I know all of you who are self employed have probably been dealing with this issue for years. I recently purchased two main breaker square d panels for reasonable price from a large distributor in my area. The General panel had all the breakers I needed. The HVAC panel, when I ordered it I only new the one size circuit I needed.
Now the panels are installed and I have the rest of the circuits, and I need to buy the breakers. THE BREAKERS COST MORE THAN THE ORIGINAL PANEL WITH A MAIN!!!
They are telling me it would be cheaper to buy a new panel with the breakers in it.
I am tired of this crap. This is what happens with lack of competition.

They do that on purpose, they know full well they can charge you whatever the hell they want to once you've bolted that panel to the wall and make money hand over fist. So, whatever they can do to get you to buy THEIR panel is what goes... Competition is what created this situation. Otherwise, the bundled panel with breakers would be just outragous.

This has been a common gear manufacturer model for many years.

1) Next time buy extra breakers with the panel, if you think you will need them.
2) Always save loose breakers you come across.
3) If you build a shell building, order your panels full of breakers then keep the breakers and leave the panels empty. When the finish-out contracts go out, you will have an advantage in bidding because you already have the breakers everyone else will have buy and add to their bids.
4) On big contracts set up a purchase agreement in the PO for loose spare breakers for that contact only.

This is just how this business works. If you want to talk about who the real con artists are, try to get unit prices on light fixtures.


[This message has been edited by ITO (edited 11-29-2006).]

I used to find that, that particular manufacturer was keener on doing that than the competition. That was three thats in one sentence.

For sure, anyone who has been buying factory assembled panels knows to fill them up with spares. I usually pull a breaker or two out of each panelboard if possible so that I have a nice collection on the shelf in my shop.

Recently we needed quite few bus duct switches.

It was cheaper for us to buy bus duct with the switches and throw the bus duct away.

It killed me to see bus duct still in the crates thrown in the dumpster.

[This message has been edited by iwire (edited 11-29-2006).]

It kills me to hear of this, since I just spent $600/20' section to buy it.

I just bought a new laser printer because it was cheaper than buying toner for it.

I've been known to toss many inkjet printers for the same reason. $40 a cartridge (and I need two! B&W and color.) or a $30 printer?

Decisions, decisions...

Ian A.

Needed a 100amp DP Cutler Hammer Push-on style breaker....$85
125amp panel -24 spaces with the exact same breaker included....$25 ???

Huh?

My least favorite breaker to buy loose is an I-Line.

macmikeman, can you say that again?

That "that" that that McMikeman wrote is not a record.If his first name was That, [perhaps asian] then that would be.

By the way how much do blank breaker space covers cost?
~Peter

Ian, one thing you have to understand is the "free" ink cartridge in most new printers is less than half full.

They do give away printers to create a market for cartridges tho.

That is the same philosophy with these panel bundles. They know once that is wired in they have a built in marketing opportunity for breakers.


OT****
I have several old printers around here but the only IJ I really use is the DeskJet500 because it is the best bang for the buck on ink, when you can find it and I got a bunch of them for free when State Farm tossed them.
I usually use my laser printer because it is cheaper per page for a better printout and I still have a couple matrix printers for labels and such. I also have a thermal receipt printer that comes in handy when you need one.

I understand that part. Here's something I don't get: Why did the half-full tank last 1 1/2 years printing nothing but photos, and the replacement last 3 months of photos?

I don't get it!

Ian A.

I'm sure the dumpster company was pretty happy!!