1.Appearance
As highly frequently used items in the home, switches and sockets, on the one hand, affect the taste (appearance) of the decoration, and on the other hand, determine
In terms of user experience (performance), more importantly, it is related to the safety of family members. Therefore, you must not be careless when choosing switches and sockets. Today, I will dismantle the new J&S LIGHTING “Vision Pro” series that I just bought and take a look at the internal doors.
Talk about what kind of switches and sockets are worth buying.
Just like falling in love, whether it looks pleasing to the eye is the most important factor in choosing a switch and socket. &S LIGHTING’s “Vision Pro” series is different from traditional panels with wide borders in the past, and is also different from the popular frameless panels. It adopts a unique asymmetric design of upper and lower borders;
The curvature is beautiful, in line with the rigorous and refined German design;
The fluorescent strips do not occupy the same side of the panel as the logo. This is the first time I have seen this layout. It is a small design ingenuity and the panel integrity is better. As you can see from the picture below, in dark light, the fluorescent strips are quite obvious. of.
While ensuring good looks, it also takes into account practicality, so you don’t have to fumble around in the dark night.
In terms of color, in addition to the common standard colors such as black, white, gray and gold, it also provides 4 customized Morandi colors, which can match various decoration styles. I have to say that the 4 customized colors are really good-looking.
02.carrier fluid
That is, the place where the plug comes into contact every time it is plugged and unplugg-ed, also call-ed the shrapnel. As the most important structure of the internal conductor part, elastic
The quality of the tablet directly affects the user experience and lifespan, and its importance is self-evident.
A good socket has very high requirements for the spring piece. In addition to excellent conductivity, it also has extremely high requirements for the elasticity of the spring piece. inferior
After using a high-quality socket for a period of time, you will find that it becomes looser and looser. This means that the shrapnel has lost its toughness, and a good socket will become looser and looser.
I’m afraid it will still be tight after several years of use.
Commonly used materials for current-carrying parts include brass, red copper, tin-phosphorus bronze, and copper plating. Currently, the better ones are tin-phosphorus bronze.
There may be better materials, I am just talking about the common ones on the market.
The picture below is a disassembly animation of the “Vision Pro” five-hole socket↓
The rose gold-colored metal sheet in the picture below is the current-carrying part. The entire metal sheet is not carrie-d in separate parts. It is a whole piece, which is the “rivet-free one-piece manufacturing process” marked by the manufacturer, and has better toughness and strength ↓
In addition, the weight of the copper parts also reflects the conscience of the product from the side. Good sockets are more willing to pile up materials.
Knowledge point: What is the best material for shrapnel?
Conclusion: Tin-phosphorus alloy > Copper-zinc alloy (brass) > Copper-containing alloy
Before the advent of composite materials, pure copper was indeed the best conductive material, and the performance of copper materials also varied. It depends on the purity of the copper. The purer the copper, the better the conductivity. Brass is better, and red copper is better than brass. However, copper has its inherent flaws. First, it is softer. Second, its toughness is low. Its resilience is not particularly good. In addition, it is easy to oxidize and rust.
These properties of tin-phosphorus bronze are better than those of pure copper. The most obvious ones are that the oxidation resistance is significantly improved, and the hardness and toughness are significantly improved. Generally, shrapnel made of tin-phosphorus bronze can easily reach more than 50,000 times of repeated insertion and removal. .
You need to pay attention to detailed parameters when purchasing. Generally, most of the tin-phosphorus alloys will be promot-ed as selling points.
If household appliances are plugg-ed into unsafe switch socket, it will affect the life of the appliances at best, or cause fires at worst. This hidden danger requires everyone’s attention.
03.Material, fixed frame
Regarding switch and socket materials, currently the most common ones are PC materials for frames, buttons and fixing frames, PC materials for high-end rear seats, ABS materials for ordinary ones, and nylon 66 for poor ones. The distinction is also very simple. Just look at the color of the back seat intuitively. The white one is usually PC. The black one depends on the situation. It looks very smooth. If it smells odorless, it may be PC. The surface looks rough or simply made. If it’s matte, it’s probably ABS. If it smells a bit like plastic, it’s probably nylon 66.
