AU/NZ: Warning for anyone using Deta conduit and fittings

[5U4GB]

A warning for anyone using Deta conduit or fittings to run electrical cables or similar, I recently had to buy another lot of the standard grey conduit to complete a job and found... off-white beige conduit, not grey conduit (I brought some to the trade desk at one of the Bunnings and their comment was "I wonder why it says 'grey' on it, it's beige").  Same Bunnings SKU, still labelled "Grey", but a completely different colour that looks like some cheap off-brand import where they couldn't even get the colour right.  And it's everywhere, several Bunnings I tried all had this weird off-colour stuff that doesn't match every other brand of conduit, fitting, junction box, etc in existence.  Which means that when you install it you're going to get conduit that looks completely wrong, a red flag to both clients and electrical inspectors that you've substituted some off-brand junk in place of standard AS 2053 conduit.

I wonder which genius at Deta decided this was a good idea?  We've got an install to complete tomorrow morning that's going to be half standard grey conduit and fittings and half this cheap-Aliexpress-copy looking junk, I'm really not looking forward to breaking this to the client.

[bdunham7]

We've got an install to complete tomorrow morning that's going to be half standard grey conduit and fittings and half this cheap-Aliexpress-copy looking junk, I'm really not looking forward to breaking this to the client.

If is is a standard conduit, wouldn't there be other suppliers--manfacturers and distributors--that would have something in the proper grey?  IDK about your Deta products specifically, but here only the grey conduit is acceptable for electrical installations and one reason is that it is UV-resistant while the white-ish versions are not.  If I were you or your client, I'd be concerned that the product actually doesn't meet specs.  The label doesn't help much since it clearly has at least one wrong specification.  Why would you trust it to be accurate as to everything else?

I'm replacing some outdoor sprinkler wires right now and I'm going to end up with a mix of white and grey PVC because I'm only using Schedule 40 (light duty) and that's what's immediately available.  That's only acceptable because it is low voltage, I'm going to paint it afterwards and it won't get any sort of official inspection. 

[5U4GB]

You can get it from plenty of sources other than Bunnings, but Bunnings is something like Home Depot in the US, they're absolutely everywhere so you can just grab anything you need from a source ten minutes away from wherever you happen to be rather than having to drive across town to their yard in Burnt Pine (bring extra food, water, and a PLB, just in case).  It's particularly useful if you suddenly discover you need some extra item because you can be there and back in a short time.  Half the tradies seem to shop there rather than specialised trade places because the prices are good enough and it saves long drives out to wherever the trade outlet might be located.

[David Aurora]

... some off-brand junk...

I always thought that's exactly what Deta was?

Like I'm only coming at this from the point of view of someone who replaces plugs here and there and has thrown the occasional GPO on a wall, but any time I've picked up any bit of Deta stuff my first thought has been "Nope, absofuckinglutely not" and it's gone back on the shelf or into the bin.

[5U4GB]

... some off-brand junk...

I always thought that's exactly what Deta was?

Dunno about their GPOs but conduit and fittings are about the same as anyone else's, including far more expensive brands.  The stuff I'd avoid is from places with names like SuperCheapExpressToYou (name made up, don't Google it) where the web site shows a shipping container full of conduit sourced from God knows where but probably not anywhere that knows what AS 2053 is.

In fact for other stuff as well Deta are probably no worse than a lot of what's out there, the likes of HPM certainly aren't what they used to be in the past.  A few years ago during a rebuild I paid quite a bit extra for 4-way switched sockets from a big long-established manufacturer and several of the switches now no longer toggle properly, they're wedged in the on or off position unless you really force them.  The sole Deta I added later is still doing fine (so far).

(Wanders off muttering about how they don't make things like they used to and how those pesky kids are on my lawn again).