been awhile since i have seen a lowes posting so here goes. Came home from work and went down to the basement to install one of the last of three breakers. Got all set to seat the CH breaker, darn thing wouldn’t seat. A close examination and it appears the plastic is split ever so, and I figure this is the problem.
Drive 19 miles to the Lowes, needed some other things anyway. Go the customer service desk, explain the problem, guy tells me to go get another one. Since its a long way home, I inspect alot of breakers and seems alot of them are split but find one that looks okay. Take it back to the desk, tell the guy that this the second one I have to return for not seating, and another cause the hooks broke off. He askes me if the panel could have been bent, tell him that the when i exchanged the first one, the new one seated just fine. Well I finally get home when its now dark and gotta use the flashlight but the breaker seated just fine.
Point of the story, I am really starting to believe the big boxes get alot of the lower quality stuff. However since many of building supply places arent open hours when I can shop, hardly have a choice. Besides I also believe Lowes knows that the diyer is basically forced to shop there, therefore the customer service realy sucks. However will post more on that later.
PS anyone else have problems with CH Breakers from Lowes? According to them I seem to be the only one having problems.
Thanks
Dan
Replies
I don't know about the breakers but I do have two Lowes and one HD that I can go to.
The one in Christainsburg, VA, about 20 miles away, isn't that far from VA Tech. They hire a lot of part time college students who can give you all of the mathematical equations for building a house, but couldn't tell you the difference between a hammer and hammock. The HD that sits across the street isn't much better and seems to be cluttered all the time.
The second Lowes is in Galax, VA, about 35 miles away, and is a whole different world. The people that work there are older and more knowledgeable. The guy who works in the plumping department is a retired master plumper.
When ever I cant't find what I need at either one of those then I go to the mom and pop hardware/lumber yard that was built on the edge of town so long ago that the town has grown around them and beyond. Those people know what your wife is talking about when she says that he needs a what-ya-ma-call-it that fits on a do-dad.
Dane
I will always be a beginner as I am always learning.
I just changed the service in my own home yesterday. Got a good deal on a Siemens box from Lowes. I did have two 20a breakers that were to loose to install. Maybe you're on to something.
Worst part is, I know when I return them and tell them there is a problem, they will end up right back on the shelf.
Exactly, and when enough people return them all they will have left is busted ones.
I needed 4' cross tees to finish a ceiling. They had no full boxes but about a 10,000 pcs scratched and dented laying in a pile. Their inventory said no need to reorder.
6 years ago, when I put my own service in, a 20 amp 110 breaker cost 17 dollars at Lowes. 60 amp 220 was 35 dollars or more.
I still have an extra 20 amp 110 from that installation.
When to install a sub-panel recently, and now at the very same Lowes store, the 20 amp 110 breaker is less than 4 dollars.
You can see a big difference in quality.
But I suppose the new, cheap ones still have to pass certain tests... right ???
The person you offend today, may have been your best friend tomorrow
It is easy to be friends with someone you always agree with.
First. Is it a CH panel? Is this CH panel the right one for the breakers you using? CH makes several models. Including a GE clone.
Second. Are you trying to stuff more breakers into a panel designed for fewer?
Assuming neither of the above are so it is possible that the breakers might be defective. Either from the factory or as a return. The first is rare. I have installed a whole lot of CH panels and breakers and I cannot remember any being mechanically or electrically defective.
More likely you got returned, abused, breakers. Again assuming none of the previous two cases are true.
As for the contention that the big box hardware stores get a lower grade of breakers? I severely doubt it. Possible but unlikely for plumbing fixtures. Extremely unlikely for electrical parts.
The cost of setting up a separate manufacturing line. The risking of the company name on substandard components. The liability exposure if the components cross the line. All of these things militate against creating a subcategory for even huge retailers.
The more likely mechanism would be counterfeit components manufactured in China. I have seen counterfeit GFCIs and receptacles. Easy to spot in both cases if you look at details. The big give away was the stickers and labels. The printing was clearly substandard. Lowe's purchasing these components thinking they are getting the good stuff. Getting a really good deal on components militating against looking at such a gift horse too closely.
Lowe's wouldn't be the first place to get duped. Counterfeit bolts have turned up at nuclear power plants and on US military aircraft. Tracking of components, essentially from mining of materials to receipt by the user was instituted.