Conclusion: PC>ABS>Nylon 66
But PCs are also divid-ed into three, six or nine levels. The high-end series will use imported PC, which is the so-called German Bayer material.
Many manufacturers will say that my switch is from Germany’s Bayer, but there are not many PC materials that actually have import certificates.
Except for Germany’s Bayer, PC is the best. , followed by PCs produced in Taiwan, and more domestic PCs.
If they can all use pure PCs, they are already conscientious products and conscientious manufacturers, let alone imported PCs. Can this really be achiev-ed? There are almost no manufacturers.
Fixtures are generally divid-ed into steel and PC, both of which have their own advantages and disadvantages.
①Steel
Steel bracket products have good installation strength, but have high requirements for the wall. And the wiring requirements are very high, and the phenomenon of loose pressure line cannot occur. And the production cost is also lower than PC.
②PC
PC lining board has good toughness, low installation requirements on the wall, and is not prone to off-line conductive phenomena. The electrical performance and price of good PC are higher than steel.
The “Vision Pro” panel is ma-de of German Bayer polycarbonate + the fixing frame is made of German Bayer PC material.
It can be said that a lot of money has been spen-t, and the touch and performance are excellent.
04.Pressing method
There are more screws for crimping wires. The advantage is that thicker wires can be connect-ed without thread picking.
Many strands can be connect-ed at one time, which is suitable for work equipment. The disadvantage is that the screw tips are easy to damage the wires, and it is also easy for the wires to slip and not tighten the wires. Affects secondary wiring.
Nowadays, many manufacturers have improved screws. They use flat-head or round-head screws and a pressure plate to press the wire. The advantage is that two strands of wire are connect-ed at the same time. The pressure plate is use-d to top the wire, which increases the stress area and is not easy to damage the wire. The disadvantage is the wire diameter. It can’t be too thick, otherwise it won’t fit in. However, it is not stressful to use this kind for home decoration, but it is more troublesome to use this kind for industrial equipment, which often connects multiple thick wires.
Needless to say, quick wiring is fast. Just listen to the name and you will know that it is fast. The wires will automatically get stuck when insert-ed without twisting the screws. The disadvantage is that the wires cannot be reuse-d. You must plug them in correctly the first time, otherwise they cannot be tak-en off and re-plugged.
The saddle-type terminal used by “Vision Pro” is more scientific, combining the advantages of screw crimping and pressure plate crimping.
05.protective door
The socket with a protective door has a “unilateral self-locking” function. As long as the same force is not use-d to insert two or three holes of the socket at the same time, accidental electric shock will not occur. This kind of protective door can effectively protect children. Basically, all good sockets now have this component. When we are choosing, we can also find an iron piece to try to see if there is a baffle in the socket, and whether the two holes must be insert-ed together to insert it. If both are the same, it means that the socket has a protective door. .-
06.switch contact
For a switch, the most important thing is the contact. When we press the switch, we can hear a sound, which is produced by the contacts and is produced by two metal pieces or metal balls. If the contacts are not safe enough, arcing may easily occur, causing the switch to short-circuit and cause danger. High-quality switches generally use silver-cadmium contacts, which can function as instantaneous overcurrent and have a very strong ability to suppress arcs. Inferior switches use copper sheets or silver-plated iron contacts, which cut corners and pose high safety risks.
For “Vision Pro”, the switch design has the following highlights.
01.V-shaped groove patented structure
Through the V-shaped groove patented structure, arcs are suppressed, excess carbon deposits are eliminated, and product carbon deposits are effectively reduced. The product life can reach more than 40,000 times.
02.Enlarge and thicken silver contacts
The diameter is 3.4mm, and the center thickness of the silver-coated alloy layer is >0.35mm, which greatly improves the current carrying and current impact resistance capabilities.
03.Ball-to-ball upper and lower silver contact contact mechanism
The thickness of the silver contact alloy layer is thick in the center and thins sharply toward the edges. The ball-to-ball contact ensures that the current impact is always in the thickest part of the center, effectively reducing the impact of manufacturing errors and pivot wear.
04.The electric bridge and the pivot shaft are made of red copper, and the surface of the electric bridge is plated with silver.
