Non-motoring > Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire?	Miscellaneous
Thread Author: RattleandSmoke	Replies: 28

Mon 7 Mar 11 16:57   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - RattleandSmoke

My sisters buld had got stuck into the socket, no problem I thought just needs a new lampholder but when I inspected the flex it was badly damaged in its 31 years of use. I had two choices either cut away with the damaged bit or replace the flex. Rather than buy a pice of flex and lampholder I thought it would be much easier to buy a new pendant fitting. However the actual junction part of the pendant was fine. In the end I used the original junction box and just wired the new flex and lampholder into it. Most DIY shops sell Pendants and I assume most people who buy them only need them for the wire and lampholder and not the junction box unless it is a rewire and in which case you would not buy it from a DIY store. Just seems such a waste, I now have a junction box which is useless. So I know you can get the lamp holder on its own but surely there is a market for the lamp holder and flex? Then all you need to is just wire it in without all the faff of stripping cables. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 17:04   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - Tigger

You can't stock every combination! Given that even a brand-name pendant is only £1.89, why bother stocking the holder and flex? www.screwfix.com/prods/94296/Electrical-Supplies/Switches-Sockets/White-Moulded/Volex-Range/Volex-6-Pendant-Fitting Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 17:08   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - Redviper

>> In the end I used the original junction box and just wired the new flex >> and lampholder into it. >> Just seems such a waste, I now have a junction box which is useless. >> it probably works out cheaper to manufacture the whole lot instead of seperate bits, and as already stated its easier to stock. At least you have a spare one now, should you need it. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 17:17   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - Zero

Most of us have a couple of reels of various grades of cable we use for such things. Cut it off when you need it. and buy all the fittings as required. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 17:20   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - RattleandSmoke

I will have some flex in the lockup but is faff as well. At least when you buy it in one all the wiring is done for you, so it is a 5 minute job instead of a twenty minute one. I used to buy a lot of electrical stuff from Wilo's but I found the fittings don't always last so I buy MK now, they are a lot more expensive to buy but they last for ever and ever. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 17:23   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - BiggerBadderDave

"Most of us have a couple of reels of various grades of cable we use for such things' Tying up your victim before administering chloroform? Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 17:26   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - Zero

This is not the days of Dr Crippen BBD, move with the times Thats what large size cable ties are for. Last edited by: Zero on Mon 7 Mar 11 at 17:26 Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 17:29   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - Zero

See, rattle has the right idea, he has a lockup too. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 17:33   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - RattleandSmoke

Sadly the lockup has no electricity, just remainds of old rubber/paper cable and a pre war light fitting. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 17:18   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - RattleandSmoke

I got it from B&Q, cost £4 for an MK but at least it is a decent brand, you can tell when you fit the bulb it is high quality. The problem with the cheap ones I know from experience is the lamp holders don't always last. I know £4 is far too much but my local electrical suppliers has moved a few years back and I needed it now. I suppose stocking is the main reason why, as they would take longer to sell and it costs a lot to store goods. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 18:37   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - Dulwich Estate

Slight change of tack and a commission and patent free idea to anyone who wants to take it up. These modern fancy low energy bulbs don't seem to have the same light output as the incandescent type. I've often thought that say two 60w equivalent low energy types might together equal the old 100w or maybe 2 x 75w or indeed whatever. In the very, very old days you could get bayonet splitter sockets so you could run two bulbs from one socket. You just can't find them anymore - not even on eBay. Why has no-one started making them again? Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 18:54   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - Dave_

>> you could get bayonet splitter sockets so you could run two bulbs from one socket Sort of like this? bit.ly/fIJfZJ Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 18:59   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - RattleandSmoke

But would have to be a beyonet to be much use for the UK :). Would certainly solve the energy saver dim light problem. Even if we used 2 x 11w energy savers in it is a very cheap but perhaps ugly solution. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 18:58   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - Old Navy

>> Why has no-one started making them again? >> Because you can easily buy more powerful energy savers which are as, or brighter than an incandescent bulb. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 19:00   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - RattleandSmoke

