Rocker switches - imported Chinese rubbbish! (RANT ALERT)

[G7PSK]

China is getting expensive now, India and Africa is the next countries to be exploited for cheap labour. I recently purchased a Remington battery shaver to keep in the car it said made in China on the outside I took it apart to oil the motor (they don't seem to put much oil in the bushes these days) and inside is said Made in India.

[DrG]

It seems to me that every time I buy something made in China it turns out to be poor quality rubbish.
I've also had bad experiences with fake ICs from China.
I despair that we have to put up with this. 
What has happened to the electronics industry?

Every time you order cheap shit from China it turns out to be shit.
You can buy good parts from China, but you have to pay more. Consider LCSC etc.

Otherwise... Farnell, newark, digikey, mouser, element14, RS, arrow, etc., all exist for a reason.

I certainly agree with that, but I note that if you take a broader view, you could replace the word China with a number of other words, depending upon time and place.

I am old enough to remember when 'made in Japan' was treated as a synonym for 'junk'.

There was a time when California wines were garbage compared to French wines....and so on. It's a moving target.

We maintain a market for these because of the desire to see, as the *good advert sent to me just a few days ago says "Not Expensive But Good Enough". Experience teaches us to discriminate, but the desire is still there. Also, if one simply does not have the $$, the choice has already been made or at least it has become binary (either get the cheapest or don't get anything).

One fear that I have is that manufacturing has become so heterogeneous and branding so dynamic (who makes what is sold under a particular brand), it becomes more and more difficult to have an accurate perception of reputation before purchase. We seem to be left to the mercy of a plethora of reviews, cooked, ignorant and otherwise.

[/rant]

[rstofer]

It's been known for 1000 years or so that you can't use power switches as inputs to logic circuits,  In fact, if you want reliable inputs, you buy a switch with bifurcated (forked) gold plated contacts and these won't survive in a 'mains' application.  Different applications, different switches.

Quality switches, like those from DigiKey, have a datasheet that will discuss things like minimum current and minimum voltage as well as maximum stuff.  Note that the DC voltage limit will be significantly lower than the AC voltage rating.  The problem is arcing when the contacts open a DC circuit.

Precision switches are a bit pricey.