Who makes the best electrical switches?

Does the grassroots racing community have a consensus on, or even better, an ongoing holy war over, who makes the best electrical switches for racing? Especially interested in rocker switches.

Watching with interest.

I wonder how many people will be on the edge of their seats before we get someone with a solid source... If there's a switch manufacturer holy war going on around here, nobody's told me.

I really like the Honeywell aerospace grade toggle switches.  You can get them at McMaster, I can have a pn in the morning.  They are a silicone sealed on the shaft (wash down rated) & come in screw terminals or quick disconnect style. 

I prefer screw terminal as I can add loctite to keep it tight (qd can get corrosion).

I've used carling switches and had them fail in the race world - usually at the worst time.  I've seen these Honeywell switches in 40-50 year old planes (and I've used them for well over 20 years). 

In my mcmaster world the single pole carling switches are 8 bucks and the Honeywell switches are less than 30 bucks (I think) but there are other souces to get them under 20 bucks.

What are vibrations like on a plane vs race car? I would think fewer hard impacts on the former. 

Keith Tanner said:

What are vibrations like on a plane vs race car? I would think fewer hard impacts on the former. 

Even on jet aircraft, which are relatively vibration free, depending on the quality of the pilot, there's at least one fair impact on every landing :)  And if you recall what taxiing/takeoff/landing over expansion joints, those can get pretty brutal.  Same with tires on a aircraft parked long enough that have flat spots.

It's helicopters though that have a nasty x/rotor revolution fairly high amplitude vibration, with x depending on the number of blades in the rotor.

I know that planes land at least once every flight, but race cars usually measure curb hits per lap :) I was just wondering if there would be failure modes in a car we wouldn't see in an airplane. I figure higher frequency vibrations would be a problem for both. 

I think the mil spec / aerospace stuff has a better paper trail / reliability than the stuff we all normally use (industrial / big box /etc).  i dont think it has to do with application (automotive vs aerospace), but the quality of the build.

Anyway, I think these are the old school go-to standard:

They are a few bucks each and easy to mount.  I have had a terrible time with the reliability of these in both my hobby racing and in my work (industrial) settings.  Even though they are rated for 10A they seem to wear out in short order.  I think the main "reason" is they are getting built cheaper and cheaper - and if they are not a name brand like carling its even worse.  I had a no-name "race" panel that came in my crx race car that had a start button and a few switches.  The starter button stopped working over time and when I took it apart it had the tiniest contacts that had completed arced over and eroded the contacts - they were black & burned..

I've since moved to these sealed switches - Mcmaster 8002K114.  They are rated for 15A at 28VDC, they look similar to the carling switches above bit have a silicone boot on the toggle lever to keep moisture / dust out.  Hard to see cause mcmaster, but:

they are pricey - $33 from mcmaster but I've seen them at half that through other vendors.  There are probably some surplus vendors out there as well.

I'm hoping the price of the PDM systems come down cause that would probably be my next move.  

Another company to consider is OTTO.  Lots of switches and pushbuttons etc.  Newark is a good source.

Agreed on paperwork / pedegree on aircraft rated parts.  That said, I'd grab "rated for industrial applications" for a car install and move on if the part I want is available that way at a reduced cost.

Excellent input everyone, thanks.

Suggestions read and bookmarked.

allen bradley

Kendall_Jones said:

I really like the Honeywell aerospace grade toggle switches.  You can get them at McMaster, I can have a pn in the morning.  They are a silicone sealed on the shaft (wash down rated) & come in screw terminals or quick disconnect style. 

I prefer screw terminal as I can add loctite to keep it tight (qd can get corrosion).

I've used carling switches and had them fail in the race world - usually at the worst time.  I've seen these Honeywell switches in 40-50 year old planes (and I've used them for well over 20 years). 

In my mcmaster world the single pole carling switches are 8 bucks and the Honeywell switches are less than 30 bucks (I think) but there are other souces to get them under 20 bucks.

i can confirm that honeywell switches as described above are the standard in many GT3 and above level cars. you can also get them from prowire:

https://www.prowireusa.com/p-141-ms24523-23-on-on-sw-1tl1-3.html

as mentioned, go for the screw terminals not the spades.

Also following along. 

I tend to use marine switches. Cars are child's play compared to a boat.