7.others
A qualified product series of a brand needs to have complete product models, so that it can meet the different needs of each family and ensure the uniformity of switches and sockets in the home. After all, it is quite awkward to use two kinds of switches/sockets.
The hole spacing of the socket is also a very important indicator. If the distance is too close, it is easy for the plugs to “fight”, thus affecting the usage rate of the socket. The “Vision Pro” five-hole socket adopts a large spacing design.
The distance is slightly larger than other sockets, so two plugs can be connected at the same time.
When purchasing a switch, you should also pay attention to the choice of single control/dual control.
Single control switch: If you only need to use one switch to control a light in one place, then you can use a single control switch for this switch.
Double control switch: If you want to control the same light not only in this place, but also in another place, you need a double control switch socket.
Taking my home as an example, a dual-control switch is installed at the door of the master bedroom and at the head of the bed to jointly control the opening and closing of the bedroom lights. Turn on the lights through switch 1 when entering the bedroom, and turn off the lights through switch 2 when sleeping, so you don’t have to go to the ground. Similarly, I also designed dual-control switches on the stairs on the first and second floors. If this function was not considered during the hard installation, it can now be realized through subsequent home decoration smart sockets.
From the appearance, there is no difference on the front, mainly on the back; each button of the single control switch can be connected to two wires, while each button of the double control switch can be connected to three wires.
Another point of purchase that is often overlooked is the thickness of the back seat, especially if there are multiple wires in the bottom box. If the back seat is too thick, installation problems may occur. As you can see from the comparison in the picture below, the base of the Vision Pro on the right is much slimmer, providing more installation possibilities.
8.Shopping tips
01.3C certification is a must
The key points for purchasing sockets have been mentioned in the previous part. Before deciding to buy, you can buy a five-hole socket of each alternative and take it apart to compare.
Here’s a very important reminder! There must be a 3C certification mark! ! ! Switches and sockets are electrical devices that involve personal safety. If you don’t even have 3C certification, how can I believe that you are not selling goods from a small workshop? Who can guarantee the safety during use?
My previous disassembly was only an analysis of materials and structural design. As for durability and electrical safety, professional equipment is still needed to test, and 3C is the most basic guarantee.
02.Buy products from big brands and factories
The technical threshold for switches and sockets is not high, and small workshops can also make them. Moreover, small factories have lower mold opening costs, more flexible production, and less supervision. They can produce personalized products faster according to market demand, such as the picture below. Almost all major manufacturers will not do this.
The introduction of this kind ofswitch socket is usually about how beautiful it is, but the performance of the product is simply mentioned or not mentioned at all. The reason why I recommend buying brand products from major manufacturers is because as mentioned above, as for durability and electrical safety, only regular major manufacturers will strictly enforce these and invest a lot of financial and material resources to purchase related equipment.
For mass-produced products such as switches and sockets, the quality is high because once defective switch socket are used, short circuits may cause malfunctions, or they may threaten personal safety and property losses. Apart from anything else, I don’t believe that small workshops will purchase equipment to conduct socket durability tests and salt spray tests.
So which brands are considered reliable brands? The following is an incomplete list:
03.Watch out for fakes
Wherever there are people, there will be a market, and where there is profit, profiteers will be attracted. The switch and socket market is no exception. It is one of the products most affected by counterfeit goods. Take J&S LIGHTING, which is very popular in the market, as an example.
There are also a large number of high imitation goods, no matter from packaging to serial number, as non-practitioners, we cannot identify them at all. It’s okay to spend money in vain, the key is to worry about affecting safety!
The first suggestion I give here is: choose the official flagship store or authorized store to purchase, and check the anti-counterfeiting codes one by one (mixed sales of originals and imitations also happen from time to time). Don’t be greedy for small gains and suffer big losses.
9.Summarize
As electrical components, you must not be careless when purchasing switches and sockets. After all, safety comes first.
You must pay attention to appearance while also taking into account performance. As ordinary consumers, after all, we don’t have that much professional equipment to test one by one, so purchasing products from big brands through formal channels is the most worry-free option.
Take the &S LIGHTING “Vision Pro” series as an example in this article. It is reliable in terms of appearance, brand and performance.
The rich model types, especially the various customized colors, are really eye-catching and are a good choice.
