "Trevor Wilson" put finger to keyboard and composed:

Agreed, it's a rip-off. The last dimmer I purchased was from KMart some 10 years ago. At that time they were costing $10 retail. Admittedly they were crap quality (I had to return one due to a faulty pot), but the "good" ones are still working today. Looking inside, there wasn't much more to the units than a pot and a triac. The triac was "attached" to its heatsink by the surface tension of thermal grease, ie there were no fasteners. IIRC, the devices were made/imported by GAF Controls.

My other beef is in regard to power boards. I still can't find a reasonably priced power board with individually switched outlets, at least not at retail. WES sell a 6-way board for $25 (3-way if you use AC adapters), but the same item at KMart costs $50.

- Franc Zabkar

I was after some $2 IGBT's listed in their catalogue, they admitted that no, they didn't really keep them in stock even though they said they did and yes they could get them if I wanted to pay an extra $40 "freight surcharge" and then added they were going to buy them off "Mouser in the States".