After intensive advertising and product introduction campaigns WAGO is probably the world leader in this type of terminal connectors. As many other expensive product producers there is wide assumption of superfluously high quality and cheaper products will burn your house down.
Is there really significant quality difference to warrant paying up to 2x-3x more per connector? The cost of the VSELE connector is about 7€ for 60 pieces and 100€ for 1000 pieces amounting to 10cents per piece!
So the WAGO connector was rated for 20A 300V and 3rd party connector was rated for 32A 400V (specifications can be accessed here). In reality this connector is a copy of WAGO 222-412 model.
Perhaps it is comparing apples and oranges. But I do not have access to WAGO 222-412 and VSELE does not seem to produce the smaller model. I will try to update the article if I can get a genuine WAGO 222-412 model.
Physical Appearance
The WAGO terminal connectors is significantly smaller in size. Perhaps a plus point if you are working at very tight spaces. However it seems to come at a cost as the walls are thinner. The competitor's part is significantly thicker and sturdy looking.WAGO seems to be optimizing material savings. Perhaps for reducing costs. The less material used per connector will translate into cheaper production costs.
For example the competitor's wire holes are round while WAGO item trimmed it down to square saving materials. I have never seen square wire so I can't imagine why else the wire entrance hole would be square.
Heat Resistance
While WAGO did not mark the material used in the connector. The competitor's connector was marked PA66.
I made a naive test on the connectors by heating them up to ~100C then to ~150C. At ~100C I observed no change however at ~150C both connectors deformed.
In addition, both connector materials formed bubbles inside while the competitor's connector had more bubbles. This may be due to difference of thickness of the materials used.
Material Quality and Rust Resistance
After the heat test, it was impossible to operate the connectors anymore. Both were fused together. I could break into the casing of the WAGO terminal connector easily using pliers. However the competitor's product was simply too tough for pliers. I needed to use a rotary tool to cut into it and even then it was quite difficult. Perhaps this is where the thickness help.
I have submerged both connectors into white vinegar and the metal parts on both seemed to survive. However WAGO developed an oxidation layer. Below is a picture taken after a day of submerging.
On left is WAGO where the white surface can be seen on the conductive material. On the right is the VSELE connector which seems uneffected.
Conductive Surfaces
Both connectors use internal latches to catch the wires. It looked like WAGO connector seem to align the internal latch so it will be angled to make it harder to remove the wire by pulling. While the competitor's latch dropped down straight on top of the wire.
The WAGO conductive surface was 0.5mm thick and the competitor used 0.8mm thick surface. The thicker conductive material will allow higher currents to pass. Perhaps in this case the reason was that the competitor's product was rated for higher current, although still cheaper than WAGO.
One difference in construction was that WAGO simply rely on the plastic pieces to keep the latch in place. So latch came out when the plastic was broken, potentially releasing the wires. While the competitor's latch was making a loop around the conductive surface then get back to push the wire down on it. So, it was operable even after breaking the plastic case into pieces.
Table of Differences
| WAGO | VSE-412 | ||
| Size | Smaller size | - | Smaller size may be beneficial |
| Heat | Same | Same | Similar resistance to heat |
| Metal Quality | - | Resistant to corrosion | Resistance to corrosion will allow better conductivity in the long run |
| Build Quality | Same | Same | Similar build quality |
| Conductivity | - | Thicker material | Thicker conductor will transfer larger current with less resistance |
| Latch | - | Stronger mechanism | Stronger mechanism will keep wires attached in unlikely failure of the plastics |
Conclusion
Perhaps there can be very poor quality chinese replicas of these connectors. However it would be unfair to judge the most expensive product on the market with the cheapest to draw a general conclusion.
Of course the sellers will try to sell you the most expensive product. Because most companies add a percent profit to their purchase price. This simply means more expensive product means more profit. In addition, expensive products are easier to replace in case of failures as the product price is so high to cover multiple replacements per item.
It looks like VSELE's connectors are high quality and much cheaper. So why not give them a try in your next purchase? VSELE says on their page "The comprehensive product line has more than 1000 models which have been approved by TUV, CE, CQC, SGS, ROHS,SASO. the products sells well to UK、Spain、Portugal、Singapore、Turkey、Russia、 Korea，South Africa…… more than 70 countries and regions."