What photocells nowadays seem to function for a good long time?
Does intermatic still make good controls? I know Cooper and caster controls are awful but what about woods, sun-tec, alr, defiant, lumatrol etc etc...
Cooper doesn't make photocontrols. If you are referring to the ones sold under the Regent name those are just repackaged/branded LongJoin twist lock photocontrols from China. The same goes for Woods. Although I was at Home Depot yesterday and it appears Woods may have switched Chinese suppliers because the ones they had were not LongJoin photocontrols. I had never seen twist lock photocontrols like what I saw yesterday either. Defiant twist lock photocontrols are just repackaged/branded RongChen photocontrols from China. Precision/Lumatrol thermal time delay twist lock photocontrols are repackaged/branded LongJoin twist lock photocontrols as well. Their electronic twist lock photocontrols are supposedly made in USA however the electronics inside are identical to a Chinese suppliers photocontrol electronics.
Intermatic does still make good photocontrols. They have dropped their instant relay type twist lock photocontrol line a year or two ago. They have an all new line of electronic twist lock photocontrols now. They still make their low cost LC4500 series thermal twist lock photocontrols which we are probably all familiar with, that have the voltage painted/printed on the sides. Those are not as bad as everybody on here seems to make them out to be. I have seen plenty that were in dusk to dawn use that lasted many years. DTL is the best value because they have a pretty long life with a low cost. They are difficult to get because you usually need to order a whole case of them. Which I have done many times. Unless you go on eBay. Ripley was probably the best quality twist lock photocontrol until recently. They were purchased by Electro Switch Corp which owns Sun-Tech. Electro Switch Corp also bought out Fisher Pierce in 2003. Fisher Pierce had the best twist lock photocontrols until then. When Sun-Tech bought them they stopped manufacturing relay type photocontrols that Fisher Pierce made and they all became electronic. They were pretty good quality. Until about 2011. They started having lots of failures. Probably because instead of continuing to use their own relays they started sourcing other companies relays made in China. Even recently in my home town Cape Coral, I have been seeing lots of new long life Sun-Tech photocontrols installed on GE ERS1 LED streetlights that are dayburning. I am only guessing the quality of Ripley photocontrols will follow. Basically they're all pretty much the same these days.
Yeah I know a lot of information about photocontrols if you have any questions lol.
