Proteus reliability

No experience of the RCBOs, but the breakers themselves are pretty good quality. The brand's been around for years, and is now CEF's house brand

Dear Questionnaire

Sorry to respond maybe late to your question

1 Bear in mind that a breaker is a breaker

2 If you are familiar with any other type of breaker the principle of operation is same

3 If you can provide specific question to your application problem  l can support better

4 Breaker we know comes as 1P, 2P, 3P and 4P etc with it rated current capacity like 2A, 6A, 10A etc and maximum KA rating and does graduate from MCB to MCCB and ACB depending on application requirements

5 I think that can support answer to your question

1 Bear in mind that a breaker is a breaker

I'm not so sure about that - there seems to be quite a variation in quality and reliability (even leaving aside the occasional design or production issues that lead to recalls and complete counterfeits). I once had a play with some "competitively priced" breakers of a not-so-well-known-brand - from a reasonably well known wholesaler - and found that the thermal elements were so poorly calibrated that a 6A breaker failed to trip with a 10A current over several hours (it should have tripped (in standard conditions) in less than 1 hour at 1.45x6=8.7A) - needless to say the whole lot went back for a refund.


  - Andy.

They seem ok from most of my experience but have had a bit of a stigma attached to them as a make. The only problem I had with one was when I dropped it out of my hand. I was working on a flat roof installing a 4G cabinet a couple of years ago and I had to buy one locally.The normal MCBS were Crabtree/Hager or Scheider (Or Merlin Gerin) but every once in a while on some BT sites they'd install Proteus - maybe it was due to a CEF being local who knows. Anyway after I dropped it from waist height it it was no good no current went through it and i had to scrap it for another.

Not keen on Proteus stuff, some of which I have found to be D.O.A. straight from the box, and that's before we get to the default loose factory connections inside every piece of Proteus switch gear I have ever had the misfortune to have to fit, then we get to the cover screws where the holes in the front covers never seem to line up with the main carcass. I've lost count of the number of 3 phase switch fused isolators I have had to change because they have burnt out due to loose connections.

Some of these faults apply to other brands, but Proteus seems to suffer from more of it's fair share.

Caveat Emptor is my advice.

Dear Johnson

I support your view and other views express by the contributor my take remain thus

1 Product made to IEC standard is support to stand out as standard product

2 Product fails early when the product are regarded as sub standard product

3 We have several of such product in Nigerian which resulted to stiffer regulation to control the failure

4 One would expect that in Europe this fake product can not find it way into your market no method is perfect anyway

5 We are struggling for decades in our country controlling fake product in the market

Thanks