Longest Lasting Sangamo RPTS Announced
We have completed our search for the longest lasting Round Pattern Time Switch (RPTS) and found switches still going strong after six decades! Mick from Northumberland won a £250 Amazon.co.uk voucher for his 62 year old time switch.
Time Switches That Last
Managing Director, Mark Robinson, explained “we normally tell people that switches can last for many years and we were expecting entries to have been installed in the 1970’s but when they started arriving from installations the 60’s and then as early as 1954 we were astonished – in 1954 there was still food rationing! The longevity of these products is their strength. We still manufacture to the same standards so there’s no reason an RPTS installed today can’t last to 2078 and beyond.” “It was brilliant to hear all the stories of how people had used the RPTS in various ways and for the ten oldest switches we got in touch with the owners to get photographs. Looking through all the photo it was great to see the similarities to today’s products as well as the small differences. I was particularly surprised to see a yellow dial on a solar RPTS that was from the British Standard Time experiment in 1968 where the UK remained in GMT+1 for three years.”
Multiple Applications
“One other interesting fact we found is that, as well as many controlling lighting, boilers and various equipment continuously, many of the switches were being used for a second, or even third, purpose – having outlived the application they were switching in the first place. We’ve heard from electricians who have removed switches from street lighting and redundant factory equipment then put them to good use elsewhere. We’d perhaps prefer people to buy a new one but we can’t argue with recycling and the ingenuity of electricians to find new and novel applications for our products such as self-made alarm clocks.”
A second £250 Amazon.co.uk voucher was also won by Bill from Merseyside, luckily drawn at random from all the competition entrants.
Sangamo had been running the Longest Lasting RPTS competition to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the opening of the Port Glasgow factory where the Round Pattern Time Switch is still manufactured today. See the full Round Pattern Time Switch range.
- Gary Black
