Importing lights from China

[vivienz]

I wrote a blog entry some while ago about a lighting order I made from China, but it's buried amongst all the other posts now, so I thought I'd start a thread here.

 

My search into ordering lights direct from China came about because I saw a picture of the vibia cosmos pendant lights on Pinterest and was smitten by the lights but not the price.  I originally ordered some from one Chinese source that I had been pointed in the direction of, DHGate.  This is similar to AliExpress in that it's just a market place for squillions of different sellers.  I can't recommend DHGate based on my experience.  I originally ordered my lights from them back in June and despite being told 3 times that they had been despatched, they have never arrived.  I cancelled the order but was ignored and my payment was released anyway and I'm currently struggling to get a refund, so I wouldn't use them again. 

 

On the other hand, my experience of AliExpress has been very positivve.  It has a good user interface and, if anything, appears to be cheaper than DHGate.  My goods were shipped via air freight but with zero transport costs to me (Chinese companies get massive subsidies from their government for transport costs) and they have arrived just over two weeks later.  I'm in possession of one half of the order, the remaining half is with the Post Office delivery office as they hang onto it until you've paid the customs charges, which I did this evening and the final lot will be delivered on Wednesday.

 

The goods I've received so far have been very well packaged with corner reinforcement on the boxes and a wooden framework inside it to protect the pendant light.  Hopefully, the others will be as good.

 

Anyhow, I reckon I've saved quite a bit of cash on these and the customs charges weren't onerous at a total of £27.34. 

 

Blog update to follow once I've got the complete order and taken photos.

[newhome]

Are Chinese lights as safe as buying them from the UK? Guess I’m thinking of various warnings about Chinese phone chargers etc. 

[Jeremy Harris]

Make sure you get them VERY thoroughly checked and tested before you even think about connecting them.  My experience with buying lights from China has been that none complied with UK electrical safety standards, some had no earth connection, despite having conducting cases, all had fake approval marks, none complied with the LV Directive and several LED drivers didn't comply with the EMC Directive.

 

I've routinely had to replace cables on Chinese stuff bought directly, as even what looks at first glance to be ordinary flex has turned out to have conductors and insulation that were positively dangerous.

 

The good news is that fixing these things so they are safe isn't usually hard, I've found that replacing the cable with properly certified UK spec cable is usually dead easy and sorting out missing earth connections isn't usually too hard. 

 

Most of my stuff like this either came via AliExpress or eBay, with no real indication that any of it was non-compliant and unsafe until I checked and tested it.

 

 

[joe90]

In China C.E. Means Chinese export ?

[Nickfromwales]

@AliG had some nice stuff going that route iirc. 

[jack]

We had a couple of bits and pieces from Aliexpress - some ball valves and motorised valves in particular. All were very good quality, and the two or three suppliers we used were responsive and spoke perfectly understandable English.

 

I also bought some LED dimmers that I know have CE certification (they're sold through a couple of EU websites, and an electrician on another site has taken them apart and checked that they meet local standards). We had problems with a couple of them, and again, the supplier was helpful and responsive.

 

I'm sure the experience isn't always this good, but I'd happily use AliExpress again.

 

The prices were less than half of what I could find locally for identical hardware. You do need to keep in mind that you don't get a VAT reclaim (for those building new), so with that and the delivery delay, I think the price needs to be really keen to make it worthwhile.

[Jeremy Harris]

Here's an example of some outdoor LED floodlights that I purchased from China.  They have a cast alloy case, are CE marked implying they are safe, which is a joke, as they definitely weren't safe, let alone compliant with the LV Directive.  This is how one looked when I took the front glass off, because a quick continuity check revealed that the CPC in the flex wasn't connected to the metal case.  First, this is the lights as delivered from China:

 

 

 

This is a quick continuity check to see if the flex CPC is connected to the metal case, as it must be to be safe.  As shown by the cheapo meter, the CPC to case is open circuit, meaning that an internal fault could easily make the case live:

 

 

 

When I opened the light up, the reason for the open circuit was clear, the CPC was not connected to anything internally.  I'm just bloody staggered that any manufacturer can be so penny-pinching as to not put an eyelet on that wire and do as I did to make the light safe:

 

 

 

This was my fix, solder an eyelet to the CPC, clean up the alloy case where one of the internal reflector screws fitted and so make the light safe.  I did take the LED driver unit out (it was hot glued in) and it wasn't a Class II one, at least it had no markings indicating it was and it was in an alloy case.  With the LED -ve terminal electrically connected to the light case there was a clear risk that an internal insulation fault in the driver could make the case of the light live:

 

 

 

This is the light back together with the CPC properly connected to the light case:

 

[Ed Davies]

1 hour ago, jack said:

… they're sold through a couple of EU websites, …

 

That doesn't necessarily mean much. Here's a horrible extension lead thingy from amazon.de. You can ignore most of JW's droning on here, the bit near the beginning about it not carrying the CPC (earth) wire through from the input to the output 3-pin sockets is damning enough.