Consider contacting CH. They have technical support that have been quite helpful to me. If these are fake CH breakers they would like to know about it so they can move to eliminate the hazard and protect their reputation.
thanks for the response, yes it's a ch breaker and the one i brought snapped right in.....
Dan
Reread my post and noted that it could seem like I was busting on you. I didn't mean it to come across that way if it did.I have seen some crazy stuff. Saw a guy destroy a panel trying to stuff GE breakers into a QO type SquareD panel. He claimed they were universal and so 'had to fit'. By the time his wife called us in he had beat a half dozen of these units into place with a ball peen hammer. The insulators supporting the bus bars were cracked and some had fallen out.Thankfully it was a subpanel. Every time he had tried to turn on the panel the feed breaker, and at least once the main breaker, tripped. The long suffering sub was scarred with streaks of black and silver flash from shorts where the bus contacted the enclosure. We think the sparks flying across the garage may have clued the wife in that her loving husband was in over his head.We installed a new panel we got from the supply house. I suspect that the destroyed one went back to the big box where he bought it. I suspect they take stuff back as long as its not actually on fire, at the time. Kind of makes me wish I had a camera when this unit was taken out on the next site.
bahahahahahahaaaaa!!!!
http://www1.whdh.com/features/articles/morebangforyourbuck/DBM1408/the above is a story about open box bargiansthis was on a Boston TV stationaccording to this story
"deal is called an open box discount. What that means is when an item is returned to a store, or has been a floor model, legally it can not be sold as new, so it's is discounted and displayed as an "open box"."I wonder how true this is (as being illegal to sell as new) since it seems to be that everyone sells returned goods as new, not just the big boxes.
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter
"I wonder how true this is (as being illegal to sell as new) since it seems to be that everyone sells returned goods as new, not just the big boxes."Now do you know?Now a lot of refurb stuff is basically the same thing "open box".Now as to the "law", that is intersting. Of course there are 50 different state laws, but what is "used". For example you are doing some plumbing and buy 5 elbows and only need 3. You are turn the other 2. Are they "used" or can they go back on the self?BTW, a local indepentent hardware store has a big blow out from time to time. Parking lot setup of with tents from PC, Milwaukee, etc, etc, Free hot dogs. Trailers full of tools.Went to one and bought a Ryobi recip saw (yes I know now). They had to go out to the trailer and get one. New box opened it up and new case, and a saw with saw dust on it.
Last week I went to my local electrical supply house. The place where out of 4 counter guys one has worked with electricity and the other 3 have no experience in electric wholesaling either. No one else was there. I waited 12 minutes for someone to ask me what I needed.
I said told him what I needed in defined terms and he asked if I would come back and look at the selection as he didn't want to bring up the wrong one and have to go back. I did. We passed an office. Where the other 3 guys were sitting chatting, evidently while I was waiting up front for someone to show up.
We got to the selection and out of 6 types they had 3. Sold out of the others. I said "man are these a hot item or what?" He answers "no we just don't order this stuff but once a year or so".
My point, happens everywhere. Lowes, local supply houses, HD. Everywhere. Lousy help. Lousy service. At least at Lowes I can just go find it and get out. DanT
My Dewalt chopsaw came with a card inside that said something to the effect of "Sawdust may be present in new packaging. All units are tested before being shipped". Maybe your Ryobi was tested out before being packaged.
I know some newer pannels have "lockout" tabs (or extra cutouts) that limit the tandem breakers to certain slots. And that they breakers have matching keys to limit them to those slots.But a friend of mine was telling me that most place (specialy the DIY place) stock tandems that are designed for older versions of the panels that where not keyed.But I could easily see people getting the keyed versions and forcing them into slots that are not keyed and breaking the breakers.
What you say is entirely possible.
I mused over this when I bought my 200A main and 100A sub, with 44 breakers of various sizes (my house is all electric). Was considering going to my local electrical supply house, but I couldn't pick up and inspect what I was about to buy, and everybody was in a hurry....clearly it was set up for e-contractors who know what they want and want to get in-n-out. Thats ok, but I like to inspect, plug in, click, etc.
So, to reduce risk, I got my Siemens panels factory sealed (not re-sealed with tape) in their boxes and asked the friendly, smiling HD lady if she wouldn't mind getting down another unopened box of breakers from the above inventory, as "I need so many".....which she did.
Everything plugged in and worked fine!
Maybe I'm just lucky!
BruceM