The problem is they are so expensive, I have found some back streets shops (we fix phones init) type places who are more than happy to still sell pearl 100w bulbs. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 19:30   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - Dave_

>> happy to still sell pearl 100w bulbs My local Tesco had a couple of 5ft high-stacked pallets of them last week. ES fitting though. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 19:31   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - Dave_

>> we fix phones init Lemme ask da horse... Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 18:42   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - Ted

If you hadn't rushed into frittering away £4 and let me know, you could have had them for free. I have a box of ceiling roses and a dozen bulbholders, all MK. Got a huge amount of stuff from an electrical engineer pal who moved to London a few years ago. There is an electrical wholesalers not far away, Rats. Chester Road, Trafford Bar...where Gresty's scrap yard used to be. I use them a lot. I think they are called LPD, but I#m not sure without digging out an old invoice. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 18:46   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - Ted

I remember me old Mum doing the ironing using a bayoney splitter, the cable dangling from above. Hardly any wall sockets in the house then, all you really needed one for was the wireless Ted Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 18:57   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - RattleandSmoke

Or you just had accumulators for the wireless, my grandma is old enough to remember them. It seems so dangerious now using an iron on a light circuit. I think when a lot of early 20th century houses were built there were no plug sockets at all, just a lighting circuit many houses in South Manchester had electricity in the late 1900's. I think Chorlton got turned on 1904. I suppose until the late 1920's there wasn't really any need for anything other than a lighting circuit. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 22:33   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - Ted

>> Or you just had accumulators for the wireless, my grandma is old enough to remember >> them. >> >> Well, my Grandma is old enough to remember the Manchester Ship Canal being dug...so there ! Except she died in 1951.....but she is buried 50 yards from it ! Ted Reply to this message | Report message       1

Mon 7 Mar 11 22:51   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - CGNorwich

"Well, my Grandma is old enough to remember the Manchester Ship Canal being dug...so there !" It is amazing how far you can go back in a couple of generations - my grandmother was born in 1869 and grandfather in 1863 Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 22:56   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - FotheringtonTomas

>> Well, my Grandma is old enough to remember the Manchester Ship Canal being dug Oh! I did a bit of work on the ship arrestors - but it wasn't all *that* long ago! Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 18:54   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - RattleandSmoke

LPD is what Flynns was, miss that shop a lot, I will get the money of my sister so I won't be out of pocket :). The problem with splitters is they were mis used and they would be today. People would end up using 2 x 60w builbs in them etc, the lamp holders on pedants are only supposed to be used upto 100W. Mind you all sorts of electrical fittings are mis-used. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 23:11   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - CGNorwich

"the lamp holders on pedants are only supposed to be used upto 100W." surely that can't be right - you could get 150W incandescents until a couple of years ago Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 19:57   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - Manatee

Shouldn't this be in the pendants thread? Reply to this message | Report message       3

Mon 7 Mar 11 23:04   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - Bromptonaut

Current manufacturing practice, at least at the bulk supply end of the market, seems to have moved away from screw together assemblies and into a type where the lamp holder wiring connections are under a cover which is push fitted at the factory and then will not come off again. My house, new build in 98, has these throughout and one by one they're giving up the ghost. I've had to shatter then with a mole wrench in order to remove the broken lampholder and replace with a decent MK type. Probably easier to replace the whole thing, flex and all, but I wasn't brought up that way!!!! Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 7 Mar 11 at 23:05 Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 23:19   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - RattleandSmoke

CGNorwich - That is what I thought but they all say T2 rated, 100w max. Very strange indeed. Brompt can't you just do what I did depending on the condition of the cables? It is far easy to wire into the actual pendant junction than to start fitting lamp holders why looking up at the ceiling but then hour cielings are over 12ft high. My oldest grandparent was born in 1919 and he has a lot of stories to tell :). Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 7 Mar 11 23:43   Light pendants -Why can't you buy the holder/wire? - CGNorwich

The unwired lampholders are still rated at 150w reviews.homebase.co.uk/1494-en_gb/163120/reviews.htm Reply to this message | Report message