 

 

[Dudda]

I first used AliExpress about 6 years ago when I purchased a memory card when they were still expensive for a digital camera. Saved a load. It was $5 so wasn't a big deal if it didn't turn up. Worked great and have made loads of purchases since. Screwdriver drill bits, cables, pencils, digital thermometers and even a phone and phone covers. The phone is xiaomi which is a well known brand not available here. Still have it as my main phone two and a half years later. Only about $100 which is great when you consider the price of top end Samsung and iPhones here.

 

This year I've bought loads of lights. I bought one spot light first to check it's quality, brightness, light colour and get the other half to approve it aesthetically. I then went and bought another 50 or so but in batches of 10-20. If you buy then in batches you'll sail right through customs as larger boxes and orders have more chance of getting stopped by customs. Delivery is long (2-3 weeks) so you can't be in a rush. If you get DHL or another courier it will get stopped by customs no matter what the package. I've since got kitchen island pendants, dining table pendant, wall lights and really happy with all I've purchased. I've to get more lights for the bedrooms and a large one for above the stairs. I've a few pages on aliexpress bookmarked and will be getting them over the next few weeks.

 

Another thing I'm considering purchasing soon is replica designer furniture. Original certified replicas of classics can cost thousands while Chinese replicas can be got for a fraction of the price. I've a Eames DSW chair from Vitra that was several hundred and 4 replicas that cost $30 each. The real is better quality but not enough to justify the huge price difference. I'm looking at a designer coffee table, bedside lockers and a few other bits.

 

Would happily recommend buying Chinese imports for a lot of stuff.

[jack]

26 minutes ago, Ed Davies said:

That doesn't necessarily mean much. 

 

But I'm not saying that it's safe simply because it's sold within Europe. I'm saying that the device is sold within Europe, hence buying it from AliExpress should be no worse than buying the same device from a European retailer.  

I concede that there's a risk that even though they look identical, there's a difference between what you get in Europe and from AliExpress.

[newhome]

I guess it boils down to whether you have someone who can check and correct things bought from China. I don’t so I probably wouldn’t take the risk with electrical personally but still some good deals for people who can get the stuff checked out. 

[newhome]

31 minutes ago, Dudda said:

4 replicas that cost $30 each. 

 

Did those come from AliExpress too?  

 

[Jeremy Harris]

1 hour ago, newhome said:

I guess it boils down to whether you have someone who can check and correct things bought from China. I don’t so I probably wouldn’t take the risk with electrical personally but still some good deals for people who can get the stuff checked out. 

 

I don't have a problem with buying electrical stuff direct from China, be it via AliExpress, eBay, Amazon or whoever, as I take the view that the stuff will most probably be non-compliant and may well be unsafe or dangerous, and I'm willing to strip, test and modify stuff to make it safe and fit for purpose if I can (some stuff is so dodgy that all you can really do is destroy it, though).

[AliG]

Indeed I have many lights imported from China all up and running and working nicely.

 

In fairness to @JSHarris though most of these are simple ceiling light fittings. The LED bulbs I bought here. There is a lot less to go wrong on an indoor ceiling fitting, you can see straight away if it is wired up correctly. In the past when I have bought cheap sealed unit PIR LEDs from EBAY they have proven pretty unreliable. All our GU10 LEDs and LED strips were from UK suppliers 

 

The lights in our hall do have integrated LEDs and drivers and they were the only lights we had trouble with. They had the option of wireless dimming, that I chose. They didn't work properly until we removed the wireless dimmers, it seemed like multiple units on the same circuit interfered with each other.

 

All the pendant fittings in these pictures came from China via Aliexpress. We have more that I could not find pictures of. Generally they were 1/3-1/4 of buying them locally. The other benefit was that as you were dealing with the manufacturer I was able to ask for adjustments to be made, e.g. the light against the brick wall background, they made it longer as it went into a double height room. People were very responsive to emails and it all worked as easily as any supplier I have worked with here, often easier.

 

[JohnW]

On ‎25‎/‎09‎/‎2018 at 10:23, Dudda said:

4 replicas that cost $30 each

@Dudda Can you tell me where you sourced the replicas from please?