Comments?

http://www.earthcrimpconnectors.co.uk/earth_crimp_connector_range.html

The wires could quite easily fall out and it's extremely ugly looking.

Fall out? Not if the wire is crimped, can it?

The cable should be secure if the crimp is made properly. It seems these are being aimed mostly at plumbers for bonding around plastic pipe couplings.

You wouldn't want to use them at a main bonding point where you might want to disconnect to test.

Hmm, they look a bit iffy, but better than no bond at all. The big question is, how many plumbers would actually use them?

The $64,000 question! If my past experience is anything to go by, very few. Most of them have no idea about electrical bonding.

The ones I have run across here haven't got much idea about plumbing either! It seems all the bits now 'plug in' with little skill other than cutting plastic pipe to length and reaching for the pvc glue bottle. Hardly any soldering or pipe bending, just a remorseless quest to teararse through every job using proprietary parts to 'save time'. Even the WCs now come completely factory assembled!
And the finished product? Best hidden behind the sheetrock! It's just plain ugly. I have yet to see any modern plastic-pipe plumbing that pleased the eye, and this product can be described in 4 words:
Saves time, looks crap.

Alan

These devices look really cheap and shonky IMO.
Why do I get the feeling by looking at them, that they are supposed to be soldered and not crimped?
The joint between the pipe union and where the wire connector join looks really dodgy, like it's only been stuck on with glue.
I wouldn't use them, if they were the last connector on earth.

Mike:

I am not sure that I understand the purpose of doing it this way to begin with. I mean, installing them would involve cutting the pipe and soldering the coupling into the pipe run. Why not simply use a clamp-type connector?

I am with you on this one; they look risky and of little added value.

Ed,
I couldn't agree more, but perhaps, these are made for new work, as in installing it in a new line of pipe?
Most of the crimp gear I use gives a standard crimp every time.
When Mr Plumber comes along with his slip-joint pliers and attempts to do a decent crimp with them, I can't see how an effective connection can be made, especially one that could quite conceivably carry quite a bit of current under fault conditions.
One last question, is there a proper crimp tool offered for these devices?,some of the crimps on that page that Paul linked to, look really shocking.

These are definitely aimed at new pipework, although note the "retro fit" clamps on that page as well.

I see a couple of issues. If the crimp does not go properly first time, what could you do except abandon it and fit a normal clamp? (Well, unless you're going to pull apart the new plumbing, which seems unlikely.)

The other thing I find kind of odd is that these are clearly aimed at plumbers. Now plumbers don't usually get involved with running main bonds and the like. They might bond across their plastic couplings if you're lucky, and that seems to be what's hinted at.

So if these solder fittings are mainly intended for bonding across plastic couplers, what exactly is the point?

By the time you've soldered three of these to the pipes, then cut and soldered short lengths of pipe to each one to go into the "quick fit" plastic coupler, wouldn't it have been quicker to just solder the three pipes straight into a sweated T-joint in the first place and avoid the need for separate bonding cables?

The thing that annoys me the most about these cheap fittings, is the fact they will not carry fault currents in the thousands of Amps if the Main Neutral to the house should break.
I would say (just by looking at the "weld") that 1000A would blow that joint apart.
That should not happen with any Earting or Bonding Conductor.