Decent quality pull-cord light switch?

sirch

sirch

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Anyone know where I can get one or what a decent brand is? In the last couple of years I have had four fail, the one they replaced must have been 30 years old and was still going strong, should never have replaced it and the dead spider museum it contained. The new ones all seem to be the same crappy brass plate and and spring that jams after about 6 months, I've taken one apart, greased it and got a few more months out of it but frankly my time is worth more than that.
 
MK is a brand that sparkies like to use. not cheap but usually good quality.
 
Get a soft pull switch, they need a lot less "pull" so are exposed to a lot less of a mechanical hammering.
 
Steep said:
MK is a brand that sparkies like to use. not cheap but usually good quality.
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Thanks, looking at online reviews MK seem to be suffering from the same problem.

Alastair said:
Get a soft pull switch, they need a lot less "pull" so are exposed to a lot less of a mechanical hammering.
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Never heard of those but Ouch, bit pricey and people seem to be having problems with those as well.

I don't think it's the amount of pull it is the design that is fundamentally flawed, the modern ones work a bit like a retractable ball point pen, there is a plastic "ratchet" for want of a better word and a brass plate that rotates, pulling causes the plate to rotate a quarter turn and there are contacts 180 deg apart so the plate makes contact on one turn and breaks on the next. The thing jams when it fails to make a full quarter turn, so it sticks at an 1/8th turn in the pulled position.
 
Surprised to hear there's issues with MK switches, they're traditionally very good quality. As above, they're normally the brand that most sparks would fit.
 
Put a switch outside of the bathroom instead?
 
Thanks all, the reviews on the Crabtree ones seem reasonable (found one report of a failure after 2 months) and they are not much more expensive so I'll probably give that a go.

Switch outside the bathroom is a good option but with three bathrooms and walls to chase out, it's a bit to much of a major operation for a £4 switch
 
stryvya said:
Fit a PIR and it switches on by itself when you enter and off when you leave> :banana:
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Interesting idea, I'll run it past the managment committee, who will no doubt be freaked out by the idea (they are not good with change...)
 
stryvya said:
Fit a PIR and it switches on by itself when you enter and off when you leave> :banana:
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Going to speak to a sparky pal when we get back from holiday and see if he reckons it's a viable option for us. Not sure if a shower curtain will stop it "seeing" us and plunge us into rainy (albeit warm and rainy!) darkness.

MK as first choice with Crabtree a close second.
 
sirch said:
Interesting idea, I'll run it past the managment committee, who will no doubt be freaked out by the idea (they are not good with change...)
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I did this for the under stairs cupboard, mostly because people kept leaving the light on.
I'm planning to do another in the porch.
 
MatBin said:
Put a switch outside of the bathroom instead?
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This is what we did. I found it weird going to my brothers house and having the bathroom light switch on the outside. However, we made the switch (pun intended lol) about 3 years ago when we had our new bathroom fitted. Once every few months I do forget the switch is on the outside though :LOL:
 
We had our pull cord replaced with an outside switch late last year when the attic conversion was wired up.

I'm used to it now but not great when taking a dump and your 6 year old thinks it's funny to switch the light off.
 
OK so I bought 4, MK, Crabtree, Volex and Pro Elec. They are all pretty much the same switch mechanism which is slightly better than the one I got at B&Q which had a simpler mechanism and wasn't even greased. The two cheaper ones are actually a bit neater because the bezel is threaded on to the base where as the MK and Crabtree have a deeper pattress and have two screws to hold the switch unit to the pattress.

All have two small screws inside holding the switch unit together except the Pro Elec which clips together.

The MK was twice the price of the others but pretty much identical internally. The Pro Elec looked the cheapest but was second most expensive.

I pulled the string off the Volex after a couple of normal pulls, I guess this was due to poor tying of the knot inside the switch but it was a bit of a fiddle to take it apart, re-thread and re-tie it. That said on first impressions the Volex is probably the one I would go for based on price, quality and compactness. It was also the cheapest by 40p.

How long any of them last in operation remains to be seen.
 
I was talking to our plumber yesterday about a similar thing. You know the pull isolation switch for power showers? I until yesterday I used the pull switch every time I used the shower - he tells me that it is 'an isolation pull switch' and not for everyday use. Just when you want to isolate the shower. I guess not the same as a light switch but still.....
 
Tulipone said:
I was talking to our plumber yesterday about a similar thing. You know the pull isolation switch for power showers? I until yesterday I used the pull switch every time I used the shower - he tells me that it is 'an isolation pull switch' and not for everyday use. Just when you want to isolate the shower. I guess not the same as a light switch but still.....
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I had a ceiling-mounted isolation pull switch - it was quite a beefy bit of kit - but you're supposed to use the controls on the shower unit instead.
 
sirch said:
OK so I bought 4, MK, Crabtree, Volex and Pro Elec. They are all pretty much the same switch mechanism which is slightly better than the one I got at B&Q which had a simpler mechanism and wasn't even greased. The two cheaper ones are actually a bit neater because the bezel is threaded on to the base where as the MK and Crabtree have a deeper pattress and have two screws to hold the switch unit to the pattress.

All have two small screws inside holding the switch unit together except the Pro Elec which clips together.

The MK was twice the price of the others but pretty much identical internally. The Pro Elec looked the cheapest but was second most expensive.

I pulled the string off the Volex after a couple of normal pulls, I guess this was due to poor tying of the knot inside the switch but it was a bit of a fiddle to take it apart, re-thread and re-tie it. That said on first impressions the Volex is probably the one I would go for based on price, quality and compactness. It was also the cheapest by 40p.

How long any of them last in operation remains to be seen.
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Interesting!
I'll come back to this when I need a replacement.

The ones in our house last years though. The only time I've taken one apart is when the Mrs objected to the cable join when I was putting a new pull on the one in the bedroom (we have one on a double switch system over the bed) it was a right fiddle, but eventually got it together.
 
sirch said:
b) because we are getting through 1 every 6 months or so,
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That's terrible, but I have to ask, do you live with a bunch of gorillas or something? :D I replaced our last one in the bathroom about five years back with an MK and it's still going strong. Gets used at least four or five times every day. The old one (also MK) only got replaced because it was covered in paint splashes.
 
Tulipone said:
You know the pull isolation switch for power showers? I until yesterday I used the pull switch every time I used the shower - he tells me that it is 'an isolation pull switch' and not for everyday use.
Click to expand...
I didn't know that when we moved in and the bathroom had an electric shower. We were used to mixer showers. I just assumed the same and it was fine until about four months after we moved in and the shower no longer functioned. The isolation switch had burnt out. Replaced it and left it on ever since.
 
Tulipone said:
he tells me that it is 'an isolation pull switch' and not for everyday use.
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As a retired Electrician I can but agree but, the way I look at it, and I always turned off this Pull Switch after a Shower, it removes a possability of potential fault occuring over the Shower or Bath that does not cause a Fuse or Breaker from
operating due to a Faulty Connection. In other words a double Safety precaution for the cost of a few Pounds for a new Switch, your choice.
 
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