# Forum Home Renovation Electrical  GPOs - Is Clipsal really worth 4 times as much?

## zx9

Many lesser known brands (ie.Fireice,HEM etc...)   that all meet the Australian standards sell for 1/4 as much as the clipsal ones. Are the clipsal brand really worth the extra cash or as long as they meet Australian standards are they all pretty much the same.

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## Smurf

Some of the cheapies may well comply with Australian Standards, but that doesn't mean they're of good quality. Some break rather quickly - an expensive choice in the long run. 
But I haven't had any real trouble with either Clipsal or HPM so I'd stick with either of those two.  
Many electricians don't like HPM, but as I said I haven't personally had trouble with their products - I suspect the reason for the dislike has more to do with HPM's marketing strategy (a lot of their products being sold to the DIY market via hardware stores) than anything else. 
Only product from either of those manufacturers I won't use is those clear plastic moulded 3 pin plugs (10 amp) made by Clipsal. They melt far too easily in my experience.

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## China

Clipsal own HPM in my opinion it is worth the extra to buy clipsal they are a far better product than some of #$%^ Bunnings sell

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## atregent

We've got clipsal switches all through the house, except for one HPM in the study. From a users point of view, I find the Clipsal switch mechs much quieter and have a much smoother feel to them.

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## ScottH

> Many electricians don't like HPM, but as I said I haven't personally had trouble with their products - I suspect the reason for the dislike has more to do with HPM's marketing strategy (a lot of their products being sold to the DIY market via hardware stores) than anything else.

  I've found that HPM products tend to be a bit of a pain to fit off - a screw head that was too weak and came off the screw shaft in a simple switch terminal was the latest example, but in general clipsal seem to have better quality control and design. 
Couldnt care less about HPM being sold in hardware stores, and they are better by an order of magnitude than arlec et al, I just have less dramas with clipsal.

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## Smurf

> I've found that HPM products tend to be a bit of a pain to fit off - a screw head that was too weak and came off the screw shaft in a simple switch terminal was the latest example, but in general clipsal seem to have better quality control and design. 
> Couldnt care less about HPM being sold in hardware stores, and they are better by an order of magnitude than arlec et al, I just have less dramas with clipsal.

  Agreed apart from those 3 pin plugs I mentioned.  
And any Clipsal / HPM  would certainly be preferable to some of the cheap rubbish that's around.

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## Frankmc

> Some of the cheapies may well comply with Australian Standards, but that doesn't mean they're of good quality. Some break rather quickly - an expensive choice in the long run. 
> But I haven't had any real trouble with either Clipsal or HPM so I'd stick with either of those two.  
> Many electricians don't like HPM, but as I said I haven't personally had trouble with their products - I suspect the reason for the dislike has more to do with HPM's marketing strategy (a lot of their products being sold to the DIY market via hardware stores) than anything else. 
> Only product from either of those manufacturers I won't use is those clear plastic moulded 3 pin plugs (10 amp) made by Clipsal. They melt far too easily in my experience.

  Way back when i was doing a lot of my own work i use to use HPM only ...(although always liked the clipsal 2000 series) and as you mentioned i stopped buying HPM once they  started selling at Bunnings
Frank

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## montiee

Frankly as long as it meets australian standards I wouldn't worry too much about it. I think we are all suffering to some extent brand conditioning. 
Lets face it. A switch is as basic as it comes. It's not rocket science so no matter who makes it, as long as it's aussie standard I wouldn't have any concern installing any brand. At 4x the cost will it last 4x as long AT LEAST. Doubt it. Concepts like one switch is louder than the other are kind of absurd. How many times do you turn off/on the switch for it to be a concern :Lol.

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## montiee

> as you mentioned i stopped buying HPM once they  started selling at Bunnings
> Frank

  
Well that says it all really. Just because Bunnings sells it then it went from good to not worth purchasing.. :Doh:

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## murray44

> Only product from either of those manufacturers I won't use is those clear plastic moulded 3 pin plugs (10 amp) made by Clipsal. They melt far too easily in my experience.

  What the??? How many amps are you trying to push through that poor little 10A plug. Either that, or there's a dodgy HR joint.

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## ScottH

> Frankly as long as it meets australian standards I wouldn't worry too much about it. I think we are all suffering to some extent brand conditioning. 
> Lets face it. A switch is as basic as it comes. It's not rocket science so no matter who makes it, as long as it's aussie standard I wouldn't have any concern installing any brand. At 4x the cost will it last 4x as long AT LEAST. Doubt it. Concepts like one switch is louder than the other are kind of absurd. How many times do you turn off/on the switch for it to be a concern :Lol.

  It's not rocket science, true, and you'd think that all products would at least have some degree of durability to them... but clipsal do tend to have better materials/production techniques, as far as i can tell. Or maybe they're just better at weeding out the shoddy ones. 
As for loudness... that's up to individual preference isn't it  :Redface: )

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## chrisp

> What the??? How many amps are you trying to push through that poor little 10A plug. Either that, or there's a dodgy HR joint.

  From my experience, the problem with the straight Clipsal plug tops (clear, gray, whatever colour) is that the pins are prone to tarnishing/corroding and this causes the high resistance connections between the plug-socket contacts that get hot and melt the plug top when used with high current appliances. 
When safety testing equipment, I now routinely look for tarnished pins and replace the plug top if tarnish is noticed.  These plug tops also sometimes result in intermittent connections too.  When safety testing equipment, sometimes it will fail earth-bond testing on the first test, but if the plug is removed and re-inserted into the tester again it will pass.  The re-plugging in can scrape off enough tarnish to restore the connection.  
For some reason, every other manufacturer seems to be able to make a plug top with  tarnish resistant pins.   :Whatonearth:

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## Smurf

> What the??? How many amps are you trying to push through that poor little 10A plug. Either that, or there's a dodgy HR joint.

  I've seen 20 or more of these melt when used in the normal manner with no more than 10A load, sometimes significantly less.

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## murray44

> i stopped buying HPM once they started selling at Bunnings
> Frank

  Frank, 
You're really narrowing your options if you don't buy something just because Bunnings starts selling it!

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## sailezzy

IMO some cheaper brands come with small terminal screws which make it a pain to fit off.  This is very common in ceiling fans with their switch plates. 
Before you buy too many just check the quality of the screw terminals as this can cause a lot of frustration during the install and makes you think about the rest of the quality? 
Have just replace 20 x 30 year old HP? GPOs in our house with Tesla which I got off Ebay.  Box of 10 double GPOs which look similar to 2000 series for $40.   
Have also had some HP? Exce1 series  :Blush7:  fail quicker than you'd expect from this brand.  As long as they have Aust Std and pleasant on the eye than go for it.

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## zx9

Thanks all. In the end I ended up getting slim clipsal for the ones that would get seen and plugged/unplugged/switched alot like the kitchen bench and then cheapies for the ones that would hardly ever change like behind the fridge and behind the tv. so saved about 45% of the cost of all clipsal.

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## peter_sm

Clipsal is majority owned by a French company but employs thousands of Australians in manufacturing etc. Quality and Australian jobs is what I look for first.

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## zx9

> Clipsal is majority owned by a French company but employs thousands of Australians in manufacturing etc. Quality and Australian jobs is what I look for first.

  
The cheapies i used were australian made and my original post was to discuss the quality difference and if it was worth 4 times as much.

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## Electron

I'm a bit surprised that you found a 4 to 1 price difference but I suppose at the retail/Bunnings end of the market it's possible and probably reflects the commercial arrangement between supplier and seller rather than one being 4 times the quality of the other.  Clipsal is by far the most used in Oz by tradies because all wholesalers like Middys carry a wide range in stock and don't keep the more obscure brands that you mentioned - this effectively relegates those brands to the likes of Bunnings, etc, because it's their only access to the market.  For tradies, the wholesaler prices for similar items from recognised manufacturers will usually only vary by a few cents. Clipsal also ask for, and react to, feedback from tradies about their products - this may be small things like the angle of the screw on a switch mech, or the size of the termination hole.  If you're only going to replace a switch, say, small items like this that make installation easier don't matter but if you're doing hundreds of them on a daily basis it can make a big difference.  As long as an item complies with Australian Standards it's probably more a choice of how it looks on the wall rather than a pure quality issue but I wouldn't fit one of those obscure brands in a customer's premises.

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